Similac Advance EARLY SHIELD vs. Enfamil PREMIUM?
When I had my first child 18 months ago, after breastfeeding as long as I could, I put him on Enfamil Lipil. At the time, I thought the Enfamil was much better on his stomach and if I remember correctly, it had higher levels of DHA and ARA, so I went with that one. Now, my sister just had a baby 3 days ago and is bottle feeding. I originally suggested Enfamil but they gave her Similac Advance Early Shield at the hospital. I came home and tried to research the differences between the two and I am stuck. I want to know the DHA and ARA levels of both and I also want to know if the enfamil PREMIUM has the same health guard as the Similac has now or if Similac is the only one so far? Any websites anyone knows about that can help me figure this out would be great. Thanks.
Enfamil and Similac are sufficiently similar that neither is better than the other. The hospital likely has a contract with Similac. Both brands have a formula intended mostly for newborns, which is what the Early Shield is and the Lipil is.
If the baby is doing well on the formula – not too gassy or spitting up, best to stick with it. Switch if there is a problem.
There is also some hinting that the higher artificial DHA may actually be causing some problems in infants, but I haven’t seen the discussion at my most trusted sites, so up in the air about it.
It’s difficult to find comparisons because the 2 companies change their formulas every year.