Where's My Coupon?

My son, like many children with a milk allergy, was put on a special formula called Nutramigen after he was diagnosed. His doctor did not want to put him on soy formula in case he developed a similar allergy to soy. There are technically two options that are over the counter that are out there for hypoallergenic formula: Nutramigen and Alimentum. However, there are also ones that you can get via perscription. I don't know much about them as our doctor for whatever reason chose Nutramigen and gave us a few samples to take home. Those samples we found out shortly was like giving us $50.00.

It turns out that Nutramigen and Alimentum are the two most expensive formulas on the Market. They only come in the 16 oz. cans with powder or a few ready-to-feed options that are even more expensive. I've found that on average Nutramigen is $24.00 for the powder can and that Alimentum is about a dollar more. These prices are double that of normal formula. In addition to that I haven't found any special promotions or coupons anywhere for these two formulas. I have found however, that certain stores are cheaper than others. Babies-r-us near our house for example sells Nutramigen for $23.49, our local grocery store for $24.11 and Wal-mart and Target for $25.00. I've also discovered that if you go to less affluent neighborhoods or less chi-chi grocery stores you can find Nutramigen for $23.00, which is the cheapest I've found it. Those prices might not sound like a huge difference but considering we go through 1 can every 4 days it really adds up quite quickly.

When we first realized how expensive Nutramigen was we decided to try and find online stores that sold it cheaper. What we found out was legitimate stores online don't reduce the price and on top of it you have to pay the shipping and handling fees. There are places online that aren't reputable that do sell it for less expensive but buyer beware. There is a warning on every Nutramigen can to check the bottom for a special stamp "NUTRML". Apparently, there are companies manufacturing "Nutramigen" and packaging them with Enfamil labels; but they are actually just regular infant formula with milk repackaged and sold as hypoallergenic. Therefore, if the price sounds to good to be true it could be.