What Is the Differnce in Enfamil Lipil and Next Step?

If you have a child w/ a health condition, then Next Step would make more sense. My 18 month of nephew has a heart condition and has a feeding tube. They use Next Step for nutrition and calorie reasons. We just went to milk at 12 months. A friend of mine switched her son to milk at 9 months at the advice of the pediatrician, but that was the first time I had heard of having cow's milk before 12 months. Good luck.

Our ped gave us the same advice as many of your other responses. Stay on regular formula until 12 months and then switch to whole milk (she recommended organic if possible). She said the only benefit that next step has over whole milk is that the enfamil company makes more money.

Their litle bodies can't handle cow's milk until they are 12 months old.

Hi Patty,
Babies should not have cows milk until they are 1 year old. Just keep him on enfamil, you don't need next step.

Hello Patty,
I asked my son's pediatrician at his 12 month check up this very question, as I had suspected that the Next Step Enfamil was primarily a marketing tool. He confirmed my suspicions and said that unless my son was significantly underweight or anemic, I could make the switch to whole milk. Of course, your child probably will not take a cold turkey switch, so we began by adding the whole milk to his formula, gradually increasing the amount of milk and decreasing the formula.

My son is now 15 months and is actually exactly on target for where he should be (which is better than he was at 12 months when he was slightly under weight).

All that being said, my sister has an 18 month old and she is still giving him a milk/Next Step mix since her son has had some stomach ailments and is now significantly underweight.

Just ask your pediatrician for advice @ your 12 month. I COMPLETELY trust ours, so had no problem taking his advice to not waste the extra $ on the Next Step and just go over to whole milk. Good luck!

Advice from a mom of a 17 year old.

When my son was 4 months old I had to stop nursing and we went to a soy formula. When he was 6 months old I asked the Doctor the some questions you are asking now. This is what he told us.

He said if you would like to put him on regular milk go ahead. In the early years of this country they did not have formula and when a mother could not breast feed they would have to use regular milk if they did not have a goat. (Goat milk is better that cows milk for a baby because it comes out of the goat already pasteurized)

We also asked if it needed to be whole milk because of all that fat. He said not it did not your child gets enough fats. (We were making our own baby food.) So at 6 months old our son went on skim milk and he did just great. He is now 17 years old drinks about 3 gallons of milk a week. Is approx. 6' 2" tall very athletic and not over weight at all. He had no effects at all from starting him on regular milk at 6 months old. So I can't see a problem at 12 months. (As long as you have a healthy child.

Hope this helps,
S.

He still go to the same Doctor today. He practices not out of Centegra in Woodstock.

If your child is eating solids ok for his/her age then you can switch to whole milk at one year. My child had eating issues (inability to chew and eat solid food) so at one year we switched him to the Next Stage formulas because they have more/different nutrients that a child over the age of 1 needs. At 2 years old my son has overcome most of his chewing/swallowing issues but we still give him 5 oz. of formula in the morning. Our nutritionist said it is ok to treat it like a vitamin. Just like a vitamin, it gives us piece of mind that he is getting the proper nutrients he needs.

As far as your child's willingness to switch to milk you will just have to see. My child takes either milk or formula interchangeably. But I could see where some children would reject one because it tastes so different than the other. I still can't see how my child can drink formula - yuck!

One final thing we have NEVER bought name brand formula which is 2-3x more expensive. We have always bought Target brand or Parents Choice. Everything I have read about them is that they are FDA regulated and as good as the name brands. Good luck!

My son is 2.5 and we do both whole milk and next step enfamil. My son is a picky eater and doesn't like alot of milk but will drink the next step. Our ped suggested it since he wasn't drinking the milk consistently. The next step has alot of vitamins in it. You should only switch to next step once your son/daughter has been eating table foods.

I'm not sure if I understand the question completely, but I would say that unless your child is under one year, he/she should still be on formula. You make the switch to whole milk after one year. Full fat (whole) milk is best for brain development, unless the baby is being breastfed in which case should be continued.

Call your pediatrician and ask him/her if it's okay to switch. My children stayed on enfamil until 12 months and then we got the go ahead to switch to whole milk. That said, I do use Next Step but ONLY when I'm away from home and need to make sure I have "milk" for my trio. It's a good alternative when you're travelling and can't keep anything refrigerated.

None. I asked my pediatrician having gotten all the mailings from the company. And he told me it was garbage. That milk has all the nutrients a baby that age needs when eating solids and that enfamil next step was a waste of money. I was glad I asked as I was all set to start buying it thinking I was doing something useful for sweet pea.

When you go to another more expensive type of formula the Enfamil company makes more money--that's why it's better!! ;)

Just stick with what you're doing and switch to whole milk at a year!!