To ask which formula is 'best'?

[junglebookisthebest]

When needed I have bought cartons of hip organic formula for my baby as it was both cheaper and I felt it was 'better' as it was organic and a smaller brand.
It looks like they have discontinued the small cartons or all my local supermarkets have stopped stocking as there may not be demand.
The 3 brands that still seem to do the small cartons are aptamil, cow & gate and sma. I'd like to avoid the ones that have a bad reputation ethically for promoting formula over bf in poorer countries - or can I not avoid it if I need to choose one of these 3 brands.
Any advice on which brand to choose? Thanks

Aptamil and cow and gate are made by the same company. They're all as bad as each other tbh

Isn't it all made to the same formula and thus all basically the same stuff?

Theyre all the same really.

Sorry, just realised you were asking best as in ethical, not best formula.

Aptimal and cow and gate are the same company.

Well SMA is Nestle whose conduct in developing countries is well documented.

You'd need to do some digging about Milupa. I would imagine they'll be much the same if they sell formula in developing countries - it's all about the shareholders.

They're all roughly the same, in terms of nutritional content and in terms of how they have been promoted abroad.

I'd try all three and pick whichever one your baby prefers and which you can get easily. Sometimes they don't get along with one brand and prefer another.
Cartons have a reasonable shelf life - just stock up when you're in a shop that sells them if you want to stick to hipp

Have you tried Boots for the hipp cartons?

Thanks - done a bit of digging and nestle is sma and Danone is aptimil and cow & gate. To be fair am not sure if the hipp one was any better - maybe their 'marketing' had worked on me.
Sounds like they are all pretty rubbish ethically then but we like to have a few cartons in the house for convenience so I will probably buy on price.
Thanks for tip about boots - there is one next to tesco but it's very small but might just be lucky...

Years ago I worked for one of the companies mentioned above. They're literally all the same by law, the difference is all marketing.

Go with whatever is most readily available to you, as more damage is done by switching formulae than settling on the 'wrong' one.

Danone have done things pretty much as unethical as Nestle, so I don't either can win on moral grounds.

By damage I just mean discomfort for the baby, nothing long-term! That wasn't meant to sound scary :P

My midwife said aptamil and cow & gate are the same company and pretty much the same formula. I use Cow & Gate as it's easy to get hold of near me.

I use Cow & Gate, as much as they're all very similar DD seemed to prefer it to Aptamil, SMA or Hipp.

I used Aptamil as that's what they used in SCBU. I did try Cow and Gate but ds was very unsettled and constipated on it so we switched back to Aptamil and all was fine. Yes might be the same company but not sure they're the same product tbh.

Sonders - if they're all the same then why would changing formula cause the baby any problems?

I think they're nutritionally the same but the exact ingredients vary.

I always used cow and gate. It used to be significantly cheaper than aptimil, and I didn't fancy SMA for some reason.

People saying they're all the same, does that mean they all contain palm oil? I got a shock when I read the bottle of my nephew's formula and had always assumed that if I ever need to formula feed I'd just find a different brand to avoid it. I thought palm oil was a huge no-no, ethically?

Hipp has recently had a bit of a distribution issue but I think it is resolved now. When we switched from bf we went to Hipp.

Not hugely relevant but I went to a child health forum a few months ago where I tried aptamil and sma, and if given the choice I'd be okay drinking aptamil, but would rather burn my tongue off than drink sma 🤢

Thanks for the tip about boots - they had 6 cartons of hipp which is about the amount I like to have in the cupboard.
I'm not doing a full switch to formula - just handy if I need to leave baby with dad or grandparents, or as a chilled drink from the fridge in this heat...
I will keep a lookout every time in a supermarket and hopefully they will start reappearing again. Now off to Google and double check who owns hipp - hope it's not bloody nestle or danone after all!