Michelle Teheux: Similac or Enfamil? Neither one is a good deal
Walking through the grocery store the other day, I was surprised to see marked-down cans of Similac infant formula in the bargain bin.
I couldn't have been more surprised if they were offering cans of marked-down gasoline.
Formula manufacturers are geniuses. They have figured out how to convince women to pay big money for a product that is vastly inferior to something free. These marketers are right up there with the folks who figured out they could get some people to pay more than a buck for a bottle of plain old tap water instead of getting it virtually free from their own tap.
(Come to think of it, in some cases the same company offers both formula and bottled water. Don't tell me this is a coincidence!)
It takes a bit more to produce a bottle of modified cow's milk than a bottle of plain water, but not much. The recipe for formula is pretty simple and straightforward, unlike the human milk it seeks to replace, which is a complex, living fluid full of more beneficial compounds than science has ever been able to identify.
The great thing about selling formula is that once you convince the mother to start on the stuff, she and her baby are hooked. Her body will stop producing the milk it has been making to perfectly complement her baby's needs, and she will need to continue purchasing the expensive substitute until her baby's first birthday.
And research shows that once a mother starts on one kind of formula, she will try to stick with it the entire year.
And that explains why stores are dumping their Similac inventory before it goes out of date.
Every few years, the state takes bids from formula companies. For the first time in "forever," said Tazewell County WIC Director Karla Burress, the state is now buying Enfamil rather than Similac. The change took place Feb. 1.
A few mothers were upset about switching their babies, but most accepted the change, Burress said.
In reality there is no difference between different brands of formula. One is as good -- and as inferior to breastmilk -- as another.
While health departments across the state hand out free Enfamil instead of Similac now, an opposite switch may take place in hospitals.
"The hospitals had a high volume of Enfamil given to them" before the switch, Burress said, speculating that Similac might become the big donor now.
Enfamil now has the WIC trade sewn up, meaning that's the brand stores will stock more of (both the state and Burress alerted stores to the switch beforehand so they could change their inventories) and the brand mothers will buy when their babies' appetites grow beyond what WIC supplies. So other formula brands are likely to compete to make their product the one hospitals send home with newborns, hoping to hook the non-WIC families.
Pekin Hospital, incidentally -- the only area institution designated as Baby Friendly by the World Health Organization -- does not provide free formula to nursing babies, because free formula often goes hand-in-hand with early weaning.
Someday, I hope, hospitals, health departments, pediatricians and obstetricians will work together to make sure all mothers understand why breastfeeding is important and how they can be successful at it. Consumers, taxpayers -- and most of all our babies -- will benefit, but it won't be such good news for the formula companies, which will have to find another way to make easy money.
I recommend they push that bottled water.
Michelle Teheux can be reached at mteheux@pekintimes.com.