(I'm looking to the doctors on my informal advisory panel to advise me on this one. Doctors?)
At Babies R Us yesterday, Daddy P and I stood staring at the Wall O' Formula. It's daunting! Enfamil always has discounts. In fact, if you buy that stuff without a coupon the company's screwing you. Good Start hardly ever has coupons, but Babies R Us has a rewards card for it (buy 9 get the 10th free). So your $25 a can goes a teeny bit further. But then... there's the brand new Babies R Us brand.
Now in the grocery, I hardly buy name brand anymore. I mean, some stuff you know you'll get stuck with cardboard if you buy generic, like cereal for example. But you can save a pretty penny most times and still taste plenty of yumminess.
But formula, this is a different matter. This is, you know, healthy stuff. It isn't about flavor. So we stood there and stared. Then we started shouting ingredients to each other. I held the Babies R Us brand and Enfamil (which it is based off of and compared to on the can). Daddy P held the Good Start by Nestle.
"This one has less iron, but more Calcium. And this one has 100% FDA recommended suchandsuch."
"Okay, this one has just as much suchandsuch. Wait. Which one has less iron? This one has 60 g of fairy dust."
So on and so forth. Our heads were I think actually spinning by the end.
We bought the Babies R Us brand. I reason, Babies R Us is selling it to get you in the store. The cheap price is just to get you in to buy it so you'll pick up another ten things on the way out the door. (Like groceries selling diapers.) Meanwhile, Nestle and Enfamil mark it up like crazy since that's their product, said and done. I mean, it's hard *not* to want to save $60 a month by buying Babies R Us's brand. I mean, really! That's $720 a year! That's a Cancun vacation right there!
So, yeah, it might sound bad that I'm buying generic baby food so I can go to Cancun. And really, I swear it, that wasn't what I was thinking about when I stood in the store.
But geez, it sure is sounding persuasive now!
2 comments:
I think you're safe. I mean if kids were becoming sick or malnourished, surely there'd be news?? Besides, what a PR nightmare for Babies R Us. I would hope they would stand by their product to do exactly what you say, buy all the other enticing crap that's there. Cancun here we come!!
I'm guessing I may be one of the "informal panel." :) Honestly they're all regulated by the FDA and when you read the backs, they're essentially the same. Things like iron may vary, but there's iron and then there's "bioavailable iron." For example, mom's milk has lower "iron" than formular, but it's more bioavailable. Also, now that she's eating cereals, Cheerios, etc. she'll get plenty of the nutrients from that. So, in summary, eat Cheerios and bienvenidos, Cancun!
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