Ready to feed, concentrated or powdered

Learn about: Ready to feed, concentrated or powdered from Suzanne Barston, CLC,...
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Ready to feed, concentrated or powdered

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Formula not only differs by brand and by type, but it also differs in the way that it comes to you. So there are three different kinds - there is powdered formula, which is usually the most economical and most commonly used by parents. With powdered formula, you have to reconstitute the formula by mixing it with water. Your other two choices are – ready-to-feed, which is exactly what it sounds like, it's ready to feed from the container directly to your bottle. And a good thing to know about ready-to-feed formula is a lot of companies will offer it in what's called nursers or nurse sets, which are small, pre-filled bottles – usually of anywhere between 3 oz and even up to 8 oz – that you can just attach a pre-sterilized nipple onto. Now, these are great to have in an emergency preparedness kit, if you have one of those in your home, because in an emergency, your water source might be compromised and with these, all you need to do is attach the nipple and you'll have formula. They are also great when your baby is a newborn and there's way less chance for human error. So I really recommend, if you can afford to use at least ready-to-feed, if not the nursers, it's a great way to go for the first month, because we all know that an exhausted parent is also one that's prone to error and every new parent is an exhausted one, so it just takes out some of the chance there. Your third kind of formula is concentrated, which barely anyone uses these days, but it is available. And this is sort of like condensed soup. It's just in a liquid form and you have to add water to it. And any formula will get your baby fed, but some babies actually tolerate one better than the other. For instance, powdered formula, it often contains anti-caking ingredients, which are very often corn derived and some babies are a little sensitive to corn, so they might do better on a ready-to-feed or a concentrated. Or some babies with reflux prefer the ready-to-feed, because it's a little smoother and a little creamier and thicker going down, so again, it's just a matter of sort of finding the right formula for your child.

Learn about: Ready to feed, concentrated or powdered from Suzanne Barston, CLC,...

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Suzanne Barston, CLC

Blogger & Author of Bottled Up

Suzanne Barston, CLC is the former Editor-in-Chief of Los Angeles Family Magazine, a Certified Lactation Counselor, and a freelance writer specializing in parenting, women’s interest, and science/health topics. She is the author of Bottled Up: How the Way We Feed Babies Has Come to Define Motherhood, and Why It Shouldn’t and blogs as her alter ego, the "Fearless Formula Feeder". "FFF", as it’s known to an international fan base representing over 40 countries, supports parents dealing with issues of guilt, fear, conflict and uncertainty regarding infant feeding difficulties and choices through critical assessments of research, pithy commentary, practical advice, and a weekly series allowing parents to share stories in a cathartic way. She is also the co-creator of the #ISupportYou movement. 

Barston was raised outside of Boston and earned her Bachelor of Science degree from Northwestern University in 2000. After living and working in Chicago and London, she now resides in Los Angeles with her husband, the photographer Steven Barston, and their two obnoxiously cute children. She and her husband were featured on two award-winning online reality series for Pampers.com, A Parent is Born and Welcome to Parenthood, about their pregnancy and first years as parents. Suzanne's writing and her work with FFF and Bottled Up have been featured in the New York Times, the Huffington Post, SheKnows.com, Babble.com, Pregnancy & Newborn Magazine, Parenting, Babytalk, OhBaby!, Fit Pregnancy, The Observer, Yahoo Shine!, Australia's Good Weekend magazine, and on a variety of radio programs including KPCC's "Take Two", numerous NPR affiliates, "Parenting Unplugged", "Positive Parenting", "Mom Enough", "For Crying Out Loud", "Voice of Russia", and more. Suzanne was honored to be one of the keynote Voices of the Year in 2012 for the annual BlogHer conference.

She currently works both as a writer and as an Infant Feeding Counselor. 

 

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Transcription: 
Formula not only differs by brand and by type, but it also differs in the way that it comes to you. So there are three different kinds - there is powdered formula, which is usually the most economical and most commonly used by parents. With powdered formula, you have to reconstitute the formula by mixing it with water. Your other two choices are – ready-to-feed, which is exactly what it sounds like, it's ready to feed from the container directly to your bottle. And a good thing to know about ready-to-feed formula is a lot of companies will offer it in what's called nursers or nurse sets, which are small, pre-filled bottles – usually of anywhere between 3 oz and even up to 8 oz – that you can just attach a pre-sterilized nipple onto. Now, these are great to have in an emergency preparedness kit, if you have one of those in your home, because in an emergency, your water source might be compromised and with these, all you need to do is attach the nipple and you'll have formula. They are also great when your baby is a newborn and there's way less chance for human error. So I really recommend, if you can afford to use at least ready-to-feed, if not the nursers, it's a great way to go for the first month, because we all know that an exhausted parent is also one that's prone to error and every new parent is an exhausted one, so it just takes out some of the chance there. Your third kind of formula is concentrated, which barely anyone uses these days, but it is available. And this is sort of like condensed soup. It's just in a liquid form and you have to add water to it. And any formula will get your baby fed, but some babies actually tolerate one better than the other. For instance, powdered formula, it often contains anti-caking ingredients, which are very often corn derived and some babies are a little sensitive to corn, so they might do better on a ready-to-feed or a concentrated. Or some babies with reflux prefer the ready-to-feed, because it's a little smoother and a little creamier and thicker going down, so again, it's just a matter of sort of finding the right formula for your child.