Winning formula?
New parents are going to crazy lengths to import expensive European baby formula
DAYS after her daughter Elisabeth came into the world, first-time mom Maria Chamberlain noticed some disconcerting symptoms in her newborn. The baby was gassy, her breath smelled rancid and she had a persistent white coating on her tongue.
“I thought, this can’t be normal,” the 27-year-old Jersey City, NJ, resident tells The Post.
Chamberlain, who struggled to breast-feed, suspected an allergy to the formula the hospital had supplied and started trying out different brands.
She tried Similac, Enfamil and Gerber without seeing any improvement. So she took to the Internet, where she discovered HiPP: a European, organic baby formula produced in Germany, the UK and the Netherlands. As soon as Elisabeth started drinking it, Chamberlain noticed a difference in her digestion and overall demeanor.
“Ever since we switched, it’s been night and day,” Chamberlain, a journalist, says of her now thriv- ing 9-month-old.
Like wine lovers who sing the praises of French vino and beer connoisseurs who favor German brews, another group of local Europhiles is emerging: parents who will only feed their babies imported formula. Citing benefits such as fewer artificial ingredients and the use of lactose, instead of corn syrup, as a sweetener, discriminating American moms and dads order boxes of HiPP and popular German brand Holle from online distributors.
Like any chic European product, these formulas are pricier than their American counterparts. A 28.2-ounce box of HiPP goes for $43 (including shipping), compared with a similarly sized $26 container of Similac Advance. The box makes about 35 5-ounce bottles, or a week of food for a baby under 6 months old. But converts say it’s worth it. “At least four years ago I noticed the pattern starting,” says Dr. TJ Gold, a pediatrician at Tribeca Pediatrics’ Park Slope office. “Parents would ask me if I knew anything about Holle. And in the past two years, instead of asking questions, they’re just using it.”
Raquelle Stiefler, 37, is one such mother. “I’m on a Listserv for parents in Brooklyn, and a lot of them recommend Holle,” says the Williamsburg resident who started her son Lyon, now 11 months old, on the German formula.
Like most Euro-formula fans, Stiefler worries about staying well-stocked. Few American Web sites sell HiPP and Holle, and they’re at risk of being shut down by the Food and Drug Administration, which strictly regulates formula domestically. And while it’s legal to purchase overseas brands for personal use, the import laws are murky, leading to shipping delays — or worse.
In the Facebook group “Holle and HiPP Formulas,” which has more than 5,000 members, moms share horror stories about paying top dollar for formula that arrives past its expiration date. They’re also fearful about unwittingly feeding their children bottles mixed from counterfeit powders.
Stiefler, a designer, says she sticks to retailers OK’d by other members of the Brooklyn moms Listserv, and looks for other hallmarks of credibility, such as domestic 1-800 numbers.
Still, she knows it’s a gamble. “I throw my hands up in the air and hope I’m buying something good,” she says. “I don’t really know how anyone knows for sure.”
Despite the risks and costs, Kristin Sears, 38, is confident that feeding Holle to her 2 ¹/₂-year-old son Lukas for that first year was the right move. “When breastfeeding didn’t work out, I got him Enfamil because that’s what the pediatricians all recommend,” the Williamsburg resident, whose father is Zone diet founder Dr. Barry Sears, tells The Post. But she stopped using it over concerns she had with some of the ingredients.
Although a growing number of moms and dads share her skepticism about the use of certain oils and sweeteners in domestic baby formula, Gold maintains that the popular American brands are perfectly safe and nutritious.
“There are no studies out there saying [HiPP and Holle] are fantastically better products,” Gold says. “I’ve seen children thrive on Holle — but also on Similac and Enfamil.” (A representative for Enfamil states that there are no artificial flavors or preservatives used in its infant formulas.)
But as Chamberlain points out, nutritional stats aren’t the only thing that matters when it comes to feeding your kid — emotions are a big part of it, too.
“Mothers who struggle with breast-feeding tend to feel guilty,” she says. “I know I did. Like, why can’t I provide this? So, if I’m able to buy her the best formula available, I want to do it.”