How much does it cost to formula feed?

[teilvnav]

That's it, really. Anna is refusing more feeds and I am starting to think about quitting BFing. I could maybe rent a hospital grade pump but it is $90 a month, so I am not sure if between the money and the time it would really be worth it.

So if you don't mind saying, how much does it cost you to formula feed?

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

My memory isn't that great, but I know we used a can of formula in 5 days or so at that age and they were between 25-30 (soy). So 150 a month?  I think!  

[teilvnav]

Hmm... so that that rate, I'd be saving about $60 by pumping instead. If the pump even works on me; I haven't had success with the other ones I've tried.

Thanks, Heidi!

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Well, it would depend on the type of formula you can use too, we needed soy and stuck with an expensive brand because it worked for her and I didn't want to rock the boat by switching it up! And then of course she couldn't have milk at all, and ended up on formula until she was 1.5, and I still make her a formula shake in the am with soy milk/formula mixed because her food selection is quite limited.

[MommyMoulton]

Eddie is on Enfamil which is iron fortified and middle of the line in terms of cost. We are lucky no intolerances here. I buy the refill bags instead of tins (I just bought one tin to have for refill go into). The refills are about 45 bucks and they last us a week. We are on 3 feeds per day.

So depending how much she drinks that cost will vary slightly. We've been bottle feeding since almost the begining. Financially yes more money, but also less stress on Mommy. We make a 1liter jug at a time instead of bottle by bottle. That way there us less waste and easier for NFs and Early morning bottles.

Some moms around here swear by Similac brand. Its the most expensive I think. But I checked/compared labels and there is minimal difference from brand to brand. I have one friend where money was tight. She fed the Walmart brand(Parents choice I believe) and her son is no worse or better off than my DS.

Hth
Melissa

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

I used the soy version of similac (Isomil)...def. more pricey than the others available at the time, though now superstore has some good ones of their own brands, but I haven't looked at pricing for those.

[my3girlsjde]

It really depends on what you use. If you're not partial to using a name brand and she does ok on a regular milk based formula, I've had a couple Dr's swear by President's Choice. We found Wal-Mart for the big girls as it was the only one that didn't get projectile vomited back up and it was the cheapest by far at $12/tin. The math escapes me because there was two feeding but it worked out to the same as a friend was spending on Similac and when we compared the tins it was the exact same stuff. I *think* 5 days per tin sounds about right for the big tins. So for us it was about $75/mo for twins on Wal-Mart stuff. It really wasn't bad compared to what E would have cost us.

When E was on 3 bottles per day she was going through a small tin every 3-4 days. But that is the super expensive HAF that we got for free. She would herself have cost about $400.00/mo at 4 bottles per day. It really does depend on your needs.

[teilvnav]

Wow $400/month is crazy expensive!! How do people afford that?! Good thing you got it free.

I am trying to figure out how much formula we'd be talking about... she nurses about 4 times during the day, then has a bottle of formula at BT, then nurses the DF and a NF if she wants one. Since she is only taking one 6oz bottle a day right now, a can of formula lasts us a long time. We give her Enfamil (I have a can of Enfapro waiting now that she is 6 months old), so middle range stuff I guess. If the cheaper stuff is just as good then that is great! The only one I won't touch is Nestle's brand because I boycott them.

She is being tested right now for intolerances so I am going to wait a bit and see what happens there. And we spent the afternoon in the ER yesterday because she had a fever of 103.5; another ear infection. That explains the refusal to nurse. So I am going to stick it out a bit longer if I can, but I am kinda thinking that it won't be long before we make the switch.

Thanks for the info, I appreciate it!

[my3girlsjde]

Oh hugs for the ear infection

You may find that the four bf's during the day would turn into three bottles because she takes longer to digest them.

If you go to many of the large company's websites you can sign up for some free samples. And as I had learned the first time you can tell them you're having twins and you get two of everything .

[*Becky*]

we use aptamil which over here (not sure if it is in the us) is considered to be the most like breastmilk. it costs about £10 a tub and we go through 1 and about 1/3 a week so over a month it is about £50-60. M takes about 8oz 3 x a day. It was really important to me to choose a good product but i am sure there are cheaper.