Similac Vs. Enfamil

My daughter had severe reflux and still can't have dairy. We used the Nutramagen and gave her gas x and she was much better. I have heard that alimentum is the same but we never tried it. Good luck.

All 3 of my sons were unable to dring enfamil. Their doctor recommended Isomil soy formula. I would try the isomil and see how that works. It worked well for all 3 of my boys. Enfamil is actually milked based and is harder on the stomach than similac or isomil. Good luck.

Hi. I had the same problem with both my children. Gas was the culprit! I switched them to Similac Advanced (Orange container) and it worked on both of them from that point on. Every baby is different but switching formulas until you find the right one is worth it. Good luck and congratulations!
J. H.

My Dr. recommended Enfamil. Both of my daughters had problems with formula. I ended up putting my first on Soy and my second on Lactofree and they did much better. I've heard Enfamil is easier on their stomachs. Tried Nutramagen with the first, but it wasn't any easier on her stomach than the soy and way more expensive. But I always went with the dr's recommendations.

I used Isomil soy for my daughter, I don't think it really fixed the gassy pain. I found something called GRIPE WATER, It's made with ginger root, fennel, and chamomile, natural ingredients. I order mine from Luckyvitamin.com but some Walgreens stores and health/vitamin stores carry it as well. My doc said it was ok to use. I must tell you within seconds of giving it to her it relieved her pain and my new mom anxiety. It also works for hiccups. I have reccomended it to friends who also agree it is a lifesaver.

I am a mother of 23 month old triplets. They were all started on enfamil enfacare (to gain weight). They all were switched to enfamil nutramigen for different reasons. They all responded great to the nutramigen although expensive. The problems I was dealing until I switched them were.. severe constipation and collic, the stomach unable to digest so she would curdle her milk and throw up, and last his liver couldn't process regular formula. I recommend nutramigen.
A little about me: my triplets were born at 27 weeks gestation with a mountain of issues to start out life. We are all doing very well. Good Luck

I found that the enfamil Lactose free work best for my son. It is a little more expensive but it was much better on his stomach.

Nuetramagen is one of the many formulas my twins were on .They were constipated and the nurse told us to try it. We had to burp the twins for at least 20 minutes about double the time it took them before . Also , One night after continual burping and keeping my son upright for about 45 minutes We put him down to sleep . an hour later I heard a strange sound on the monitor and went to check them . As picked up my son and he spit up but had foam coming down on the side of his mouth . Needless to say we were done with that formula. We eventually switched to Good Start the purple one . Since your child is milk sensitive I would try the good Start Soy.

L. K SAHM

I have never used Enfamil but I used similiac with both my kids. My daughter did okay, although she was very gassy at times. My son had a harder time and we ended up putting him on Nestle, which is awesome! Similiac is very thick compared to the others. I have lots of friends who swear by Enfamil. Hope this helps.

J.

My daughter (born in 2005) had terrible reflux. It wasn't painful for her but she spit up ALOT and it was projectile so we went through the various medicines, none of which worked and our last stop was Nutramigin. We spent a small fortune on that formula and it didn't do a thing to help. She grew fine, always was in or close to the 50% mark, she just spit up alot and by the time she started crawling it stopped. My son (6/2007) is the same with the reflux and we tried the medicines again, no use. This time I just stuck with Similac Advance and he's doing fine. He too had very colicky responses after eating for the first couple of months and there was a colic medicine they had me give him, I can't think of the name of it now, and it worked like a charm. I also put in a couple drops of mylicon with each bottle and that also helped. Good luck, it can be so frustrating going through this process. Now that my son is crawling his reflux is virtually gone and is a great eater/sleeper.

Be sure to stress to the doctor that the Similac product is making her uncomfortable and that she needs to be switched. In addition to breastmilk, I supplemented with Enfamil products and never had a problem - my trio took both. Their little cousin is lactose intolerant and I know she was on Nutramagen and it worked out really well for her. Personally, I think Enfamil is just a better product.

Yes. When my son was born the hospital started him on Similac. He had reflux really bad and Similac seemed to make it worse. After trying medications (two different ones) I went and got a second opinion and the new pediatrician switched his formula to Enfamil Lipel and what a difference. I never went back. Love the enfamil product and it doesn't seem to smell as bad at Similac. Good luck.

Hi M.,

Both of my sons were really gassy as young infants. With the first, we started out with regular Similac and then when we saw him having the problems, we tried Carnation Good Start, then Similac Soy. None of these seemed to make a difference so finally we tried Similac Lactose free, which worked like a charm.

With our second son, we tried a whole host of formulas and then finally the lactose free is the only thing that helped, again. (Why didn't I just go straight to the Lactose free when I noticed him having gas problems too?? I guess chalk it up to a sleep deprived Mommy Brain. :-)

Hope that helps. Good luck! You'll get it figured out either way.

my son used to projectile vomit the similac. just because they are similar, doesn't mean that they are the same thing. u will know even better than the doctors how your baby is reacting to the formula. don't let their devotion to advertising perks sway your decision to what formula u want to use.

Hi M.

Welcome to the wonderful world of trial and error LOL

Before changing formula, I would put the mylicon drops/gas drops in the bottles to see if that helps.

We ran through the lot of formulas with both of my kids. Son was on Good Start, then soy, then Nutramigen, then Alimentum, then Neocate (special mail order) and back to Alimentum. Daughter was on regular, then straight to Alimentum, Nutramigen, back to Alimentum.

We found the Alimentum to be better suited for our kids' tummies, but each child is different. I heard that a major difference in the make-up of Nutramigen is that there is corn in it, which can make it harder to digest. Not sure if it's true or just mommy board talk, but for us it was harder.

I would try the gas drops first, then maybe make the change. Don't let the dr tell you they're the same and not to bother, because they're not, as evidenced here with other responses. Just tell him that you'd be more comfortable giving it a try.

Good luck! This can be a frustrating time.

In an effort to keep this short. I haven't seen any posts mentioning a soy allergy (I was skimming quickly so I apologize if I missed it!) My daughter (second child), now 7 months has a milk allergy as well. She suffered for 4 1/2 weeks before we figured that out. (I was nursing and she virtually quit nursing for days and was rapidly losing weight, hives, etc)

She was put on the Similac Alimentum as well. Almost immed. after the first feeding she was improved. I did try the Enfamil version w/o success. With the Similac she was extremely constipated and we tried the Enfamil for that reason. She was fine mixing the two to get her switched, but once she was on Enfamil full time she quickly broke out in hives again, etc. Reading the label they are almost identical, so I am not sure why it made a difference for her. -interesting read about the corn base for the one vs the other; hadn't heard of that.

She also has a Soy allergy. In my research there is a vast percentage (don't remember right now the exact number) of milk allergic babies/children that are also Soy allergic. A GREAT website is http://www.allergicchild.com/

Please be careful trying the soy formulas. I am not against soy by any means, but be aware that you could have reactions to that as well.

GOOD LUCK!! It is truly trial and error until you find something that works!

If you read the ingredients on the package, you will see that they are almost the same. My son had issues with throwing up and we did the whole formula thing, but the doctor stated if is very unusal for a baby to be born with a milk allergy due to and he gave me this long explaination. When it was all said and done the issue was not the formula, it was a bowel problem. Eventhough he would have messy diapers, he would not empty his intestines, after eating there just wasn't room in their and the rest would come up!! We would go through 6-7 outfits a day and he always had a bib on him. Unfortuately because he was gaining weight he went through this for the first 10 months of his life as the doctor did not think he needed to see anyone regarding the situation. Finally after he spit up three times on the nurse during a babywell check exam did she get the number for a ped. gas man (it is a really long name that I can say, but not spell). Before we went to the specialist I charted how much my son eat, time he spit up, approximately how much he spit up and finally after a clean out he did better, much better. It was like night and day.

Just thought it might be helpful to know it may not be related to formula

Hi. I've used Enfamil since day 1 with my son and he experienced similar discomfort, but not right away. We tried Mylacon Gas Drops, as suggested by our pediatrician, and they have been a life saver! Ask your pediatrician if you can too! I want to say he was a little older than 13 days old when we started using them, though. Good Luck!

Hi M.,
We at first used similac advance and switched to Enfamil w/ iron
because it has the lipil that helps the babies brain and eye development. I am still nursing and I take the lipil for the dietary supplement. Enfamil seems to be smoother than Similac. I used Similac with my first son, but Enfamil seems to be better for my almost 4 month old.
Hope this helps,
C.

Sorry, I just noticed the "milk intolerance" part of your message. I'm sure GoodStart is milk-based, so you probably don't want to try it. But I read another response that recommends a special Carnation formula that suits your situation. I second the notion that Carnation is a good brand, and less expensive too!

My daughter is now five. When she was an infant, she was fed formula because she was born premature and could not latch on. I used Similac because the hospital fed it to my daughter upon birth, and then provided free samples to take home. My daughter had the same discomfort as your baby. A friend who formula-fed her son and daughter, as well as a lactation consultant separately recommended Carnation GoodStart, saying it was gentler on a baby's stomach. I also found this to be true. So that would be my advice: try GoodStart.

I am a mom who is very experienced in the dairy allergy. If your baby is already showing signs of what your doctor calls an "intolerance" at 18 days old, she probably has a milk allergy. I have seen many, many pediatricians on this and they are always hesitant to make that diagnosis, but it is a very dangerous mistake to make. If your daughter has a milk allergy, she can still react to the Alimentum formula, which contains broken down caesin. If it were an intolerance, which is a digestive issue, the hypoallergenic formula would be fine. Since she is still showing signs of reaction, it is probably a true allergy, which is an immune system reaction. You need to act now. Do not give your daughter any form of dairy, including the Alimentum formula and schedule an appointment with a pediatric immunlogist immediately. If you continue to give your daughter even the smallest dose of dairy, you can sensitize her to it and cause her allergy to get much, much worse. My daughter showed signs of a dairy allergy the day she was born, but she was misdiagnosed several times before they called it an intolerance. Then we continued to give her small doses of dairy per what our dr. told us was ok, even though she was obviously uncomfortable after eating. We eventually sensitized her and she almost died from accidentally eating a noodle with cheese on it at age 11 months. Now she is 3 years old and has had several anaphylactic reactions by cross contamination only (someone touches cheese, and then touches her food or someone gives her a dairy free piece of bread that was sitting on a shelf next to a bread made with dairy). We see a very good pediatric immunologist who told us where we went wrong- exactly where you are now. We should have cut out all forms and traces of dairy from day one.

Please learn from my mistake and see a pediatric immunologist now. The worse that could happen is that I am wrong. But I have lived with food allergies every day for years now, with two of my children affected, and your situation sounds way too familar. Did you try soy formula? If it is a dairy allergy, and your daughter is not also allergic to soy, then the soy formula should work better than the Alimentum formula.

Both my kids ended up on Nutramigen. My son is 4 months old and is on it now. We've had success...Like the rest of the posts it is trial and error. Alimentum and Nutramigen are similiar just different brands. Try mycelon drops in the formula as well that should help a bit. If the formula works it should be within 48-72 hours that you should notice the difference. Ask your doctor about reflux too that can cause the discomfort you are talking about. If that be the case then it isn't about just switching the formula. We had my daughter on prevacid (antacid) with formula for awhile. Congrats and keep us posted,

I had the same issue with my daughter since she was 2 weeks old. She had colic, a milk intolerance and acid reflux. Every bottle she drank ended with a lot of spit up and about an hour of her being really uncomfortable. We noticed the alimentum made no difference, but the Nutramigen went down much easier and stayed down. If you notice, the alimentum is real gritty and makes alot of bubbles when mixed with water. The Nutramigen is a much smoother powder and doesnt make much foam when prepared in a bottle. She was on Nutramigen until she was 9 mo. old and it made a huge difference in her feedings. Good Luck!

My nephew and my best friend's daughter both had the milk issue when they were babies. Both my sister and my friend had them on the Nutramagen. I don't think either of them used the similac but the Enfamil seemed to work great for both of them. They did complain about the cost a little but it was worth it. My friend's daughter used to throw up everything until they put her on the Nutramagen..Good Luck.

My peditrician said the same thing, I breastfeed but also use Enfamil Nutragimen b/c I've heard Similiac is harder on the system. It is just trial and error on what your little one can tolerate better. It is also soy-free which was important for me too.

After my now 6-1/2-month-old daughter was about 3 months old, congested since birth, the pediatrician thought she might have a milk allergy. We've switched to soy formula and I noticed a big difference. Before she was squirming about 30 minutes after eating with bad gas as it went through her system. She doesn't do that anymore--or rarely (but she's also starting baby food now, so who knows how those veggies give her gas!). Was there a reason your doctor switched her right to the expensive stuff instead of trying soy? Just wondering.... Also try the gas relief drops--you can use Mylecon, but Target brand works just as well--and a whole lot cheaper! Don't know if this helped at all, but I hope so!

E. W.

Hi M., I have three children of my children all had a milk allergy as well. Our doctor told us to try the Nestle Carnation soy formula which is the least expensive of the three brands. Because he was my first child, there was no way I was going to use a less expensive brand. I tried both Similac & Enfamil lactose free products & soy formulas, along with the Nutramagen. He very much disliked the Nutramagen. Finally, I reluctantly tried the Nestle and it worked. I bought the ready to feed formula & then proceeded to immediately use it on my next two children. This can be purchased at Target & Jewel Osco grocery stores. I felt terrible for not initially trusting my doctor and putting my son through weeks of being uncomfortable. He also tended to be gassy, so I used Mylicon drops in his bottle, and did not use rice cereal first, because it can cause gas as well. I hope this helps. Good Luck!

My son had reflux too as many of the other posters stated. Our Dr at first thought it was an allergy to milk and switched us to soy formula. Since that did not end up being the case he put him on a couple of diffrent medications for the reflux and we ended up with prevacid-(I think I spelled that wrong)-anyways we ended up using Enfamil AR. It was suggested that we use the liquid premixed formula in the cans rather than the powder. The doctor said that the premixed formula is thicker and will sit lower in their stomachs and woould cut down on the spitting up. It did work well. I know it is more $ but we figured if it worked then so be it. It is cheeper than the nutramagen at least. Hope this helps! Good luck.

My situation was different because my son was exclusively breastfed for the first 9 months, but during that time I had to give up most all dairy because he couldn't tolerate it. When we introduced formula, we had a very hard time finding one that worked for him. I tried organic soy and dairy formulas from Earth's Best (whole foods), Enfamil and Similac in various varieties. What finally worked well was the Similar Advantage. He was able to tolerate it just fine. I know the doctors all insist that all formula is the same, generic or otherwise... but I certainly did not find that to be the case when the baby has dairy issues.
Also, be prepared at 1 year to have similar issues while switching to whole milk. We found that organic whole milk is fine for our son but regular milk, especially when we were first introducing it, did not work well for him at all. Organic milk is least expensive at whole foods.
Good luck!

My baby is doing the opposite since brining him home I tried to breastfeed and wound up drying up on my poor boy so i went to formula, He was imediately constipated and gassy. He is miserable and we even tried enfamil gentle ease and no good so we tried Similac. Two days later he was right as rain and not as fussy or gassy and no more constipation. However WIC refuses to allow Similac and formula is expensive when my 3 month old eats like a 6 month old 6-8 oz bottles regularly. We are tring the Gentlease again and he is fussier but I am hoping its just because of the formula change. I was told of a completely different formula for milk issues though and one is a prosobe soy formula and another is perscription only formula.

Hi there-

Congrat's on your new little one. This is an exciting time but also a time of adjustments, as you are finding out.

Both of my kids struggled with Gastric Reflux and I wasn't able to nurse either one of them. So, we were left wondering what to do about the formula.

Scenario 1: My son
Born at 37 weeks and had gastric reflux. After much testing, he was finally putting on meds for it but we struggled with which formula would work best. We started with Similiac but quickly changed to Enfamil and before we knew it, we were trying the Alimentum (sp?) and the Nutrimagen. Neither worked for very long. In that time, before going to the expensive formulas, we tried the Carnation Good Start and then ended up with Enfamil A/R, which he did very well with. We also used the Mylicon drops with every feeding.

Scenario 2: My daughter
She too was born at 37 weeks and suffered with reflux. Although finding a formula for her was much worse. We literally tried 10 formulas before finding one that worked. She did best with Enfamil GentleEase as she too has a cow's milk protein allergy. Which, by the way, is hard to get away from in the formulas. While there are soy and lactose free formulas, they all contain this milk protein and in fact, the only place that makes a formula without this is in the UK. Unsure of what to do next, I began to compare ingredients and the Enfamil GentleEase has the least amount of cow's milk in it and is much cheaper than the expensive ones that you are buying now. :) Anyway, the change in her was almost immediate and she slept 11 hours at night the 2nd night that she was on it. We also supplimented Mylicon drops for her too.

If you aren't using Mylicon drops, I would definitely try those. Your baby sounds like she has a lot of gas and this will definitely help. As for the formula, they recommend you give each formula about a week before you switch from one to the next. Their system's are so little, sometimes it does take time to adjust. But, I truly believe in Mommies intuition. Trust yourself too.

One more thing. Target sells generic Similiac and Enfamil formula products. They also sell generic Mylicon. The cost difference on the formula is about $10 per can different (for the same size) and the difference in the price of the Mylicon is about $8.00. HUGE savings and I desperately wish someone would have told me before my kids were almost it. Fortunately, we have been able to enjoy some of the cost savings with my daughter but it would have been nice to see that when my kids were 13 weeks. :) Anyway, best wishes and I hope that this helps.

N.