I Like It On...

This post brought to you by PBM Products. All opinions are 100% mine.

A news flash popped up in my Google sidebar the other day, letting me know that a recent study shows that fewer New Jersey moms are breast feeding these days. Since my infant feeding days are long over, my only conversations around this area involve the October "I like it on" Facebook status campaign ("I like it on the bleachers in the middle school gym"), which was apparently designed to make men more aware of our breasts...er, I mean breast cancer. So I didn't click on the link to read the details of the study, but I did wonder if the NJ moms who are using infant formula instead of breast feeding are aware of potential cost savings available to them. Even though store brand formula provides the nutritional equivalent to well known name brands like Similac and Enfamil, store brand formula costs less because it is not heavily marketed or advertised and free samples are not given away to new moms through hospitals. That cost savings is passed along to the consumer, so new parents who buy store brand formula might save as much as $600 per year.

All formula marketed in the United States. must meet the same nutrient specifications, which were set by the FDA in 1980 at levels to fulfill the needs of growing infants, and the FDA stays on top of any issues associated with the infant formula on the supermarket shelves. For example, Abbott recently voluntarily recalled certain Similac powder infant formulas because of the possibility of the presence of a small common beetle (eeew) in the product last month. The FDA determined the formula poses no immediate health risk, but some infants could experience symptoms of gastrointestinal discomfort and refusal to eat as a result of irritated GI tracts. I'd refuse to eat if there were beetles in my juice, too!