by Catherine Nagy

Created on: June 26, 2009

While I was still pregnant with my son, I signed up for all of the baby offers I could - including all of the formula companies mailing lists. When my son was nine months old, I started getting coupons for Enfamil Next Step formula. They started out around ten dollars, which was a huge incentive for me, a penny-pinching parent. Gradually, the formula coupon amount began lowering. I still pride myself on paying for very few items at full retail price. After getting used to paying less than half the recommended retail price for the formula (Enfamil coupons and store coupons, when combined, yield an absolutely magical receipt at the grocery store), I was not quite willing to pay the full retail price. This was one factor in our ultimate decision to stop purchasing the product.

My husband and I bought a couple cans of the powdered formula after we were unable to find the ready-to-pour version we became so fond of with the infant formula we had been using for nine months. The next day, I fixed my son a bottle of Enfamil Next Step formula. He seemed not to notice a difference between the Enfamil Next Step formula and the regular infant formula. That afternoon, my husband and I decided to completely switch him to his new toddler formula. We stayed with it for a couple of months before realizing that the only thing that had changed in the formula was the price. We kept giving our son the Enfamil Next Step formula until his twelve month check-up at his pediatrician's office. We asked the pediatrician for his opinion on Enfamil Next Step formula, as it was not only the only formula they did not give out samples to, but also because we had been giving it to our son for about three and a half months. In his opinion, it was better to give any child - barring those with medical issues, including difficulty gaining weight - regular cow's milk, soy milk, rice milk, almond milk, or any other variation of cow's milk for vegetarians or vegans. Soon after that visit, we switched our son to rice milk (he is lactose intolerant and we wanted to avoid the potential allergens and excessive hormones in soy milk, or at least postpone his exposure to them). We did this slowly so we could avoid the potential side-effects of switching to cow's milk (or rice milk, in our case) cold turkey.

Enfamil Next Step formula has a cow's milk base, so if your toddler is showing any signs of a possible lactose intolerance or cow's milk allergy, I would recommend refraining from trying this product. This product is a nice step from infant formula to regular milk, but I would not use it for longer than four or five months. If you are looking to make sure your toddler is getting the right nutrients, ask your pediatrician about Enfamil's Poly-Vi-Sol vitamins. My son was recently put on them since he is a very picky eater. I wish he was put on them instead of my husband and me buying can after can of Enfamil Next Step formula. It would have saved us a lot of money!

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