...to choose follow on milk for this reason?

[Judgementdayishere]

Our daughter is 5 months now, weaning well (under paed advice for reflux) onto three purées and four bottles a day, plus a night feed. Aside from the reflux she is healthy and gaining weight well. Horrific napper but sleeps 6.30-6.30 with one or two small night feeds. FF from birth.

My OH brought something up the other day; MIL works for a large supermarket and thus gets 25% discount. We obviously don’t use this to buy DD’s milk atm as discounts don’t apply to first milk, but they may do to follow on milk which we could then use from 6 months.

My question is; are follow on milks nutritionally the same as first milks? Are they in some way ‘bad’ for babies? Anyone had any experience of using them and could pass on their wisdom?

Would we be terrible parents to transition onto FOM for financial reasons? We’re not poor, but I am a teacher and he is self employed, living in a very pricey area so every little helps.

We would of course only choose this IF the milks were nutritionally the same and we wouldn’t be causing our DD any problems. She’s on HiPP atm, and we would stay with this brand for continuity.

Follow on milks were invented by formula companies so that they would have a product they are allowed to promote and get their branding known.
They are pretty much the same as the first infant formula in all but name.

So they’re identical, but under different names?

As far as I remember from the days I used to work in HVing (quite a few years back) there is absolutely no need to introduce follow on milks. First milks are the closest formulation to Breastmilk and baby’s can stay on them until you wean off milk for good, or if you decide to switch to cows milk as their main milk source after 12 months

I've worked for 2 major supermarkets and the discount at both was 15% or less. I'm curious as to where she works

From what I understand it's as above. A product with a few extra vitamins which the companies can promote so I don't think youd have unreasonable to change. I don't think its beneficial or necessary but thats not the same as detrimental... I thought you were doing it for the boots points and I would still think that is reasonable!

Use follow on milk if you must but remember from 1 she can have normal cows milk. Just don’t be sucked into using follow on milk until the companies suggest.

I looked into this as had always been told there was no need to go to follow on milk. The quantities in both first milk and follow on are pretty much the same except there is more iron in follow on milk.
We switched to follow on milk at about 9months old when I realised that we could buy it cheaper (twins so we were getting through 2+ tubs a week!) and all was fine :)

Ok, so it wouldn’t be harming her/upsetting her tummy/disrupting her sleep? Poor girl needs her sleep, given that she’s the Queen of the Crap Naps?

Unicorn, it’s Sainsbury - but through a combination of shop takeovers, old contracts etc she’s worked there for decades and somehow gets a massive discount.

I switched to follow on milk for a similar reason - I can earn Boots points on it. DD has been absolutely fine.

I switched to follow on around 9 months too due to the cheaper price and the fact you could get special offers on it

My health visitor told me/suggested not to bother changing to follow on milk as it's pretty much the same anyway! I would go for it, like you say every little helps.

There is no real difference in follow on milk compared to first infant formula so usually no need to swap but doesn't mean you shouldn't if you're going to get a discount on it. I know plenty of people who swapped because they could collect advantage card points etc so if I were you I definitely would if I could get it cheaper.

Follow on milk is useful as it has more iron. So no problem what so ever OP. The iron will be good as it won't all depend on her eating then.

Follow is not necessary neither is it a bad thing from six months as it’s virtually the same.

*follow on

I was told by the health visitor that we didn’t need to change to follow on milk as the first one was the same but as you can get advantage or clubcard points on follow on stuff as well as the odd deal I pushed her to explain why I couldn’t change and she didn’t have a reason. I also spent time looking at the ingredients/vitamins/nutrients and couldn’t see a difference so I changed over.

Personally I never bothered with follow on milks, DS stayed on first formula (SMA Gold) until he was old enough to drink cow's milk. But I don't think there's any real reason not to swap onto them if that's what suits you.

Its suitable from 6 months.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/types-of-infant-formula/#follow-on-formula

I think some might have more added sugar so do check. And move onto cows milk at 1. Don’t keep wasting money on it after that.

Didn’t that documentary a few years ago (Panarama? Something like that...) disclose that they are nearly identical bar a little but of added iron in the 6 months+ one, and created just so shops and companies can promote the 6M+ one, because it’s illegal to promote newborn formula

I combo fed but used the 6M+ stuff because you could sometimes get it on 3 for 2, or get points when it wasn’t

We stayed with first formula milk til DS was one then switched to cows milk

If she is under a pediatrician for reflux, has she not been prescribed specific milk or have they not suggested an alternative to normal formula? Personally, I'd be pushing this instead of looking at follow on milk.

Both my boys had reflux. We weaned early under medical advice. By 6 months they were both on 3 meals a day and about 2 bottles. For how much we were using, we just continued with reflux milk until a year and then moved onto cows milk.

We’ve tried AR milk but it made her too constipated to be worth the change, then Carobel with normal milk which simply made the upchuck thicker. Hypo milk didn’t make a difference either so paed concluded that it’s not an allergy, just severe reflux that should improve once she starts dropping bottles as weaning is established.

Thanks for all the advice! I think I’ll photograph the back of a box of follow on milk and double check the ingredients, and if they’re comparable try to transition her over.

I guess there should be no issues swapping from FOM to cows’ milk at 1? I mean, no additional issues that wouldn’t also exist when swapping from first milk to cows’?

Has MIL checked that she can use her discount to buy your formula? Staff discounts presumably come with some restrictions of use and it's going to be fairly obvious that any formula milk purchase is not for herself.

Follow on mills tend to be casein based rather than whey based, basically the same but a slightly different milk protein. Casein can be harder to digest, but it depends on your baby. There is no harm in trying if you want to. You can always switch back.