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In partnership with Bobbie. Editor's note: We only work with partners that meet our quality standards, so you can rest assured we only endorse products we believe in.
I exclusively breastfed both my daughters but not for lack of trying to introduce formula. At eight weeks pregnant with my second daughter, my oldest was ten months old. As we prepared to embark on a family cruise while I was dealing with first trimester morning sickness, I figured it would be easier to travel if my 10 month-old switched to combo feeding. I planned to breastfeed in the morning and at night while giving her formula during the day. But my plan failed. My daughter refused to drink the formula.
The majority of babies I knew drank formula, so I didn’t understand why my daughter took one sip and spit out the rest of it. My husband and I tried everything. First, we combined it with breastmilk—that was a bust. Then we poured the mixed formula from a bottle to a sippy cup with a straw, to a sippy cup with a spout. But nothing worked. Finally, my husband and I tasted the formula, realizing the problem. The formula tasted repulsive—and that’s putting it nicely. If we couldn’t stomach it, why did we expect our daughter to voluntarily gulp it down? I didn’t make her and ended up exclusively breastfeeding until her first birthday.
After talking to many of my fellow friends and parents, it’s clear I’m not the only one who struggled to find a formula my baby loved that I didn’t think was crap. And that’s where Bobbie comes in; a mom-founded-and-run infant formula company that’s inspired by European nutritional standards and doesn’t taste like chalky, chunky, clumpy water.
Modern Brand for the Modern Parent
Over the last decade, companies in the health and wellness space, the baby space, and the food and beverage space shifted strategies to appeal to the modern-day adult. But formula companies stayed stagnant. Although infant formula regulation has evolved over the years, many parents still feel the category has been slower to innovate than other consumer products.
Today, it’s still commonplace to see ingredients like corn syrup and palm oil in many formulas, Bobbie co-founder and CEO Laura Modi tells me. “When you look at formula, you see older brands with the same few products left on shelves. It’s an unchanged industry with heavy regulations and two major companies dominating the space.”
As a mom first, Laura understands firsthand the importance of having a quality product for babies, and knew if anyone was going to take on the stale $70 billion formula industry, it was going to be moms. In 2018, Laura and co-founder Sarah Hardy embarked on a journey to create a clean, high-quality infant formula, drawing on the European formulas that quality-conscious American parents had increasingly sought out.
Unlike many US-made formulas that include ingredients I don’t want to put in my own body, let alone my baby’s, European formulas have stricter requirements around what must be included (like DHA) and what can’t be included (like corn syrup). The European Union looks at the safety, quality, use of sustainable farming practices and nutritional benefits, updating nutritional standards every few years, with changes made frequently.
Only the Best for Our Babes
Over the last several years, Bobbie’s built a dream team to create dream formulas, made up of scientists, nutritionists, and veterans in the formula space. Today, Bobbie manufactures its formula in Vermont and at its owned facility in Heath, Ohio, designed specifically for infant nutrition and built to give the company greater control over quality and production.
Their simple, no-nonsense recipes allow Bobbie to offer only the best of the best for our babies. “Milk is the crown jewel of our formula,” says Laura, explaining why the company partners with small, family-run farms in the U.S. and organic farms in New Zealand. Additionally, there are no alternative sugars in the formula—the primary carbohydrate source comes from lactose—the same milk sugar found in breastmilk.
Bobbie also knocks it out of the park when it comes to DHA amounts. DHA is an omega-3 fatty acid needed for babies’ brain and eye development and Bobbie includes 20mg per serving, meeting E.U. requirements.
Ingredients aside, paramount for new parents is seeing the baby’s temperament, i.e. how easily their child digests the formula, and if they are fussy or gassy along the way. Bobbie’s 60:40 whey-to-casein protein ratio is modeled after the one found in mature breast milk.
“You need a few goods days to see what the baby’s poops are like,” Laura says with a smile—that’s why the company offers a discounted trial bundle—two cans for half the price ($28.00 versus $56.00)—which makes about 50 4-ounce bottles, for parents to test out before committing to the product. “Most companies give a sample for one bottle, but every mom knows you won’t know how the formula works after just one bottle. Being moms and parents ourselves, we knew that unless we gave parents a week or two of formula to try, they wouldn’t know if it was a good fit for their baby.”
From Bobbie’s Headquarters to Your Doorstep
In addition to creating a high-quality product, Bobbie is creating a high-quality customer experience through its subscription service while also making its formulas available at major retailers like Whole Foods Market, Costco, Walmart, and Target.
Finding yourself in the kitchen with a crying baby in tow and an empty can of formula in your pantry is a nightmare scenario to avoid at all costs. With Bobbie’s Stay Stocked™ membership, parents can sign up for automatic delivery and save up to $45/month with free shipping, and have their formula arrive right at their doorstep on their schedule. “You can text to order or get questions answered,” explains Laura. “There is also ease of flow when using the website. There are a lot of twists and turns in that first year of parenthood, so we are doing our best to guide parents and act as a support system from beginning to end.”
When I got my Bobbie box, I couldn’t help but smile. “We redesigned the entire experience from end to end. 90% of parents transition to formula before they are ready, and they are often unprepared. We designed for speed making sure customers receive the formula quickly after placing an order,” says Laura.
Bottles Up
I got my box in three days, opened it up, and did a taste test comparing Bobbie to Enfamil. The biggest differences were in color, consistency, and taste. Bobbie's creamy, white color looked much more like breast milk, a stark contrast from Enfamil’s chalky yellow-ish white appearance.
After smelling both, I got ready to take a sip. I don’t have great memories of formula, so I was nervous to try it—remember how Ross felt before tasting Carol’s breastmilk in Friends?
Obviously, both tasted like formula, but Bobbie was smoother, less metallic-y (a taste that comes from iron; Bobbie has managed to meet the lower EU iron requirements while also abiding by FDA guidelines), and had just a hint of sweetness reminiscent of breastmilk.
A Product with a Purpose
“There’s nothing more personal than how we feed our children,” says Laura, who is a mom of four, and this is why she and Sarah set out on this journey in the first place. Laura struggled with her breastfeeding expectations and in the middle of the night found herself at the grocery store, angry with the formula options on the shelves. Like many women, Laura felt pressure to breastfeed longer than she wanted.
The experience led Laura to focus on founding a mission-based, high-quality formula company that evolves the feeding conversation while creating a culture of confidence and compassion instead of comparison.
“We wouldn’t be pushing to change this industry if it wasn’t for how bad the narrative is around formula,” Laura explains. “It’s heavily stigmatized and many parents feel shame and guilt. We want to look back and say we were changemakers—that people don’t judge others for using formula and how you choose to feed your baby is no longer questioned.”
Laura and her team of moms, approximately 50% of whom had a baby in the last 18 months, are all destigmatizing formula use by sharing their feeding journeys while providing a platform for all parents to share feeding successes and failures. Even celebrities like Laura Dern are weighing in on the feeding conversation on Instagram sharing how 16 years ago she was looking for a European-style formula in the US—a post that garnered more than 63,000 likes.
Cheers to Change
It’s not surprising Bobbie is already in the bellies of over one million babies all across the U.S., as parents jump to get a clean formula that undergoes more than 2,000 quality and safety checks per batch. From the stellar packaging, to easy customer service, to high-quality ingredients, Bobbie is the exact product parents need during their baby’s first year of life.
“It’s about science and experience with the recipe itself. It comes down to fully understanding what the consumer is going through,” explains Laura. “It’s crazy no other women are leading this industry.” Check out Bobbie to see if it’s the right fit for you and your growing family!
