Whether it’s your first baby or your third there are some Baby Must Haves that most people will agree on. But if you’re a new parent who is going to be using formula the baby must haves for formula feeding can be a bit different.
I learned through our experience as a combination feeding family that there are some must have baby items that you need to make it all go a bit smoother.
This post is sponsored by Mirum, but all opinions are my own.
BABY MUST HAVES FOR FORMULA FEEDING
In the past, I’ve shared some of my favorite advice for new parents and most of it boils down believing in yourself and trusting your gut. This is the advice I had to follow as we worked our way through our feeding journey as new parents.
I had a lot of plans for how things would work for us and when they didn’t, I struggled. Once we made the transition with Weston to almost exclusively formula feeding, I discovered that it was also a journey to find the best baby formula along with the best bottles, nipples and other feeding supplies for him.
As parents, the best way we can support each other is by sharing our experiences. New moms learn from those of us that have been down the road already. While parenting is an extremely personal journey, advice from others can help us figure it all out.
Whether it’s advice on sleep, diapers, or feeding, having a fellow mom you can talk to when you’re first getting started can be a huge help!
For both of my kids, I was lucky to find a group of women online that all had similar due dates. We were able to go through our pregnancies together and then begin to navigate the world of babies together. Some of us were new moms and others were experiencing their second or third. It was amazing to have a group of women going through the same things that I was at the time.
They offered advice and support. We’re all still in touch even as our kids are almost school aged! We still offer each other ideas and share what’s happening in their lives.
As I mentioned, one of the areas where I needed support was feeding. In our group of moms, there were women doing everything from exclusively breastfeeding to exclusively pumping to formula feeding. Many moms were doing a combination too. So there was a ton of support for me.
It’s the kind of support I hope to offer. If you’re a formula feeding family, here are some tips on finding the best infant formula for your family as well as some baby registry must haves that will make your experience easier!
FINDING THE BEST BABY FORMULA
There are so many baby formulas available that finding the one that works for your child can seem overwhelming. For many, the cost of baby formula is a huge factor as long as the nutritional value is comparable.
We tried a ton of formula brands with Weston. I used the baby formula coupons we got and we tried to find what worked best for him and also fit into our budget well.
For us, Parent’s Choice™ HMO Infant Formulas offered exactly what our family needed.
Parent’s Choice™ Sensitivity® Infant Formula and Parent’s Choice™ Advantage® Infant Formula feature 2’-FL HMO and are now available exclusively in Walmart stores. These formulas feature a blend of nutrients that support baby’s growth and development at an affordable price.
HMO is a prebiotic that helps establish beneficial bacteria for immune support. The 2′ -FL HMO was added to Parent’s Choice™ Sensitivity® and Parent’s Choice™ Advantage® formulas to help baby’s immune system before more like the immune system of a breastfed baby.
With Parent’s Choice™ HMO Infant Formulas you get:
- Complete nutrition for baby’s first year
- 2′-FL HMO Prebiotic to support immunity
- DHA, Lutein & Vitamin E to support growth
- Non-GMO Ingredients Not Genetically Engineered
- Money savings when switching from a national brand to Parent’s Choice™
Parent’s Choice™ was named 2018’s best baby formula by Baby Bargains! Parent’s Choice™ was the best baby formula for our family so I always encourage my mom friends who are on the hunt to try it. We found that the Parent’s Choice™ Sensitivity® formula was the best formula for gassy babies after trying a lot of them!
If you’re looking to save even more money, Ibotta is here to help! Click to save up to $3.00 on Parent’s Choice Infant Formula!
BABY MUST HAVES FOR FORMULA FEEDING
Once you’ve figured out what kind of baby formula works best for your child, there is the whole world of all the “must have” baby items you can get for feeding. My advice is to remember that not everything is an actual must have. Some things are just luxuries. I found that they weren’t the things I used very often.
So, I put together a practical list of baby must haves that we depended on while formula feeding!
- Bottles – There are many different kinds of bottles. Don’t be afraid to try a few different ones until you find the one that works best for your baby. I recommend having at least 6-8 bottles so you’re not having to wash bottles all the time.
- Nipples – I always suggest people buy extra nipples for bottles. I don’t know what happened but we always seemed to be losing them so having a few extra packs meant we always had a clean nipple!
- Liner bags – If you go with a type of bottle that requires liners, be sure to keep plenty of them on hand!
- Baby Formula Dispenser – This is a life saver for on the go with powdered formula! After everything related to bottles, this is my number one must have! You can also use baggies but I liked having the container because it was always easy to find in the diaper bag.
- Blender Bottle – You can get fancy formula mixers but we used a blender bottle we already had for making protein drinks and it worked so well! We would mix the formula and then let it sit for a few minutes to let the bubbles settle out.
- Bottle Brush – Just does the dishes in our house and he said that having a bottle brush is clutch! We actually still have one and he uses it for water bottles!
- Drying Rack – If you’re going to handwash your bottles, having a drying rack is important. We used our dishwasher but had a drying rack for times when I was just cleaning a bottle or two quickly. It’s also where we would put bottles as we took them out of the dishwasher so we didn’t really need anything else to store them in.
- Dishwasher Basket – If you’re planning to use the dishwasher to clean bottles, a basket is perfect for keeping track of nipples, nipple rings, and caps.
There are some other things that people might recommend if you’re bottle feeding formula. While I don’t consider them baby must haves for formula feeding, they might work well for your family.
- Burp Cloths – You don’t really need special burp cloths but there are some cute ones out there! We used the older style cloth diapers as burp cloths and I loved how well they worked. They’re a good size and are easy to clean.
- Insulated Bottle Carrier – If you want to make bottles before you head out and about, this is great to have to keep them cold while you’re taking care of business.
- Purified Water – You can buy bottled water if needed. We used filtered water from our refrigerator. I was also lucky that my kids didn’t mine taking bottles that weren’t warmed up.
- Bottle Warmer – You can get one of these but when we needed a bottle warmed, I found it was easy to just set the bottle in a bowl of warm water or run it under warm water. (Never put bottles in the microwave!)
- Bottle Mixing Machine – This might be the ultimate luxury for formula feeding. It measures powder formula, mixes it with perfect temperature water and dispenses it right into the bottle for you! I have to admit that this isn’t something you have to have but if it had existed when Weston was born and I knew I would be using formula with two kids, I might have put it on my baby registry!
These recommendations are all based on our experience and I’d love to hear if you have something that worked well for your family!
Don’t forget that you can save even more on Parent’s Choice Infant Formula by visiting the Ibotta offer page.
#MomsKnowBestWM SWEEPSTAKES
You could win a $200 Walmart eGift Card in the Parent’s Choice #MomsKnowBestWM Fall Sweepstakes! The sweepstakes runs through Wednesday, October 31, 2018.
You can enter the sweepstakes using the form below. Submit a photo using the hashtags #MomsKnowBestWM and #Sweepstakes to be entered for your chance to win a Walmart gift card! There will be 25 $200 Walmart eGift Cards given away!
Leave a Reply