To ask which formula brand you would recommend for a newborn?

[MissMattyJenkins]

I'm posting in AIBU for traffic as I'm running out of time before the baby arrives and I want to buy some for the house. I couldn't find any recent threads on this when I searched.

A couple of pharmacist friends have suggested Aptamil (with the proviso that they think the brands should all be much the same). I've noticed since then that aptamil is more expensive than SMA or cow and gate!

Anecdotally I've heard a few people saying aptamil is easier on the baby's digestive system when browsing older threads on mumsnet but not consistently.

What do people think?

DC1 was given C&G in hospital (through a feeding tube after were readmitted due to DC nearly starving to death as I battled on trying to bf while my DH insisted we shouldn't give DC formula as his oh so clever DM and Dsis had told him all about it and how you must carry on and under no circumstances give formula aaaaaargh! Ahem... slight hijack there but the whole "don't have any formula at home in case you are swayed from bfing" argument really boils my piss).

Anyway, we switched to Aptamil later and found that actually it was slightly lighter for DC who was a very unenthusiastic eater. That could have been in my head though! Hipp Organic was recommended to me later so we use that now and sometimes C&G follow on.

I bf my 8mo apart from one bottle a night and we tried the small ready made bottles of formula from different brands to see what he liked. They're only about 80p. Luckily he likes cow and gate! Hated sma though!

If you're midwife centre is anything like mine you'll be flooded with the whole breast is best bumps! FWIW, I used aptamil but I agree with pp who said not to stockpile until you know which one your baby gets on with (if you need it).

Congratulations too

(Also, I was one of those people determined not to have formula in the house with my first baby and spent a night sobbing and getting extremely stressed with the whole breastfeeding thing while holding a screaming baby because I didn't have any formula in - after a horrendous 3 day labour and no sleep - if I had I would have just gone with that, no guilt whatsoever. It's a personal thing but I hated breastfeeding and with my second child formula fed from the start which was much less stressful for me).

whatever brand you deceide to use do remember to take some to the hospital as they dont provide formula anymore [ in my local hospital at least.]

Admittedly I EBF until DD was 6.5 month old (not trying to sway or make you feel bad or anything, just my input as we didn't use from newborn and wanted to be honest) but when we started giving her a bottle we used Cow and Gate (newborn) and apparently I was a C&G baby too!

Good luck whichever route you choose!

BTW the packet says use within a month. How don't know how strictly this should be adhered too so maybe the ready made bottles might be good as an emergency use until you know what you're going to do, plus you can choose different brands?

I found hipp organic best for my baby. Annoying, because the ready to drink cartons are prone to leaking when you open them, require scissors and can be hard to get hold of. The powdered milk is more difficult than usual to make (I think) so I left that to nursery.

Although baby didn't like them, I found the aptimil starter kit really useful as it didn't require an sterilising. You do pay through the nose for the convenience though.

I was surprised that there were differences in the formula but they are definitely different.

SMA is quite heavy and can be a bit much if you have a baby with reflux or prone to constipation. It didn't agree with my LO at all. However people who had hungrier babies said it was better for them.

We use aptamil as it is lighter and seems closer in sweetness and lightness to breastmilk.

We used Cow & Gate, picked it because we knew it was easily available locally. Luckily DS 'gets on' with it as it's also the cheapest!

I don't think having some easily available makes a difference to your determination to breastfeed, or the success of it - certainly didn't for me (combo feeding from quite early on).

Ophelia just a side note; think the advice now is to use follow on milk rather than newborn milk from 6 months or else add a vitamin and iron supplement to the newborn milk if feeding to a baby over 6 months. That advice only changed recently though, (was told by HV).

I used SMA with no problems - my dd was a very hungry one

We started with apatamil first milk, but DD suffers terribly with constipation, so moved on to apatamil comfort which sorted her out a treat
You won't know how your baby will get on with any particular brand until you try, so I wouldn't stockpile any particular brand just yet!
Good luck with your imminent arrival

I used Aptamil purely because everyone expected me to. I tried SMA Comfort but I was advised against it by a feeding consultant and told to go for any of the Three main ones.

The best advice I read, and boy is it true was to use what your most local late hours shop sells!!

DS1 got aptamil, DS2 got cow & gate. Both got on fine. I used aptamil with DS1 cos I thought more expensive = better (to assuage my guilt that bf wasn't working, 3 weeks in). I got wiser come DS2! I got the ready made small bottles before DS2 was born in case bf wasn't working (and he definitely needed topping up w formula!)

Aptamil all the way with DS1. I did a lot of research and it seems to be the easiest to digest - very fine, light powder in comparison to the thick, sticky SMA. Used it in conjunction with Doctor Brown's bottles on the health visitors recommendation due to horrendous reflux and colic.

The hospital I work at stocks Cow and Gate, Aptamil and SMA. The parents just make a choice. When asked I say that there's not much difference it's just a case of preference. Alot of people do choose Aptamil tho as they think paying more makes it better. That's really not the case.
Choose the cheapest if that's what you want, it won't be inferior!
Good luck.

We use SMA Comfort as it is vegetarian, whilst most of the other brands have both cow and fish in them.

I breastfed mine but I would recommend you get whichever one is stocked by your local late night shop!

As I understand it, they are all much the same so I think availability is perhaps the most important thing. If you suddenly need more at silly o clock and don't want to switch brands, you need to be using whatever your local shop stocks.

This is going back a few years but another vote for not stockpiling. DS would only take Aptamil 1st (after trying all the cheaper brands which he would just throw up). Luckily, he was happy to have the powdered and the ready made cartons. I would use the powdered at home during the day and then cartons at night or when out and about.

DD was much easier and would take any brand so we went for Cow and Gate as we could pick it up in our nearest shop (which was also 24 hours, very handy). So if I was you, I would start with what your nearest shop stocks and go from there.

Congratulations on your pregnancy

I used aptamil for my ds - partly because I found a starter kit in the supermarket (little ready made bottles with screw on teats) which I needed for hospital as our hospital don't provide milk or facilities to make it. Plus our local village shop stock aptamil.

Once home we used the aptamil powder as it works out cheaper.

My ds got on great with it - no problems at all.

All that said, my sister used cow and gate for both her children and had no problems with that.

I had a couple of the ready made bottles on stand by but not too many.

Whatever you use please make sure you follow the guidance for making it. The powder isn't sterile so you need to add water at over 70c to kill the bugs.

If you're planning to FF I've heard good things about the perfect prep machine.

I used sma with both. Dd1 seemed to find cow and gate ridiculously filling and it seemed thicker maybe its changed it was a few years ago. I wouldn't use aptimil personally I really dislike their approach to marketing and charging more so people see their product as the best. Its cynical and wrong imo.

It's always best to used the one you can easily get hold of locally. Does your small local shop sell it? This is due to it sometimes being hard to get in bad weather and some babies once on one will prefer that one. Not sure why as the regulations are quit tight as to what they have in them, am amassing slightly different manufacturing process must effect the concitancy.

So local availability should be your main guilding factor. Aptmil is more expensive as its marketed as a premium brand doesn't make it any better. As I said what they have in them is tightly regulated and I'd stay away from formula with added extras anyway as often down the line they have been instructed withdraw these ingredients as they have shown no benefits to babies health. But they are allowed to put them in there and do what they call in product testing as long as they are food grade ingredients. Which is also the reason why I'd stay away from anything but first formula that is suitable until 12 months. All the others aren't regulated as well and contain to much iron.

I started on Aptamil but was forced to switch to Cow and Gate as thy didn't have any in stock in my local supermarket one day. Have stuck with Cow and Gate as it's cheaper!

And for those saying to try and BF and not have it in the house. I tried for four days to breastfeed DD. It was hell as I just couldn't get her to latch on and then when she did, I wasn't producing enough milk for her needs. I was in tears and so much pain. Then, in the early hours of Sunday morning I gave her one of those pre-mixed bottles of Aptamil that I had bought "just in case" and she finished it in seconds! I was so glad I had bought them and have never looked back.