Becoming a mommy comes with loads and loads of guilt. I had a hard time nursing Maggie and was only able to nurse her for about a month before I had to stop. Guilt inducing to say the least. I wanted to give her the best in life and nursing is the best for babies.
We had some free samples from the hospital of different kinds of formula. It ran out and we had to get more. Oh my gosh! That stuff was so expensive. I had gone to part time work and money was tight. We talked to Maggie's pediatrician, the BEST pediatrican ever, Dr. Lisa, and she told us that it was okay to use Parent's choice. It's the Wal*Mart brand of formula. It was literally half off from what name brand formulas cost. She said that it was the exact same thing as Enfamil or Similac. Maggie was growing fine and her doctor was pleased with her progress.
So, I felt okay with our decision. Tried to put the guilt of not nursing behind me, but I still had people question our decision to formula feed her and to use Wal*Mart brand formula,too. That's just what a new mom needs isn't it? More guilt from people!
The company was losing money and started using ad campaigns like this:
There are plenty of other ways to cut back on baby expenses than on your child's nutrition.
OR
It may be tempting to use a store brand formula, but only Enfamily promotes brain and eye development.
So, there was no need for the added guilt. There is no difference in store brand versus a name brand formula. We get Patrick's formula through WIC because he is a foster child. They only use name brand formula. I wonder why that is. Couldn't we save money by using store brand formulas? Maybe even serve more children by using store brand option. I wonder if it will change because of this case.
The moral of the story. No need for mommy guilt. We are doing our best. I think that it was important for me to be able to stay at home with Maggie on a part time basis and if that meant giving her store brand formula, that was the best decision for our family. I think she turned out fine.
