Formula: Similac Vs. Enfamil

I’m here to discuss the Similac vs. Enfamil debate (maybe it’s not even a debate, I don’t know!  But it was for me at one point).  They are both brand name formulas and I’ve used both with each of my kids and here are my unbiased thoughts/opinions on the two.  

For starters, I want to be clear that I am blogging solely on the Similiac Sensitives vs. Enfamil Gentlease, which both are formulized to be easier on the tummy and help with fussiness, crying and gas; which are areas my babies know too well (maybe it’s naturally inherited girl drama, as neither formula seems to fix those issues that great).

                

With Annie, I had her on Similac Sensitives.  She was a pretty extreme case of a colicky child and her ‘spit up’ was not really what you think of as spit up.  She literally vomited her entire bottles for the longest time where a burp cloth did nothing for clean-up, we had to use our bathroom towels to clean it up.  So she has an extremely touchy stomach.  I don’t think the Similac Sensitive formula helped to reduce it much, but given it was easier on the tummy than the other formulas, I choose to stick with it and she did like it, I never had troubles with her not liking the taste.  Why did I choose Similac for her?  Because I thought it was the superior brand at the time.  First baby’s get the best of everything, right?  As a new mom, I only wanted top notch for my baby girl.  Which ended up being totally the wrong mentality.

Claire was not a colicky baby nor did she even spit up hardly.  I tried her on Simliac and she just didn’t seem to like it.  At all.  I ended up having to throw away this formula because she absolutely hated it and really seemed take to the Enfamil.  And we’ve been on Enfamil Gentlease ever since and I have loved it 100 times over compared to the Similac and here’s my whys.

Although Claire doesn’t spit up much, there is a HUGE difference in the 2 formulas and how they stain.  Similac stained yellow on clothes and Enfamil cleans up much easier, have had no stains with this one brand.

Similac smelled a lot worse than the Enfamil does (in all arenas… spit up, on baby’s breath, poops…or else my mommy nose can withstand more nowadays. One of the two!)

They mix about the same but maybe I would say that Enfamil mixes a little bit better?  I feel like it clumps just a little bit less.

The price difference is huge!  I could buy Similac at Costco for $31 for 964 grams of powdered formula (the big size!).   I can buy Enfamil 913 grams of powered formula for $36 at Target, bundle it with a $15 Target gift card bonus (when I buy 2 so essentially getting $7.50 back on each of my $36 and they run this gift card bonus pretty often).  AND use a $5 Enfamil manufacturer coupon on top of that per each one I buy.  So I really end up spending about $23.50 per each one which is a big savings considering we go thru this amount about every 7-10 days. 

Enfamil does a much better job of handing out free samples.  I still get free samples mailed to me on occasion and it is for the Gentlease we use.  I had gotten Similac samples in the past but they’ve been stingier on their freebies.

I have yet to purchase Enfamil without a coupon.  They mail us so many $5 off coupons that I sort them by expiration and always stock up when needed and couple them with the Target gift card specials that I have yet to ever pay full price for formula since Claire has been born (she’s been 100% on formula since being 6 weeks old).  Similac coupons are much harder to come by as well as Costco doesn’t even accept coupons anyways and that is where I could find that brand at the lowest price, anywhere else it was much more expensive to purchase.

I have no idea why I thought Enfamil was so ‘lower tiered’ brand but you guys… it’s not.  I personally think it’s superior to Similac in my experiences with both and it would be the one I recommend between the 2. 

Claire turns 9 months in a few days.  Can I just say I CANNOT wait to be done with bottles for good!?  They are so much work!  I think we were done with bottles with Annie right after her 1^st birthday so I’m on the downhill slide with the bottles and can’t wait for the day I’m done with them.  I feel like I’ll get 20ish minutes back in my life every day!