Hello

My twins will be 6 months at the end of this month. Over the last couple weeks we have tried them on teeny bits of puree, rice, cereal and veg, mainly just for practice. We are still giving them their full milk feeds at this stage. We are planning on very slowly increasing the amount of food they have once they hit 6 months.

My question is, when your LO hit 6 months, did you go to the next stage formula? We are currently on SMA Gold first stage and would be sticking with SMA. I'm just a bit scared as I don't want them to miss out on key nutrients by switching their milk. I read on the back of the tin that they can have the first stage milk up to 12 months old?

I realise that they will get nutrients from food as we will be providing them with a balanced diet.....oh its all so confusing!! Help!!

I won't be changing milk. First stage is fine until a year old when you can switch to cows milk.

My reasons are:
1, it is sweeter so not good for newly emerged teeth and

2, Formula companies only made 6 month plus milk after the ban on advertising formula for babies under 6 months. They made the milk so they can advertise it.
Many countries do not have stage 3 milks because they are unnecessary.

On the flip side of the coin Follow on milks are often on offer and you can get supermarket reward points for them. However in my opinion this is not a good enough reason to switch.

Good points, thank you!!

And I agree, as much as formula is expensive, there is no way I'd needlessly switch to stage 2 just to save a few quid!!

We use SMA and the reason we chose to switch to second stage was purely due to the fact that it provides more iron ( I compared both tins along side each other ) Babies are born with a store of iron in their body that lasts around six months. After that, this store starts to become depleted. So an iron-rich diet is essential to keep them healthy.

I wanted to ensure that while I was weaning, he was consuming enough iron. ( in case he didn't take to something or he was fussy as babies can be )

Thats the exact thing i'm worrying about!!

Is it a case of keep them on first milk and push them on iron rich food or switch to second stage and risk the problems that were mentioned by the previous poster?

Babies will get all the iron they need providing you feed them a balanced diet. I wouldn't worry, it would be very rare that you wouldn't give them enough iron and certainly not enough to risk the above points about sweetness on teeth etc.

Hi Ladies,

Sorry, just saw the replies. I have the two cans in front of me right now and I can tell you that Stage 2 SMA milk looks more nutritious.

Stage 2 offers more - protein, vitamin C, D & A, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, zinc. ( everything else is the same as Stage 1)

In terms of the carbs offered of which are sugars are slightly less than Stage 1 so if the milk is sweeter, I am not 100% sure how. ( I've never tried the two, maybe Ill get OH to be a guinea pig! )

I think that either would be perfectly fine for your LO. While I also make sure my son has a balanced diet, I feel assured knowing his milk has more iron. With regards to possible tooth damage, there are precautions that can be made - never allow your LO to keep formula in their mouths for a long time ( ie - falling asleep with the bottle or sippy cup in their mouth), decrease the use of bottles as your baby gets older, no sweet drinks as in juice, soda etc)

http://www.uwex.edu/ces/wnep/teach/nfshpdfs/BabyBtl.pdf

Then the next aspect of baby tooth decay is fluoride (which is in baby formula - and both Stage 1 and Stage 2 SMA have exactly the same amount)

Is fluoridated water safe for babies?

NO. According to the American Dental Association (ADA), children under 1 year of age should not receive infant formula made with fluoridated water. Babies exposed to fluoridated water are at high risk of developing dental fluorosis - a tooth defect caused by fluoride-induced cell damage within the teeth. ( this is referring to formula made up with fluoridated drinking water )

Thomas is not a huge food eater and follow on has more iron so I've switched to make sure he gets enough iron to sustain him. With the little he eats it definitely wouldn't be enough.