Wednesday, January 30, 2008

The Mystery of Snow

Now that I've cracked the mystery on where to find Baby Yum Yums locally, my next case to solve was what kind of formula to purchase for William.

At St. Lucy's, I'm told the babies are fed a brand called "Snow," which is manufactured in Australia and reportedly rather difficult to find in Taiwan. (Incidentally, a quick Google search indicates that the makers of Snow have come under fire for some questionable marketing practices, but that's another story.)

I put the formula question forth to Dr. Farber, our adoption pediatrican at CHOP. For those of you whose ability to sleep at night hinges upon the answer, here's what she had to say:

"Snow brand infant formula is a milk-based formula but doesn't have DHA added. It's called Beanstalk formula in Japan and is very expensive and does have DHA... just buy enough Snow to transition your baby over a week or so to a U.S. made formula... He should be on a formula with iron, and it [should have] vitamins. If you do not make the formula with water that has flouride, then your pediatrician should give you [an] Rx for that."

Of course, if William is the typical baby, we may have to do some experimenting with different formula brands to find out which one he prefers. Nah. I'll just have to remember to ask the St. Lucy's caretakers for the manual that came with him when he was born. Perhaps it will tell me which brand to use. After all, doesn't every baby come with a set of directions?

5 comments:

Heather - The Wanna-be Super Mom said...

You are like a regular Sherlock Holmes...finding the teething cookies and the formula!!! You will need to help me with your stellar detective skills when its my turn.

Larisochka said...

HA HA!

Tish said...

we switched matthew from snow to enfamil cold turkey right after we returned home from taiwan...and he did competely fine! and we are baby mum mum lovers, too!

Mel said...

According to Joyce (my been-there-done-that-source-of-all-Taiwan-adoption-information) the American formula that best matches SNOW in ingredients (and therefore maybe taste?) is Nestle Good Start. Just a little tidbit to aid in your research!

R... said...

Nice research! I'm impressed!

FYI - This photo doesn't match the can we got at SLC exactly. The tin we received lasted for the three nights and four days we stayed in Taiwan after pickup. The day before we flew home (or was it 2 days before??), we tried our travel packs of Similac to make sure he would do ok on those since those are so much easier to mix on the plane and he was fine with those, so we went ahead and used those on the plane (we were out of Snow by that time anyway).

You are going to be so ready, I think you'll be able to write the instruction manual. Please send one my way if you do! :-)

R...