Good morning from sunny South Florida though a breath of autumn might not be
so bad.
This is about reworking the figures on savings with breastfeeding.  I have a
daughter who is an auditor at one of the major banks in the area and not so
long ago (must have been a slow day) the auditors including men came up with a
figure of yearly savings around $3000.
When my daughter who lives in NY came down in September and I had to buy
powdered formula since she had weaned her baby at 5 months, I spent $30 for a
large can of Enfamil Lipil.
Shortly thereafter I had a family who felt that a pump n'style was not cost
effective.  They had bought a small single pump that used batteries and they
changed the batteries after every 2-3 pumpings, when one family member said well
just use formula.  Off the top of my head I started....one can at $30 which
makes 188 oz (47 4 oz feedings) equals about one week if the baby feeds 4 oz.
but bottle fed babies drink more than 4 oz. and since you will be solely giving
formula for 6 months which is 24-25 weeks at that rate you will be using upwa
rds of $120-150 a month. A breastfed baby and a good pump which runs $300+
still has you saving 50% of that cost at least not to factor in the cost of
babies who are breastfed are less ill so then you need to consider medicines,
copayments and days lost from work.  It was one wise sister in law who grabbed the
bag with the cheaper pump and came back from the store with an upgraded model.
 PS  the baby was in NICU so they were going to have to pump at least 4
weeks....and if it went home on formula it would have gone home on more expensive
brand not found on the shelf at the grocery store. They could have rented the
pump for $16 a week but didn't want to spend the money if they couldn't own it.
 There are days when you just go out of rooms asking "WHY???"
This past weekend had another family who the Dad said he was happy they were
leaving "early" so he now had enough time to go buy formula at the store.  The
baby was breasting beautifully and he had been sabotaging Mom from the minute
the baby went to breast.  So I asked him why he felt the baby needed formula
if things where going well?  He just shrugged.  I told the numbers again how
expensive formula is and this time I reminded him that newborns don't eat a
whole can of premixed formula because they don't drink that much and there would
be enormous waste.  The grandparents were amazed and urged him not to buy the
formula.  Hopefully the baby is smarter than he.
I will try to get Carrie to get the exact figures and how the $3000 came to
be their numbers.
Have a good one.
Leanne Jewell, RN,C, IBCLC-RLC, LCCE, FACCE

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