Cow And Gate VS SMA

[AndyyMay]

Had my hospital tour on monday and I asked the midwife If I decided I Didn't Want To Breast Feed weather or not they provide formula milk,I got told they do but it's only the one brand which they provide is SMA.

I'm still not fully decided yet on the whole Breastfeeding thing,but i might try it

IF that doesn't go to plan the obv I'll be bottle feeding.

I've had a think about the brands and have come down to two brands
1)SMA
2)Cow and gate

For several reason.

I was just wondering what you plan on using and why?
And if your a second time mum and used one of these brands..what made you choose it and was it any good for your little one.

I know it depends on different babies but advice/opinions would be nice thanks
x

 

[EmyDra]

Heya! Didn't want to R&R but am not good advice for FF really!

A good friend duel-fed and I THINK I remember her saying Aptamil was her brand of choice - which of course isn't helpful

Think I'd stick with the MWs recommendations, and if they are giving SMA I would be inclinded to say that probably makes more sense. Think i'll be watching this thread anyway to see if any 2nd timers have good formula advice - you never know if you'll need it

here's a thread on another forum I just found which is interesting - https://www.netmums.com/coffeehouse/antenatal-64/netmums-52/137800-formula-milk-use.html

 

[Emmie M]

Hi there,

When I had DS we bought Farleys,only that one as it was the cheapest and I didnt know if I would be able to BF so thought we'd get the cheapest just in case,in the end I couldnt BF so we used that,he got on really well with it. Then my mum bought us a tin of SMA,we used it as I didnt want to waste it and believe me,it wasnt pretty,he was being sick like the exocist,then he went all floppy,scared us so much,we rang maternity for advice and was practically told off for giving him SMA,they said they didnt rate or recommend SMA to anyone as 9 out of 10 babies find it too strong. He went back onto Farleys and was fine. I am planning on trying to BF again this time but if I cant then I will try Heinz Nurture (what they are calling Farleys these days and if its still available) or Cow and Gate and will stay as far away from SMA as possible. However,this is also personal choice,some babies do really well on SMA and have no problems at all. We were lucky too at our maternity when they asked what formula we had at home they had the same

 

[Pippasdvision]

I have used SMA with both of mine and would probsably with this one if I can not breast feed again. There is very little differnce between them. I found mine could not tollerate Cow and Gate but I have heard others say its the other way around. Personally I would be flexable and accept if one doesnt work u might have to change

 

[Reds05]

I used Aptamil with DS and my sister and SIL used the same for their kids.

The reason I chose it is because it was the same stuff my mum gave us (although went by the name Milupa back then) and none of her 4 kids had any problem with it. I also heard that it is the closest one to breast milk so figured it was the best one to go for.

 

[whoops]

I plan on breastfeeding, but if it doesn't work out, I'll be using Aptamil. For some reason, I just have it in my head that C&G and SMA are both quite strong but I don't know where I've actually got that idea from.

 

[Shrimpy]

I couldn't bf successfully for reasons I wont bore you with but with dd1 we used SMA Gold and she was fine with it, with DD2 it was an utter nightmare. Later on down the line we realised she has lactose intolerance issues but her poo was nuclear and she was sick A LOT! We tried pretty much every formula going and found cow and gate to be the best for her. This time I'll be using cow and gate again. I've heard a lot of mums say that SMA was too rich/heavy for their little ones and it gave them an upset tummy to some degree so they had to switch. I've also heard a lot of good things about Aptamil so if it doesn't work out with C&G this time for whatever reason then I think we'll give Aptamil a bash.

Like most things I think it's trial and error, each little one will have their own "reactions" to a certain formula. Like Pippa said, have an open mind and just keep an eye on baby and see how they do with it

 

[3rdandlastime]

wen i had my daughter, she was on farlys to start with. she was a very sicky baby. I discussed swapping milk and my health vistor advised against. She started losing weight, as she was sicking u everything. So I changed her to sma. I thought it was the milk, as it seemed thick,and she wudnt burp. n wen she did, it sounded like it was stuck bhind all the milk. So yea, I swapped to sma. n and she was fine, and all the sickness stopped

Then wen i had my son, he wudnt latch on, so I asked for a bottle. at the time on labour ward they only had cow and gate. So I went with this, and brought some on the way home from the hospital.I was duel feeding. his breastfeeds he was fine, his cw n gate he was sick. He was losing weight (he was 9lb 9oz, went down to 9lb at one point) The "symptoms"were the same, so I swapped to sma. And he was fine. from then on. at 8 weeks, i bottle fed only. He is 19 months now, n has sma toddler, it works out cheaper than cows, and he spits cows milk everywhere haha

Alot of it does take some swapping and changing etc, but in the end, ur'll get there.

 

[Tink2312]

This is my first so I can't give advice on what has worked but I have previously asked questions on FF and there's also a section on the site somewhere for FF along with a post I made to enquire on different brands etc....
General feedback I got was that Aptimal and Cow and Gate are actually the same company and several were saying milk's very familiar.... however generally Aptimal came top of the pile, especially for those that had tried several different formulas because it had made baby's sickly.
For SMA I only had 1 or 2 recommendations I think, general feedback was that a lot of babies didn't feed well on it....found them to be sicky and that it was quite heavy. Which is a bummer as I've seen SMA on offer more than the others! lol.
I have personally decided to try C&G first off, if for any reason LO doesn't do well on it then I will go straight to Aptimal, the reason why I've decided is generally to do with cost, its about £1 or so cheaper a tub I think and my logic is if he's happy on that there isn't any point paying the extra for something else.... if of course theres issues then I'm happy to pay whatevers needed.
I've got 2 tubs of formula ready and also bought a couple of packs of the ready made up milk along with some ready to go streile bottles for him at the hospital so I know I've got what I want there and don't have to worry about choosing etc etc
Hope that helps a little bit, definitely worth looking in the FF section though and I also asked as a general post on facebook to friends who've already had LO's who were also of course helpful

 

[AndyyMay]

Thanks For All The Responses Ladies! Has Been A Great Help
All Depends On How Baby Is
x

 

[luna28]

remember breastfeeding does take perserverence it doesn't just happen straight away for a lot of women it may take a few days/weeks to get the hang of it, so personally if you really do want to breastfeed I wouldn't bother with formula in the early days, if baby is having trouble latching on then you should express colostrum and feed with a syringe/cup under supervision of mw of course also have the numbers of bf helplines to hand for when you go home.
As for formula milks no particular brand is best or indeed 'closest to breastmilk' that's just clever marketing, breastmilk is far superior to formula for a lot of reasons.

 

[zoella]

I've used cow and gate for all four of mine, never had any problems!

 

[mumtobeplus1]

I used SMA for my daughter, will do the same again, mainly because im
sort of sticking to what i know, and also because it is halal. x

 

[Armywife]

I couldn't bf due to medical reasons but i chose cow and gate over sma for one reason only...the c&g tin has a handy 'scraper' in the corner to level scoops with - much easier than levelling them off with a knife or such when you are holding a crying baby!