To wonder why anyone buys that 'Growing Up' milk stuff?

[bubbleymummy]

No one expects to get their iron content from milk - you get it from the food you eat alongside it (although you shouldn't really drink milk alongside a meal anyway because calcium inhibits iron absorption) so why would you spend money on this product? Does anyone on MN buy it? If so - why?

I Suspect formulae and follow on milk taste more like breast milk than cows milk does (I suspect they are all faintly sweet). Certainly my eternally BF DD2 was much happier with ceral etc made up with follow on milk than anything else.
Even at 10 she'll only drink milk with a splash of milk shake syrup and will avoid it on cereal if at all possible.

Are the advertisements for eggs? Strange.....

Not sure what you mean but just eating the grain - I'm happy enough for someone to grind flour for me and even bake the bread! :)

OK. last thing. I do know what's in these things now but until a few years ago had never checked salt levels so had no idea that there was so much salt in bread, cheese etc. How would you know what it contained without ever checking? And I prefer the taste of spread, contrary to popular belief I didn't just buy the one I saw on tv.

I know, I know, less processed food etc. But really, I cannot bring myself to be a martyr to the cause. I will continue to weigh up the good and bad and to hell with it!

Hi Startail - we're actually talking about growing up milk which is promoted as an alternative to cow's milk so introduced later than formula/follow on. Yes, it is sweeter but as a few of us pointed out earlier you could add sugar/vanilla/honey to fresh cow's milk to make it taste sweeter and not have as processed (and as expensive) a product. :)

Bizarre! Not sure it would make me buy that particular brand of egg though!

Love the vintage one! :)

I can understand checking ingredients on certain items to see if something (eg. Salt) is in them. I thought you were analysing all the ingredients to check vitamin and iron levels to determine which product to buy which seemed a bit overkill! :)

I don't think this should go unchallenged:

"I think it's pretty much established that whether people like to admit it or not the only reason they have bought the product is because they are convinced by the advertisers that it is a better alternative to milk."

You have completely ignored some of the early posters on this thread who gave reasons such as having a child with SN with a restricted diet; the convenience of having cartons of milk - whether at night, out and about or living in a hotel for months on end; having a child with cows milk intolerance who can tolerate growing up milk; those following the advice of HCP etc.

Or perhaps you weren't ignoring them but accusing them of being unwilling to admit that all of these reasons are just covering their true reason of being had by the adverts.

Nice.

I buy this a lot for my 2 and a half year old, for travelling.

We are constantly on planes, trains, long car journeys... as it's longlife those little bottles can keep in the bottom of my bag for days, and it negates the hassle of begging some milk from a nearby cafe.

One brand even has a special cap that allows you to fit a teat into it, thus making it into a little bottle. It's perfect for longhaul flights, reducing earpain on the descent, not spilling milk inside the car etc. Oh, and airport security never have a problem with them as they're sealed.

So yes, I think it's handy stuff for those reasons.

I agree Breathslowly. Just because something has a clever ad doesn't mean it's a bad product.
It is a useful product for some and the high price of it is a tax on stupidity/laziness/mollycoddling for those whose children don't need it.

"You have completely ignored some of the early posters on this thread who gave reasons such as having a child with SN with a restricted diet; the convenience of having cartons of milk - whether at night, out and about or living in a hotel for months on end; having a child with cows milk intolerance who can tolerate growing up milk; those following the advice of HCP etc."

I'm nopt ignoring these categoties of people , but I honestly don;t think there will be enough of them to be statistically significant. There are two which I find particularly interesing - the 'cartons of milk when out and about one" and the HCP's advice one.

I woudl be interested to know how many people thought about taking milk for their over one year olds when out and about, and found it difficult beefore this advertising campaign identifies the problem and offered a solution.

And HCPs are by no means immune to advertisers - rather the opposite in my experience!

Soooo many products we use for convenience and have come to rely on today created their own demand rather than filling a desperate need in society.
Advertising is essential for selling these types of concepts to a market.
Ipad anyone?

I do agree about the ads. Some are fiendishly clever. Is it Aptamil who use the line, "when you want to move on from breastfeeding..." as if their product is far superior?

I often think they're hoping that some people will apply the notion that the product is more advanced to the first infant milks which they aren't allowed to advertise.

But this is not marketted as a convenience product - it's marketted as something that you are not doing the best by your child if you don't buy. If it just said "Here's some milk for your toddler in a convenient package" like the cartons of made up infant formula that would be fine. But they don't do that.

Seeker with this comment you have proven that there are people who buy this product for reasons other than the adverts.

It may be incredibly convenient. But that's not the thrust of the advertizing campaign. I wouldn't have a problem with it if it did.

Wow a company trying to see there product as the best thing since sliced bread! Who would have thought it!

I don't see what the issue is really, they are doing what every company does. Pampers try to paint an image of there Nappies making a baby sleep for 12 hours - doesn't mean I believe it and buy them though!

Flamin'Galah, I don't see the line "want to move on from BF" as suggesting that the product is superior, rather it a) implies an assumption that you were BFing at some point which is surely a good thing and B) that you will not BF forever, which seems pretty obvious to me.

Sirzy, good point - sliced bread was one of those things we didn't know we needed until someone produced it and marketed it to us.

I think this marketing hoo-hah is all a bit silly really. They aren't outright lying (in the ads I've seen anyway) unlike cosmetics/skincare ads. Why shouldn't they try and sell as much of the stuff as they can? I think I might buy some shares.

"Why shouldn't they try and sell as much of the stuff as they can? "

Because it is unethical? Because there is enough stuff out there to make parents feel guilty and insecure withough adding to it? Because giving kids sweet stuff is going to make it harder to encourage them to eat other things, and it would be very eay to think "oh well, they're getting all the vitamins and minerals they need form this milk stuff they are drinking, so it doesn't matter if they don't have a healthy diet? Because generally the less processed food we eat the better? Because it uses an unnecessary extra chunk of the world's resources?

Shall i go on?

Breatheslowly - I did actually post after that to say 'most parents' which would allow for the small minority who genuinely have no alternative.

Bubbluv - why would you need to 'move on' to formula. If you bf for a year they can go onto cow's milk or you could continue to bf until they don't need milk as a part of their diet or fall somewhere in between. They fact that thru use 'when' rather than 'if' is important to. It suggests that at some stage you are going to need their product.

Thanks seeker! Good post! :)

I don't actually see any appeal in a milk drink that can last for ages at the bottom of my bag - that does not scream 'this is a healthy drink'to me at all!
Has anyone explained what's wrong with taking a bottle of water or a flask of milk? Surely they would give you milk on a plane for a child if you asked?

Thru = they, to = too

Bubbleymummy, yes I have flown airlines that don't carry milk for children (they just have the little mini sachets for teas and coffees - see how many of those it takes to fill a bottle!).

And those longhaul airlines that do carry milk, well, you can't get the stuff until the captain has turned off the fasten seatbelt sign, or if you're in the middle of a turbulent spot mid Atlantic, or if the plane starts descending, ears start popping and the cabin crew are otherwise engaged.

Longlife milk is longlife milk - lots of people of all ages and in many countries use it, it's not especially unhealthy. It just happen that I'm using longlife milk specifically targeted at toddlers as it comes in handy little bottles.

So I'm sure you understand that having a couple of bottles of that stuff in my bag is just handy!

Nb, the milk longhaul airlines do give out is the same longlife stuff anyway, they don't carry fresh (or at least not in economy).

Thanks for the info about the airline milk - I wasn't sure which was why I asked :) So what's wrong with just giving them water then? What did people do before the handy little bottles came along? I still see it as something that is solving a problem that wasn't really there before iykwim. If it was just a case of having handy size long life milk to take on trips with children then why didn't someone just make that?

what wrong with giving them water?
He'll scream like a banshee till he gets milk.

why carry on with follow on?
well I do give him cows milk but short of force feeding the little love and possibly being done for child abuse or being the subject of a mn thread, it's been the only way of guaranteeing any nutrition enters ds some days.
(no I was not substituting macdonalds for homecooked food - he just refused to eat)

Yes it probably solves a problem that wasn't there before, like most things that we use and buy today.