Nestle Good Start Baby Formula

By C.M.

Okay so for years now we have been avoiding Nestle and their products because of their CEO's previous stance on water - he claimed water was a commodity, as opposed to a human right. Here at Product Reviews Canada we fully support water being a human right, and boycott any company who refuses to acknowledge that it is a human right.

See also

Water Wars / Boycotting Nestle Corporation

Nestle Boycott, holding water supplies hostage

Since then the Nestle Corp. and its CEO have softened their stance on water and now admits that water is a human right. So the boycott was successful.

Changes still need to be made to how Nestle operates and prevent them from hoarding water supplies in many countries, but this is a good start.

Thus, we at Product Reviews Canada are no longer boycotting Nestle at this time - but we reserve the right to resume a boycott if the company doesn't fix its evil ways and goes back to hoarding water.

Ahem.

Thus we can now talk about the following product:

Nestle Good Start Baby Formula

This was the 2nd formula my wife and I tried on Baby Richard and he gulps it down greedily. So that is certainly a good sign with respect to taste.

The formula in question is supposedly "designed to be easy to digest" and contains:

• Omega 3
• Omega 6
• Dietary Fibre

Along with a host of other vitamins and nutrients good for the growth of babies. The product comes as a ready-made formula, requiring no water to be added. Just warm it up to a suitable temperature (via holding the formula in your hand for 15 minutes before serving, or a similar method). Do not use a microwave!

We first tried Nestle Good Start Baby Formula because it came in a free package of baby supplies that Nestle uses to promote their products. (Offer only available in Canada.)

See Nestle Baby Program at

https://www.nestle-baby.ca/en/register/begin

Having tried it, and seeing that Baby Richard gulps it down, we earlier today bought more of the product having exhausted the free samples Nestle sent us.

Now we may try other products in the future so we have something to compare it to, but so far we have only tried this and the formula which was provided to us at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto. And thus far he seems to enjoy the Nestle formula more than the hospital formula.

So...

Nestle Formula 1
Hospital Formula 0

To be continued when we try other brands of formula...

Playtex Baby Soothers

By C.M.

So my wife and I purchased baby soothers today from Shoppers Drug Mart. The brand on the label was Playtex, which is usually known for making feminine hygiene products.

So we gave it to Baby Richard and...

He spat it out.

Tried several times to see if he liked it, but he was not going for it. Maybe because he was hungry at the time. Unclear why he did not like it, but he definitely went for the spitting it out approach.

We shall try again later to see if he has changed his mind, but for now it seems Richard simply doesn't like soothers. No fault on Playtex for that.

On the plus side, we chose this particular soother (not the one shown in the photo) because it is "clinically tested" to prevent deformations to the baby's front teeth.

However so far we are not going to be able to test that claim because Richard keeps spitting it out. We have to try again later.

To be continued...

Born Free Active Flow Baby Bottle

By C.M.

So we recently purchased a "Born Free ActiveFlow" baby bottle...

And we are not impressed. The bottle didn't come with the nipple part, and none of our other nipples from other bottles matched this particular bottle.

So my wife just threw the whole bottle out, calling it "useless", and quite annoyed at the fundamental waste of money when a company ships a product that has missing parts.

The bottle was, supposedly, designed to reduce colic and other issues, but now we will never get to test it because it was missing a rather important part - and my wife has no patience for products that are "useless" as a result.

I have decided to try contacting Born Free to see if they can send a replacement (it is too late to ask for a replacement part, the wife also took out the trash). So at this point we shall see if the company has a good reputation for customer service or if they are a trashy company not worth spending your money on.

Stay tuned...

The Price of Diapers, Cost Comparisons

By C.M. - June 2017.

So the wife and I decided to do some price analysis of diapers and the best places to buy them since we are expecting our first child within the coming weeks.

Thus we ended up comparing prices from various sources, including Costco, Rexall PharmaPlus (which presumably has similar prices to other pharmacies and grocery stores), and also a cloth diaper delivery company known as "Happy Nappy" (local to Toronto and the GTA).

Costco
$0.22 per diaper, 192 diapers = $37.99 + HST
                    $110 for 500 diapers

Rexall PharmaPlus
$0.61 per diaper, 24 diapers = $12.99 + HST
                    $305 for 500 diapers
or
$0.31 per diaper, 92 diapers = $24.99 + HST
                    $155 for 500 diapers

Shoppers Drug Mart
Unknown - For some silly reason Shoppers Drug Mart doesn't list diapers on their website, but they do list wipes. Really annoying. Maybe it varies by store???

Cloth Diaper Delivery from Happy Nappy
Impossible to do a proper price analysis as Happy Nappy charges a weekly rate of $23.87 + HST for whatever number of diapers you need - the amount is apparently unlimited.

In theory a newborn baby might use 8 diapers per day (they get changed quite often as they have not yet learned to control their bowels) a newborn would use 56 diapers per week. Possibly more/less.

It ends up being:

$0.48 per diaper, possibly 56 diapers = $23.87 + HST
                    $240 for 500 diapers or unlimited diapers over 8.9 weeks

Even if a baby ended up using 100 cloth diapers per week (which is a ridiculous amount, but lets use it for comparison purposes), the cost still ends up being more expensive than disposable diapers from Costco.

$0.27 per diaper, 100 diapers = $23.87 + HST
                    $240 for 890 or unlimited diapers over 8.9 weeks

What you are really paying for with Happy Nappy is the delivery and pickup convenience, which is why they can charge over double what Costco charges for disposable diapers.

In theory you can also feel like you are "saving the environment" since cloth diapers are reused again and again - ignoring that the cleaning agents used to clean the cloth diapers are harmful to the environment. So maybe don't brag about your environmental friendliness.

Still, if you are the type of person who wants to use cloth instead and wants the convenience of diapers delivered to your home, perhaps Happy Nappy is a good thing for you.

Even though cloth diapers are more work during changing time... so how are they more convenient?

What you really learn here is that when it comes to diapers, you save way more money when you buy in bulk from Costco.

The only problem then is what happens when your baby grows too fast and outgrows the diaper size before you can use all of them? So clearly you need to be careful you don't buy too many and end up not using them.

NOTE - TWINS, TRIPLETS, ETC

For someone who ends up having twins, triplets, or more babies - the cloth diaper delivery from Happy Nappy suddenly makes way more sense financially. Since the cost per week is the same regardless of whether you have 1 baby, 2 babies, 3 babies or more - the value of the Happy Nappy service dramatically improves. Just don't tell them how many babies you have though or they might try to charge you twice or thrice as much...

Football Baby Showers

The Four Elements of a Baby Shower with a Football Theme

If you have a pregnant friend who loves football, consider throwing her a baby shower with a football theme. Not only will she enjoy the theme, she will appreciate all of the time and planning that went into her party. Learn the four elements of a baby shower for a mom-to-be who is a football fan.

The Decorations

You can have a lot of fun choosing the decorations for your friend’s baby shower. One idea is to gather several colorful posters of her favorite football players and hang them around the room. Also, look for paper plates, cups and napkins featuring a football design. You may want to hang streamers and put up balloons that share the colors of her number one team. For party favors, you can give everyone a bag of chocolate covered football candies.

The Refreshments

The snacks you serve can echo your football theme. Make or buy a cake decorated to look like a football field. Serve your chips and dip in a bowl shaped like a football. Create a cheese plate featuring pieces of cheese shaped like footballs. Create a pretzel and peanut butter snack in the shape of small goal posts. Luckily, you can get as creative as you want with many types of foods.

The Invitations

When it comes to sending out invitations, there are plenty of options that relate to football. You could go with traditional paper invitations shaped like footballs. Or, you can send virtual invitations featuring a tune that will remind your guests of football season. The colors, graphics and text on your invitations can all work to solidify your entertaining theme.

The Gifts

You and your guests can give the mother-to-be gifts that relate to her love of football. For instance, one guest may give her a high chair with a tray shaped like a football. Other guests may give her NFL baby clothes such as pajamas, t-shirts or bibs featuring the name of her favorite team. Any of these thoughtful gifts is sure to be a hit with the mom-to-be!

Finally, to make your baby shower even more successful, try to keep the theme a secret so your friend will be pleasantly surprised when she walks into her party. Your guests will have to agree to keep the secret as well!

The No Name Brand

I really like the No Name brand.

No Name is a generic brand of grocery and household products sold by Loblaws, no frills, Real Canadian Superstore, Your Independent Grocer, Valu-Mart, Zehrs, Fortinos, Provigo, Extra Foods, Super-Valu, Maxi, SaveEasy, and Atlantic Superstore.

You will recognize them due to their yellow packaging and plain black lettering.

What I like about the company is the following:

#1. No jazzy packaging. They're not trying to sell you with fancy graphics.

#2. The description of the product inside is just that. "Cola", "Mayonnaise", "Pure Olive Oil", etc.

#3. The quality of the product is above par. It may say No Name on the outside, but the inside is better than some brand name companies I've tried. I think its because No Name is a brand name and put effort into making a quality product and completely ignore the need to advertise. They don't need to advertise because Loblaws owns the brand and its just there in the store, giving you the choice between brands such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, President's Choice and No Name Cola. (All colas rot your teeth, make you fat on the sugar and use vanilla for the flavour so it doesn't really matter which one you choose.)

#4. Often the product is exactly the same, just different packaging. Lets take an example like Marshmallows. Now you could choose to buy Kraft Marshmallows or No Name Marshmallows. But its the same recipe. You look at the ingredients and the nutritional info and what you learn is that its the same stuff inside the marshmallows. One brand doesn't taste any better than the other. The same is true for many other No Name products. Rice is rice. Cheddar Cheese is Cheddar Cheese. Chocolate Cake Mix is Chocolate Cake Mix. Makes no difference.

#5. Price. You can't beat the No Name prices. They're guaranteed to be the lowest because they spend nothing on advertising or fancy packaging.

Conclusions? Why pay more for a product just for the packaging? To impress someone? Pfff. Fine, buy the brand name stuff when you have guests over. But don't tell the rice was No Name. They will never know the difference.

No name companies (not just the "No Name" brand") often produce very good products and when put to the test are sometimes even better than the brand name product. Check out the video review below for "Sunny Baby" cloth diapers vs a no name cloth diaper. They make look the same, but the mother finds many faults in the design of the Sunny Baby diapers.