To be outraged at this price increase?

[Pinkcat231]

I was reading an article the other day about baby formula prices and how families struggle to afford it then today I have noticed several shops have increased the price of all the Aptamil products.

I assume other brands will follow and it just seems outrageous with the current crisis and so many people getting less or no pay.

A lot of companies seem to be cashing in on the fact supplies are running low of certain items so AIBU to think Aptamil have jumped on that bandwagon or is this an innocent, albeit poorly timed, price increase in line with inflation?

MorrisZapp Eh? Why was my post so funny. I'm not putting any moral judgement on formula but there are very few things which a baby (or anyone) is entirely reliant on. If clothes become more expensive all of a sudden then we can make do with what we have or find a cheaper supplier. If your baby needs formula and that suddenly becomes prohibitively more expensive then yes, you are at the mercy of the provider. Not sure what's so hilarious about that.

Or is it that 83% of expectant mothers tell their midwife that they plan to breastfeed, to get her off their back?

Well, 81% of mothers initiate breastfeeding, so the percentage who lie about their intentions seems to be pretty low.

Lol no worries! I hated vegetables too until later in my teenage years so I'm trusting the human maturation process to do this task. Within reason, I dont care what he eats. I've given enough energy to the madness, what other people consume will never have the power to hurt me again.

Ps he eats mussels!

With respect dappled, your desire to have expectant mothers told that ff puts them at the mercy of profit driven companies sounds very far from morally neutral, and in fact very much like a huge moral stick to beat them with. Most people old enough to be having a baby are fully aware of the concept of shops and paying for stuff.

Ok. Well it wasnt my intention. But people do seem to be surprised by a formula company hiking up prices at the moment. I'm amazed anyone is surprised by it and I can't see why they would be surprised unless they hadn't ever considered how it would be to be reliant on a company who have no driver other than profit. So I don't think it is something a lot of people consider.

So it’s ok for people to have a moan about the cost of groceries going up and to wonder why, but definitely not ok for OP to moan about the rising cost of formula?! Because she should be breastfeeding anyway?? Let’s face it that’s what some posters are clearly saying. There’s definitely an element of “tough shit OP you made a crap choice now suck it up”.

Bloody hell OP is talking about feeding her baby here not the price of fags or booze!!

We are going to see significant price rises across a lot of products. Worldwide supply chains are a mess. Food supply chains were already too complex, too destructive and too fragile. The pressure of labour disruption, of increased costs of production and fewer people per square metre in manufacturing, logistics disruption and differing shopping patterns are likely to cause ongoing issues over the coming months. I don’t think we’ve even seen the start of it yet.

Moan away! Nobody's saying not to. But the question that started this thread was shock and surprise that formula prices were rising even within the context of general rises in food prices.

It's the undercurrent of surprise that a formula company would hold itself to a different standard and choose to keep prices lower in order to help families that I'm trying to address. Why would anyone think Aptamil care about their customers before their profit margins anymore than Cadbury's do?

It might also be worth adding that the directors have a legal duty to act in the best interests of the company. If those interests conflict with the interests of the customers then legally the customers must take second place.

YANBU. The lack of regulation of the formula prices is shocking.
I've started combi feeding (bf at home, ff at the nursery). The baby is intolerant to cow's milk protein and I need to buy a rice based formula.
Prices vary depending on the pharmacy (from 20 to 38€ the can) and there are country wide shortages from time to time. I can imagine the stress that that can cause to some parents. I'm building up a breastmilk stash just in case.

There absolutely should be price controls on formula milk. That or an unbranded formula milk produced by a not-for-profit company. It would also help UK dairy farmers.

YABU

There absolutely should be price controls on formula milk. That or an unbranded formula milk produced by a not-for-profit company. It would also help UK dairy farmers.

You'd need both and more. Because if you price fix, people get out of production. Or move to other markets (the majority world) or skimp on quality (which with the post-Brexit Tories I can see happening). And a non-profit. How exactly would that work? A publicly run non-profit? Having eaten beef in cans from the beef mountain in the 80s I can cheerfully tell you no one wants the government stuff. I was only eating it because I worked with ex-offenders and it was off loaded on us.

Haven't RTFT, but Aptamil is made by a French company in New Zealand, so there could be several factors affecting the price. The sinking value of the pound due to Brexit probably has something to do with it.

I work and volunteer in infant feeding. Aptamil have seen a 25% decrease in sales recently and are doing all sorts of dodgy and unethical (and illegal in 2 cases) stuff to boost their profits.
Formula costs around £2-3 per tub to manufacture. Everything else is just marketing and profit for the company, it’s awful.

They can’t keep production up for cheese etc. Baby milk made in same factory

I have checked out of interest. It’s increased £1 since I had my daughter 8 years ago. That’s far from unreasonable.

Really? This is from 2016

www.thesun.co.uk/living/2093446/parents-angry-over-10-aptamil-baby-milk-price-rise-but-it-denies-its-anything-to-do-with-brexit/

And here from 2018 www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-5917507/Parents-accuse-Aptamil-Infant-shrinking-pack-900g-800g-price-same.html

Was just about to post about the tubs dropping from 900g to 800g with no price change! And 900g seems an odd quantity to start with - wouldn't be surprised if the tubs were 1kg 8 years ago.

Oh god MrsTerryPratchett I just got a flashback there to the tins of EU stewing steak that we used to get for free in the 90s (deprived area). Bleurgh...if it's the same ones they had a layer of fat on the top

I don't remember EU tinned steak but I do remember receiving a small portion of the EU butter mountain in the mid 1980s, when we needed help as a striking miner's family.

We also got donations from miners welfare in West Germany and were introduced to products reminiscent of Aldi and Lidl decades before the rest of the country.

Bleurgh...if it's the same ones they had a layer of fat on the top

Yes, those ones. No name type tins before value brands were a thing. And yes, 'deprived' areas because go knows, no one else would put up with them.

I'm so glad someone else had to eat that muck.

@fascinated - maybe it’s not any mothers who need lectures. It’s our breasts so maybe we should be allowed to exercise our choice what to do with them.

Lol @Lifeisgenerallyfun - let’s hope you’re right that breastfeeding does magically solve lack of empathy in the babies of the breastpo. I had a similar experience to you with being woken up every hour while being in the HDU to try to unsuccessfully establish breastfeeding. The worst was when I was very ill drifting in and out of sleep getting a blood transfusion while being approached intermittently by a “lactation consultant” ho appeared to have no qualifications in anything or suggestions as to how to stop my hungry baby screaming or getting her to feed. I too felt like a failure when I should have been giving poor dd1 a bottle of formula to chug.

In my second pregnancy I had a private ob/gyn and midwives. He explained breastfeeding made no difference and not to stress myself. I wish I had had that first time round.

We never got butter. Was that fancier or less fancy?