which formula is recommended when weaning of breast milk?

[Bournemouthmum]

my daughter is about 5 month old and is breast fed. But soon i must return to work and therefore have decided to try formula milk as i find expressing to hard and time consuming, any idea which is the best formula milk or are they all pretty much the same?

[MumofIsaac]

I think it's a case of trial and error as they do taste different. Amptimil is supposed to be the closest to breast milk but apparently smells a lot. I give my DS Hipp Organic (no.2) which I've only found in Boots and he loves it. I've tried it and can see why really - it's quite sweet. You could try getting some ready made cartons to try out but the Hipp Organic don't do them.

HTH

[hunkermunker]

None of them are closest to breastmilk, it's a marketing con.

Get the one your baby likes (try a few cartons to see) - and go for one that's readily accessible in local shops (and all-night garages).

[hunkermunker]

(None of them is closest to breastmilk - I should pedantically point out )

[3andnomore]

I just wanted to agree, that they are all pretty much the same...but aptamil, and probably some others by now have Omega 3 in it, which is supposedly god for their braindevellopement!
When I stopped bf wiht es we had to try a fair few different Formulas, as he was a "Happy chucker" and ended up using Boots own.
Ds#2 was almost 10 month old by the time we changed and didn't reflux anymore, and we used Aptamil with him and he took that fine...with ds3 I was lucky enough to forego the whole Formula issue as he was over a year by the time he stopped.

[3andnomore]

Oh and Hunkermunker...now, not that I disagree with you, I don't (about the marketing ply)...but sometimes I wonder if all this trying to get FF closer to BM is maybe the cause for so many ff Baby's not going as early through the night anymore, or wanting feeding more often then 3-4 hourly and mums changing over to the next step milk...wonder if the protein composition is different or there are less fillers added....but it seems it's now faster digested then it used to be!

[tiktok]

3and: you are right, but it's not a recent thing. The big change in formula milk composition came with the whey-based formulations, which were introduced about 20 years ago (I think - haven't checked). This modified the milk protein and it was digested more quickly than the casein-based formulas that had been standard before.

Now casein-baed formulas are marketed as 'milk for hungrier babies'. Mothers do indeed tend to change to these to try to make their babies last longer between feeds.

There are no 'fillers' in formula milk and the other additions (prebiotics and so on) wouldn't make much difference to the speed at which the milk is digested.

[3andnomore]

tictoc, thanks for the info
I do have to say, that teh otehr problem is probably with societies expectations of how long a Baby should go between feeds, sigh!

[tiktok]

I know.....imagine someone telling an adult they 'have to' eat or drink no more often than an arbitrary number of hours!

Why on earth should a baby be expected to be hungry or thirsty at designated times??

Lots of adults like to have a bottle of water with them on their desks at work, so they can have a drink whenever they want.

This sort of 'unregulated' approach is frowned on, when it comes to babies though