Which Formula Would You Recommend?

[WelshOneEmma]

Ok, so baby is due 21st December. I plan to try to breastfeed, but as my sister had trouble and had to move to formula I am also wanting to prepare if this is the case for me too. I was told at my hypnobirthing class that if you have trouble feeding in hospital they will provide formula, but will not give you any to bring home.

If that is the case I want to have some as back up in the house, just a tub, as obviously she's close to Christmas and I dont want to be worrying about not being able to find feed as shops are closed!

So I was looking at some today. The main 3 I saw were Cow and Gate, Apatmil and SMA. I understand Hipp is now doing one as well?

So my question is, is there much difference (other than cost)? and is it better to get a tub? or the ready mix cartons?

Any help appreciated!

 

[hulagirl]

Our hospital recommend using rtf cartons for the first 6 weeks. Not sure why but it does work out expensive.
We started off on c&g but have moved on to hipp which we were happy with till they put the probiotics in, l/o is very fussy now.
I have heard good things about aptimel but it is more expensive.
It can be trial and error to see what one suits your little one.
Good luck x

 

[Jakyzmum]

Cow& Gate made my lo break out in a rash on his face ,neck& shoulders . It would slowly disapear after I'd finished feeding him . Also he had extereme gas from the formula which caused him so much discomfort & woke him from his sleep often .Switched to sma& lo is sbsulutly fine , no more rash& not suffering from the extreme gas . I'm not saying this is the same for all babys , but thought it worth a mention when I seen ur topic . xx

 

[skunkpixie]

Cow& Gate made my lo break out in a rash on his face ,neck& shoulders . It would slowly disapear after I'd finished feeding him . Also he had extereme gas from the formula which caused him so much discomfort & woke him from his sleep often .Switched to sma& lo is sbsulutly fine , no more rash& not suffering from the extreme gas . I'm not saying this is the same for all babys , but thought it worth a mention when I seen ur topic . xx

Maybe it could have been a slight allergic reaction to something in the formula? The only thing I can think it is. is the fish oils? All the brands contain added fish oils apart from SMA, which sources its omega 3+6 from algae(sp?).

To the op, all formulas have to adhear to strict guidlines and contain practically the same ingredients. I would start off with a formula you know that your nearest 24 hours shop stocks so you have easy access to it whenever. xxx

 

[princess444]

Hi, I use aptamil first milk on my dd, she's 3 weeks old and is getting she's doing really well on it , it is slightly more pricier but she likes it, try one and you can always change

 

[Mummythree]

Its a good idea to buy some formula incase you have any probs. i had to give dd2 formula well the odd bottle as i was sore, cracked and bleeding so would only give the odd bottle. i breastfed her for 14months.

DS i breastfed for 5days but had to stop due to him not being able to latch on once milk came in so we bottlefed after that.

DD1 Was bottlefed.

with dds i tried sma and found they made dds really sicky. so for dd2's odd bottle and now with ds we use aptamil

i would get a tub just to be on the safe side.

 

[SabrinaKat]

I'd ask the hospital which they use, and get some of the powdered stuff of that (it's pretty easy to mix up); other than that, we actually tried all three of the main ones, but we're using Cow&Gate 1 (we tried follow-on-milk, but it gave him loads of gas and an upset tummy)....

best wishes

 

[becks1981]

Tried LO on cow and gate, but it made her constipated. Switched to aptamil first milk and she loves it. I chose aptamil because I heard it was a really good milk, plu it says on the tub that it's good for combi feeding too, which I am doing

 

[emmalouise86]

i started my little boy off on SMA but after about 5 or 6 weeks it made him constipated so since then hes had cow and gate and hes been fine x

 

[HellBunny]

We used Hipp with both babies x

 

[Celesse]

They are all pretty similar. Some babies get on better with some formula's better than others and some babies get on with everything.

I initially used Aptamil as I was duped by there advertising. I kinda believed that it was closer to breast milk when I was choosing something to feed my starving non-latching newborn first baby. She stayed on Aptamil whilst she was combi-fed to 4.5 months.

When DS got poorly at 3 days old we used Aptamil again as it had been ok with DD. But by that point I had learnt a lot more about formula advertising and was aware that all the milks where the same. The children's ward ran out of Aptamil a couple of times and we used Cow and Gate instead. DS was combi-fed through necessity until 8 weeks and when we where at home we used Aptamil when we needed to.

Then at 16 weeks we introduced a bed time bottle of formula. We decided to use HIPP. The massive tubs of formula (by Aptamil, C&G and the other one) need to be used within 4 weeks. At one bottle a day we didn't quite make this so wasted some formula. HIPP have 2 sachets that last 3 weeks each and we where able to use all the formula in the 3 weeks.

 

[Celesse]

Double post

 

[Sarachka]

It's totally up to you, there's very little difference between the 4 brands. We use Cow and Gate simply because that's what OH picked up when he went to Asda after our HV told us she had lost too much weight after birth. She had her first bottle at 4 weeks old and never had a problem with it, so I've had no reason to switch. I did move her once onto the C&G hungry milk but I think that made her have trapped wind so we went back to the first infant milk.

 

[dizz]

I went around the shops locally - including the little Sainsburys and Co-Op as well as the humongous Tescos and Asda and made a mental note of which brands they stocked (and actually HAD in stock - our Tescos has issues with C+G a fair bit at the moment) and made the decision based on that... didn't want to put her on something more obscure (it seems to be SMA that's less well-stocked in my area) that I couldn't rush out and buy nearby late at night if we ran short.

 

[WelshOneEmma]

I went into town to look today.

As i plan to BF these will be back up, so think i will buy a few tubs of the ready mix stuff as back up (again mainly if she's born christmas eve/day/boxing day) and we need something, so probably going to go with C&G as they had boxes of 12. I figure a couple of those will be fine.

 

[ClairAye]

Cartons are easy in the first few days, then powder, I had no problem with Cow and Gate apart from it making his constipation a bit worse, I switched to Aptimal and he's still constipated due to medicine.. So I'd happily recommend either

 

[WelshOneEmma]

Cartons are easy in the first few days, then powder, I had no problem with Cow and Gate apart from it making his constipation a bit worse, I switched to Aptimal and he's still constipated due to medicine.. So I'd happily recommend either

to be honest I am hoping i wont need them. i am just worried that she will be born very close to Christmas and i may have trouble feeding and not be able to get any formula. if we do end up needing formula long term will get the tubs.

 

[Sarachka]

Emma do you mean the packs of 12 which are about £14? If I were you I wouldn't spend that much when you're really hopeful not to use it. The bigger 1l bottles are about £2.50 and would feed my 5 month old for 24 hours so I'd say 2 of those would be sufficient "emergency" supply for Christmas closures. I mean obviously get what you feel is best and will put your mind at rest, just didn't want you to feel that you'd have to spend that much when you probably won't need to.

 

[WelshOneEmma]

Emma do you mean the packs of 12 which are about £14? If I were you I wouldn't spend that much when you're really hopeful not to use it. The bigger 1l bottles are about £2.50 and would feed my 5 month old for 24 hours so I'd say 2 of those would be sufficient "emergency" supply for Christmas closures. I mean obviously get what you feel is best and will put your mind at rest, just didn't want you to feel that you'd have to spend that much when you probably won't need to.

The pack of 12 I saw in boots was about £9?? But will check out the bigger ones as well. Thanks!

 

[Bumblebee117]

Hipp Combiotic! It has friendly bacteria which is beneficial to baby's digestion. We are using it with my son since 4 months (breastfed til 13weeks, then c&g - didn't work out, he had bad constipation) and my daughter since 6 months (bf til then) and both of my babies are very happy with the it. No problems whatsoever! x