Hi Samantha,

Thanks for commenting on my blog! You're right that at least the Enfamil Step 2 formula does have more iron in it than regular Enfamil Lipil (2 mg vs 1.8 mg). I couldn't find the exact amounts on Similac's website. What YS's pediatrician had said was that the literal formulas or recipes for the formulas were in fact different, as you know, but since YS was doing so well on Enfamil Lipil, I should just leave him on it. Thus in my family's case, there was no need to switch.

It sounds like your son had a specific health issue, and that he is doing much better since the switch. In that situation, the switch might be a better move. I would still recommend a quick phone call to your pediatrician to double-check. That's what your pediatrician's office is there for, right? Did your doctor tell you to try and get your son to eat the infant cereals? When OS switched from formula to whole milk at about a year, we gave him Poly-VI-Sol with Iron which is over the counter liquid vitamin. http://www.enfamil.com/app/iwp/Product.do?dm=enf&id=-8816 If you want to consider that approach, you should absolutely consult your son's pediatrician.

Like I said in my post, my experience with doctors and formula (and just about everything else) is that every pediatrician has their own opinion. I also think a lot of it depends on what that parents come in saying. For example I remember when OS was just about 10.5 months, one pediatrician told me that if I wanted to I could start transitioning him to whole milk. That's because I had come in there though with the concern that perhaps it was better for him to start daycare already having transitioned to whole milk rather than to be transitioning to daycare and transitioning milk at the same time. I still wonder if I would have been told the same thing if I had not brought up those transition issues. Let's put it another way, the same pediatrician didn't say anything about transitioning YS to whole milk at 10.5 months when I was asking her if YS should stay on Enfamil Lipil until he turns a year.