CSN

As you may have noticed on Facebook and my New Years entry, I have been on a surge to share products that I've found. I call it the Clifton Shopping Network. I'm in no way saying these products are the best out there, everyone do what I'm doing, what you're doing is wrong, nothing like that. I love to find a deal, find good food and good quality products. Since having my kids I've gradually tried to find products that are better for them than what I might find with the leading brands. I'm not going to claim that I've done hours and hours of research on every possible product. I also won't say that I never take them to McDonald's or other fast food. I'm not totally "green" or au naturale on everything, though one of Jenna's school mottos is to take care of your world, and sometimes I feel guilty throwing things in the trash that could go in the recycle bin. It's annoying :) Some of the things I like now might also change along the way, so take from them what you will.

The purpose of this particular post is to share the formula that I've chosen for Jared. I have mentioned in previous posts that for some things I try to go organic, with eggs, straight milk, chicken, things like that. Probably like a lot of people that are bombarded with the "go green and organic" rhetoric, I do wish I could shop at Whole Foods all the time and get more organic products, but 1. I can't afford it, 2. I don't want scratchy recycled toilet paper and 3. I don't want to drive 40 minutes to the grocery store. Yes, there are a lot more organic options now, even Super Walmart as organic packaged lettuce, sealed pre-cut veggies, their own Organic milk, etc. So that is great, and I look out for those things. The main reason is avoiding any added, unnecessary chemicals, processing and hormones in animals products. I have this fear that antibiotics in mass produced chicken might make my kids resistant to antibiotics and that added hormones in these animals are going to make Jared girly. Yes, that's right, I said it.

SO I had used Similac Soy with the girls, originally with Jenna because I thought it might help with her gas, and I thought she was lactose intolerant. I stuck with it for Ava since that was what I used with Jenna and she had done great with it. When it came time to get formula for Jared I thought I'd stay with the Similac brand. We had already started getting organic milk, etc., so I didn't want to get a regular formula. I was really excited to see that Similac had an organic version, that the ped's office had Similac coupons at the time, and that you can also print them online. Score! At this point, formula was just a supplement to my breastmilk, as needed. But as I started getting closer to moving to formula full-time I started looking for a different organic formula. He seemed to like Similac fine, and so did I, but curiosity set in.

I don't even remember how I came across this formula, maybe just in a Google of "organic baby formula" or something, but I saw a Nature's One brand that was organic, they had soy, lactose free, etc. I decided to check them out further, examine ingredients, compare brands (which they also do on their website), and do price comparisons. One of the big things that caught my eye was that they don't use the DHA/ARA supplement that is found in most baby formulas (and a lot of milk products now) that supposedly makes the formula closer to mother's milk and helps with brain development. So I immediately thought, what is wrong with these people to not include that in their formula?? But they have explanations of why, and they made sense to me. In particular the fact that the DHA/ARA supplements in most baby formulas are derived by bleaching and deoderizing. I also did print out all of their fact sheets and asked Jared's dr. about them. She said it's just fine. This particular formula is labeled for "toddlers" since they promote breastmilk until 12 months, but nutritionally it is suitable for babies. I also asked the pediatrician about the DHA/ARA, and she told me exactly what I had read online in my research. Medically, there hasn't been a conclusion drawn that adding them to formula actually helps brain development or anything that is advertised for it. I wouldn't necessarily say it is harmful, but really no definite benefit or necessity. The Nature's One does use fatty acids that promote the body's own development of DHA and ARA. This helped ease my mind on this issue with the Nature's One. I also found excellent reviews on other websites (one in particular is linked below). Aside from that, the other nutritional component that caught my eye was that they don't use corn syrup and corn syrup solids but brown rice syrup as the carbohydrate. I've also been on a "no high fructose corn syrup as much as possible" kick lately, and I appreciated that they didn't use sucrose (basically table sugar) either. These carbs and sugars are what make babies hungrier, drink more formula, etc.

Here are some links:

http://naturesonedirect.com/ordafo.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1792824/babys_only_organic_toddler_formula.html?cat=25

A couple practical points too, I mentioned price comparisons. They're standard can of powder formula is $10. The leading brands for sensitive, soy or organic that I've seen are around $15. Aside from cost, the company has awesome customer service. I had to cancel an order (I was originally going to try Lactose free for Jared and then changed my mind), I had placed it on a Friday, sent them an email, and they emailed me back on Monday and had canceled the order and the pending charge on my card.

I will say there are two things that I don't like about the formula so far. One is that they don't have a pre-made liquid version. I've gotten spoiled with the Similac Organic because I've only been able to find the liquid. Baby's Only is just powder. The other is that it gets really foamy when I shake it up to mix it. I have to let it sit for a couple minutes and pour diagonally into the bottle. But if these are the worst things I can think of about a product I'm ok with that :)

Again, the last thing I want to do is go all superior on anyone. I'm just sharing my findings and hoping to open up other people's curiosity. As you know by now, the whole breastfeeding thing with Jared has been a roller coaster, so the formula decision was a big one for me. Who knew there was more than Enfamil and Similac? :)