Choosing Milk Formula

[RebekahJ]

Hello everyone,
How did you decide on which brand of milk formula to give your baby?
I’m finding it really hard and cannot decide between Aptamil, SMA or HIPP.

Actually, I see merit in Hipp as it’s not owned by Nestle/Danone and therefore has probably done less to promote formula unethically in the developing world.

I went with cow and gate as it’s what ds1 was given in hospital and I didn’t want to change him onto a different one and upset his tummy. Plus it is cheaper than aptimil and there’s always lots of it in stock at my nearest supermarket. Have been very happy with it and also went on to use it with ds2. They are all pretty similar so I would really just choose whichever one you can easily get hold of.

I work in marketing and people are taken in by the Aptamil marketing (’sciency’) and price point and think it’s better.

Aptimal here, mainly because they did those little bottles of prepared formula with teats which were a god send in the early days. It's also widely available so I know I can pop into almost any shop if I'm caught short and they'll have it. Don't bother with any of the fancy plus type ones (or the hungry baby ones). Most of those are cons.

@RebekahJ they will say on the packaging whether they are suitable from birth - some say 6 months+.

We started with SMA as they did the little bottles. But moved onto Hipp with agreed with DD much better. It’s harder to find so can be a pain but our local sainsburys always had it. They used to do little cartons too which were great for travelling (but annoying to open!)

They are basically all the same so we chose Hipp (as it's organic) and then when it was introduced Kendamil, as made in the UK and better for environmental reasons.

The NHS advice is clear on what to give in terms of "stage" marketing shit.

You give stage 1 (newborn) formula up to a year, then full fat cows milk (exception is any baby specific medical advice of course, such as if you're on goat milk or one of the special diet Powdered ones you can only get on prescription).

There is no medical need for normal babies To go onto stage 2 (invented so companies could market formula). Most babies don't need the hungry baby shite (it just clogs them up as harder to digest, resulting in babies who end up consuming less milk.. perpetual cycle of unhappy baby)..

Seriously, there is NO confusion or ambiguity here. Do what the fucking NHS says to!

No ifs. No buts. Just listen to the unbiased clinical NHS advice (layering any baby specific medical advice alongside that ofc).

Any other course of action is mental.

You should not even be trusting randoms like us on the internet on this. Our information might be inaccurately understood or written, out of date or maliciously intended!

Get thee to the proper impartial medical advice, basically.

And ffs don't call the aptamil call centre

If you are black or Indian and have either a trait or severe vitamin deficiencies (Usually iron / vitamin D), or have reflux then ask your GP for advice. Formulas are only equal if your baby is 100% healthy.

I used SMA with my LO purely because when I the exact same question on here the general consensus was that formula is much the same across the brands, someone had already given me a tin of SMA, and I just continued using it.

I don't think there much difference with the formula for newborns/up to 6 months, but anecdotally I have of babies who have preferred or reacted better to a different brand than the one they were started on.

I chose Kendamil because it’s palm oil free and is whole milk nutrients rather than semi skimmed. And my daughter is growing well on it and her hair is in amazing condition.

Look at what is available locally and at the cheapest price so of you run low you know you can easily get the same one! Also a brand where it is easy to get the single cartons for out and about ease. I found Cow and gate good last time as from 6 months Asda did an offer where it was much cheaper to buy 2 together than individually.

I decided on HiPP as it is organic and was the only one that didn’t smell or taste horrific to me

The others were vile

DC1 was given nutriprem milk in the NICU and came home still on that formula. When he was able to switch to normal formula we used cow and gate as that's who made the nutriprem.

DC2 was straight to normal cow and gate.

The small ready made bottles with teats were ideal in the early days and our hospital still provided them until we were discharged. The midwife was shocked that I'd brought my own.

Not on your list but we found Cow & Gate to be the best.

Hipp does seem to smell less. We used a few brands for top-ups in the first few weeks and it was definitely the least smelly! Aptamil, which they gave us in the hospital, made me gag. But DD didn't seem to care. We just stuck with Hipp when needed.

@ANiceLuxury sorry but you’ve been woefully misinformed (hardly surprising from an Aptimil rep)- aptimil has no more nutrients than any other brand of formula.
@Bouncer4me your daughters hair being in amazing condition has nothing whatsoever to do the the formula she drinks, I’m afraid. She must just have naturally beautiful hair (lucky her!)

OP formula is all nutritionally exactly the same. Choose the cheapest/most readily available (Aldi do an own brand one which I believe is the cheapest).

I used Hipp as it seemed to settle DS’s tummy more than the others. As far as I’m aware the stage+ milks are an advertising ploy.

I used C&G with both of mine and it was easily available and they had no problems with it.

Both have turned out fine with no nutritional issues and are a healthy BMI

Both of mine had cow & gate first milk up to 12 months old. Then normal cows milk. It was cheaper than others and always in stock in my local supermarket. Both dc are absolutely fine.

I started with Aptimil but it gave DS terrible tummy issues in his first few weeks, so we switched to Hipp and haven't looked back since. Also using it with second DC. I tasted both and Hipp is much nicer . Ive not tasted SMA but have heard it's disgusting

I know you're not asking about bottles but if you're stuck in a similar predicament, I'd recommend MAM 100%

SMA...because my DH brought it back from the shop! But with DD2, we have switched a couple times due to what was in stock in nearest shop (v rural) and she’s had cow and gate, aptamil and mamia with no issue. From a personal pov I found aptamil weirdly foamy when making it up....that’s literally the only difference!

They're all the same.

We went with Sainsburys own brand as it was cheap.

We had planned to use Aldi’s mamia formula so bought aptamil ready made for hospital and first few days as they’re supposed to be the most similar. The aldi one was foamier and made my daughter sick every time she had it, whereas aptamil was thicker so we stuck with that. When aptamil changed their recipe in November it made my daughter incredibly poorly (pooing 10 x per day) so we switched to cow and gate - we stocked up enough to see her through the rest of her time on formula as C&G is also changing.

Have a look at www.firststepsnutrition.org/ for independent information about the different formula milks - not sponsored by any of the formula companies. As others have said the industry is so heavily regulated they're all very similar.