Well folks, I did it. I bought *gulp* Esbilac.

[island rehabber]

Well, folks, I thought I would update this with my experience this season now that I have more than just one baby (I have nine):

I kept my pinkies -- now almost 3 wks old -- on a mixture of half Esbilac with Probiotics/half FV 32/40 for the first two weeks. Last week I began to add heavy whipping cream to the mix because they were strong, with perfect poops, but not chubby and that bothered me. After all, weren't we always saying that FV pinks weren't chubby enough? And Esbilac was supposed to correct that? OK so adding the HWC was great because they loved the formula, increased their intake noticeably, and still had good poops. BUT....a half pint of HWC only got me through 2 days before it turned rancid. UGH. (I live in an area where the dates on dairy products are never very far in the future. I think the dairy companies deliver all their leftovers here, I swear....) SO...I quickly ordered some Fox Valley Ultra Boost from Leigh and made this mix:

2 Parts FV 32/40
1 part Esbilac Probiotics
1 part Ultra Boost

Success! The kids increased their intake dramatically again and finally are starting to look chubby. They also have better poops on the UB -- not as dry and hard as before, making potty time at 3:00am blessedly shorter.
So far, so good, and the convenience of having three dry powders that I can mix ahead of time is preferable to having to figure wet/dry ratios with the HWC.

Just my two cents!

[Will's Mom]

My first post here - but have been visiting for a few years when looking for answers to squirrelly questions

I have a question on the math involved in making up the 50/50 FV 32/40 & Esbilac, & 2 parts water:
if you make up 1prt FV + 1prt Esbilac, you should then add 4 prts water to make the correct solution of formula??
As each powder separately needs 2 prts water to each 1prt pwder; & now you have twice the amount of powder to mix.
ie., 1tsp FV + 1tsp Esbilac + 4tsp water

Thank you - keeping my fingers crossed that this solves the pinky problem we also had last year, when we used FV 32/40..........1/4 survived

[SammysMom]

Yep...1 scoop fv, 1 scoop Esbilac 4 scoops water (very warm water). I actually have switched to 2 scoops FV, 1 scoop Esbilac and 6 scoops water. It has improved their smell...lol

[Nancy in New York]

My first post here - but have been visiting for a few years when looking for answers to squirrelly questions

I have a question on the math involved in making up the 50/50 FV 32/40 & Esbilac, & 2 parts water:
if you make up 1prt FV + 1prt Esbilac, you should then add 4 prts water to make the correct solution of formula??
As each powder separately needs 2 prts water to each 1prt pwder; & now you have twice the amount of powder to mix.
ie., 1tsp FV + 1tsp Esbilac + 4tsp water

Thank you - keeping my fingers crossed that this solves the pinky problem we also had last year, when we used FV 32/40..........1/4 survived

Going to use this scenario as an example.

Take 1/2 cup FV and 1/2 cup Esbilac, that equals 1 whole cup, or 1 part
To that you add 2 parts of water which would be 2 cups.

Whatever your "part" is for the dry formula it consists of 1/2 FV and 1/2 Esbilac to equal 1 whole part.

[Will's Mom]

Thank you for your replies, just had to make sure my amounts were correct.