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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To be shocked at the price of formula milk?

256 replies

Souredstones · 07/07/2013 18:35

It's been 9 years since I was last pregnant and this time round I'm not going to attempt breast feeding because for my previous pregnancies I produced no milk and wasn't able to feed them. So I'm not stressing out I'm going straight in for the formula. I have medical reasons for doing so.

I get that they've put the price up to deter formula feeding. I know why. I agree breast is best. But from what I saw today it's now a sneeze under £10 a tin.

I'm lucky we can afford it, but what if you're on the threshold of not receiving help and find yourself, as I did, unable to bf even with the full intentions of bfing and being unable to afford this price.

Is there a reason it's doubled in price in the last decade? Have production techniques changed that much?

OP posts:

MigGril · 07/07/2013 19:19

The nhs guid lines only recommend using first milk until 12 months then switching to cows milk. There is no proven benefit in using any of the other milks on the market. And why HV still go round suggesting trying anything else is beyond me.

Formula manufactures are only interested in one thing your money. Nothing else.

I agree with the poster who said it would be good if the government made a cost only product.

There is more breastfeeding support out there through mainly voluntary organisations but you often have to look for it. BfN and NCT are both great. And many mums on medication are told they can't breastfeed when actually they can doctors just don't know enough.

coney77 · 07/07/2013 19:22

There's not many members of the family you can feed for so little £'s a week. If they struggle with buying formula how are they going to manage when the baby is eating real food?

SuffolkNWhat · 07/07/2013 19:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SmellsLikeWeenSpirits · 07/07/2013 19:24

Yy indeed. If you're balking at £10 a week for milk what about when they move onto food? That'll cost more

Plus the myriad other costs involved in raising a child. The cost of 6 months formula is but a drop in the ocean

SmellsLikeWeenSpirits · 07/07/2013 19:26

And everything has increased in cost over the years. A loaf of head was 60 pence a few years ago, now it's twice that. That's the way of the world

noblegiraffe · 07/07/2013 19:27

Mums usually go back to work by the time their child is eating a reasonable amount of food.

Crunchymunchyhoneycakes · 07/07/2013 19:28

Aptamil and the cow&gate are made in the same factory, aptamil has just been very successfully marketed as a 'premium' brand hence the higher price. All formula are pretty much identical as there are legal requirements as to what they contain. It's depressing that HV are passing on bullshit marketing guff to parents as if it is the truth.

I bfed with the occasional carton of ready made formula after 6 months, I refused to buy aptamil because they are such overpriced liars, taking advantage of parents desire to do the best by their children to skin more money out of them at a massively inflated cost.

RobotBananas · 07/07/2013 19:31

Smells just beat me to it. Its £8-10 for a tin of formula. I don't think that's much really.

I was expecting that it would have really increased in price,but comparing the £6-8 I paid 6 years ago I don't think its that much of a mark up.

Aptamil is more expensive though isn't it? I thought all formula was essentially the same, so I don't understand why some cost more money. I guess lots of people think more expensive = better

RobotBananas · 07/07/2013 19:32

Heh, xposts

I agree. Cow &Gate here. Don't understand paying a premium for aptamil.

Puffykins · 07/07/2013 19:32

You're right, number 2's Child Benefit didn't cover the costs, but then it's not as if we didn't know what they were going to be before I had her. I think it's more that I was quite surprised - happily surprised - to discover that Child Benefit covered formula (even Aptamil), nappies and baby wipes.

laura20 · 07/07/2013 19:33

I work full time but only earn 15k a year and due my first baby on Halloween!

I'm not entitled to any help with formula milk as I work full time, but if breast feeding doesn't go to plan will struggle to pay £10 a tub!

CrapsWithBears · 07/07/2013 19:36

I know you can't earn points or put offers on formula because they don't want to promote it, apparently women who want to breastfeed are going to see an offer and think, 'well fuck, it's 2-for-1 on formula, guess I won't be breastfeeding now.'

ImNotBloody14 · 07/07/2013 19:38

Laura20 you will get child benefit. Are you a lone parent? Also, what had you planned to do after the first year when your dc will be eating proper food and requiring bigger clothes eery couple of months?

CrapsWithBears · 07/07/2013 19:38

I cloth nappy my DD because it was a choice between formula, when my milk dried up, or nappies.

Pobblewhohasnotoes · 07/07/2013 19:38

Hipp is the cheapest at about £7.50-£8 a box. Cheapest in Superdrug.

CreatureRetorts · 07/07/2013 19:42

Formula companies are not charities.

They want to make as much money as possible which is why they use stealth advertising to make people think that FF is almost as good as BF or even better than after 6 months even though how can fake milk be better than the real thing

ImNotBloody14 · 07/07/2013 19:42

If i were pregnant now i would be checking out the cost of formula every week in all my local shops and seeing which was the lowest cost week after week. So that i wasnt in a flap about it if bfing didnt work out or if baby was born early or whatever. I'd make sure i had a good idea of the prices before i needed to know so i could plan for the cost. Tbh i'd be planning for that cost before i'd be budgetting for prams and carseats and cots and clothes. Formula is far more important than that stuff really and cant be borrowed whereas all that stuff can if need be.

SmellsLikeWeenSpirits · 07/07/2013 19:43

Mums usually go back to work by the time their child is eating a reasonable amount of food.

In that case they'll not know whether to laugh or cry when they think back to when it seemed formula was expensive when paying each months childcare fees

laura20 · 07/07/2013 19:45

Imnotbloody14, No but my partner is out of work at the moment. Hopefully will just have r meals we have now but processed so won't be at much extra cost.

But hopefully my partner should be back in work once he needs bigger clothes.

McNewPants2013 · 07/07/2013 19:49

If formula milk make you shocked, then dinner money for a week is £10.

Children cost and the formula I would say is cheap meal IMO

maja00 · 07/07/2013 19:50

I get that they've put the price up to deter formula feeding

that formula companies want to deter formula feeding!

The ban on points/temporary reductions on first milk isn't about deterring ffing or promoting bfing either by the way - it's to ensure that formula is sold at a steady price so parents can budget. There is nothing to stop formula companies permanently offering price reductions. Otherwise they will just use the same tactic they use in developing countries - getting people in with cheap prices and then putting prices up because you can't stop using formula once you've started.

ImNotBloody14 · 07/07/2013 19:52

Well maybe your partner will be back in work by the time baby is born. If not, you will just have to find the ££ by cutting back elsewhere. Im sure if you had a look at finances and spending you will be able to

CrazyOldCatLady · 07/07/2013 20:00

The worst formula price I've come across was SMA High Energy - it was only available in 250ml cartons (no powder) and they were ?5 each. We went though a minimum of 4 a day for DS for 8 months.

Original poster

Souredstones · 07/07/2013 20:01

So because kids get more expensive as they get older I'm not allowed to be cross at the price of formula there are many things I am angry at the price at so I simply don't buy them. Not so simple with formula

OP posts:

BackforGood · 07/07/2013 20:02

My eldest was born in 1996. Child Benefit was about £10/£12 then for your eldest, and you could buy enough nappies (about £5) and a tin of formula (about £6) for a week, for the same amount as you were getting in CB.
If benefit for the eldest is not £20, then it would seems about right that a tin of formula has gone up quite a bit too.

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