Life gets busy for all of us especially mothers. We are open 24 hours per day and 365 days per year. At some point the mommy factory has to shut down and a substitute needs to step in so mommy can rest her mind and body and boobies.
I know what you're thinking. What in the world is Mamma talking about? I just found out that there were some changes made to one of the biggest supporters of mothers there are and that's the WIC program. Basically the Women, Infant and Children program is putting more emphasis on breastfeeding for new mothers. What the WIC program is going to do is provide more vouchers for nursing mothers for nutritious foods to supplement their diet for healthier milk production. There will be a breastfeeding option where moms will get no formula at all as well along with the regular WIC voucher program. Interesting because fifteen years ago when I gave birth to Imani and was on WIC I chose to breast feed and they had to MAKE a program of vouchers for me complete with foods I could purchase and eat.
There is one issue with this new program WIC is offering and that is parents will have to purchase more of their own formula for their infants as opposed to it being provided through WIC. Families will receive about 13 percent less than what was afforded in previous years. Boy does that put a strain on already stretched out and stressed out budgets because infant formula is expensive.
One can of the name brand infant formula for KJ with DHA/ARA was like almost twenty dollars! So that's when I convinced his dad that we could should just switch to the store brand formula for him. it was almost five dollars cheaper! Hey that's wipes and baby lotion you know?
I've been researching this online a bit even though KJ is weaned to find out more about this and according to Dr. Barbara Levine, Weill Cornell Medical College, "Buying a heavily marketed, expensive, brand-name infant formula from a big pharmaceutical company does not get your baby any closer to human breast milk than baby formula.
Hmmm interesting. So are you telling me Dr. Levine that I can use a store brand infant formula and my child will still turn out alright even though his mommy and daddy didn't buy the "designer" formula? (I think I heard her say yes)
Dr. Levine also said that people need to understand the truth behind infant formula and that there is no difference bottom line especially when coping with guilt when having to use a substitute for breast milk. (Good to know Dr.)
So moms keep your head up. It's okay to breastfeed and it's ok to use infant formula. As long as you know that store brand infant formula is just as good as the name brand products out there only cheaper. And we ALL KNOW it's OK to save money.
Til Next Time
Mamma (Y've)
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