Cows milk free formula milk recommendations please

[Vistana]

Hi!
Having been fobed off again by my midwife I would like to ask on here as someone is more likely to give me an answer.
Although I am planning to breast feed (I am aware that it is recommended not to have formula milk around as it makes it easier to give up - not sure why yet though as its still going to take 30 plus mins by the time I would have to sterilise the bottles (not going to do that until I need them) and let water cool etc)
I want to get in some formula milk but as I don't drink or eat things with cows milk in I want to get one that is either vegan, soya, goats milk or anti allergy but have no idea which one is best to have on standby and the midwife won't answer my question.
Does anyone else on her ff and use any of them and which one or ones you recommend? Thanks

If you are planning to breastfeed you do not need to have formula around. I never have. Its debatable whether it makes it easier to give up (some people on this board will say the opposite) but if you are prepared to give formula without thinking about this decision etc for long enough to go to the supermarket to buy it.. well.......

I think you need to discuss this with your doctor. If your LO needs a dairy free formula (eg neocate) this is provided free of charge on the NHS prescription - it costs £30 a tub so would be pretty expensive to fund this yourself. My niece had this when my cousin wanted to give up at 6 months and because of the cost it was prescribed one tub at a time. However, her LO was infact able to take regular formula, so she didn't need the neocate for very long.

Lots of guidance on internet which say that soya formula should not be used unless specifically advised by doctor and although goats milk formula can be bought online I don't think its officially approved in this country for infants.

Can I ask the reasons for you not wanting to give cows milk to your LO. Of course the best way for them to avoid cows milk is for
you to BF and with sufficient support there is no reason why this would not be possible.

Soya formula is not good tbh. Its heavily contaminated by aluminium, has high levels of sugar added, and there's controversy over the hormone-mimicking effects especially in boys. The Ecologist has this to say.

There is no goats milk formula on sale thats suitable for babies as a sole source of nutrition. There used to be (it was called Nanny Goat) but EU law now prohibits it from being sold as suitable.

Anti-allergenic formulae are very expensive.

Sorry not to be more positive about any of them but tbh if you cannot BF then organic cows' milk formula is almost certainly your best bet, unless there is a genuine medical need for an alternative.

xposts - but basically:

• anti-allergenic - very expensive
• soya - not a good idea
• goats milk - not approved for infants

And no need to have anything on standby. If there is real medical need your GP will prescribe the anti-allergenic formula and you will be able to get it quickly.

I haven't been tested for an allergy but I found that I was sick when I had cows milk and as I haven't drunk or eaten anything with it in since I was at primary school and obviously not when I've been pregnant so would rather not test the theory if its just me or if its something I've passed on / caused my baby to have also.

My main reason for wanting to have a tub or small carton of formula in is I know that there isn't any 24 hour shops that would be open even at 3am on a sunday (as whenever things go wrong ie someone is ill and needs meds etc always seems to happen then) so would have to drive 30 plus mins to the motorway services and hope they have some then drive back with a screaming baby, steralise things etc, as I have no one else I can send out so I'd rather have everything ready if I need it than rely on me being able to breastfeed successfully straight away. Esp as I have read some people found they needed to ff for a short time until breast feeding was established.

Vistana - the hospital will not let you out unless they can see that you can get the baby latched on, so the situation of not having anything to feed the baby at "3am on a sunday" is not going to happen.

If it does and you are worried that the baby is getting dehydrated then you take the baby to the hospital or you call the midwifes on the 24 hour number they will leave you.

The midwifes come and visit every couple of days and if you are concerned about the feeding you can ask them. Babies are not born hungry, their hunger doesn't kick in until around day 3-4 when your milk comes in.

If you need to FF for a short time it would be because the baby was ill, and then it would be unlikely you'd have been let out of hospital in the first place.

I recommend you start another thread entitled "DO any babies NEED to have formula before breastfeeding is established" and see what the response is.

It sounds like it might be more useful for you to have the numbers of any local breastfeeding counsellors saved on your phone, so if you need or want any additional support with breastfeeding at the start you could get it. If you have to pay you could see this as the investment rather than some formula.

Hopefully, breastfeeding will go fine and you will not be worrying about which other milk to give your LO for a while yet.

Hi Vistana. I totally understand your concern but as I understand it (as parent to a child with a cow's milk allergy) there's no evidence of any cow's milk allergy/intolerance being directly inheritable, so if you want to have some emergency formula in the cupboard, just start with a pack of pre-mixed normal formula. There's basically no way that your child will have a dreadful reaction to that stuff if you felt DESPERATE to use it for whatever reason. Like everyone else on here I would encourage you to BF and not to use formula certainly at the beginning, but if having something in the cupboard in case of emergencies makes you feel better, a normal formula will be fine. My DS is very allergic to dairy but has had normal formula a couple of times (this is how we found out about the allergy) and it caused an eczema reaction - so not v nice, but also not horrific. I have no dairy issues so it was not a directly inherited factor. Now we know there's a reaction, I have prescrived hypoallergenic formular (as I'm getting to the point of reducing BFs). FWIW, if I have DC2 I would again keep 1 or 2 packs of premixed normal formula in the cupboard in case of emergencies, rather than trying to get special formula.

I exclusively BF DS for 5 months btw and am still mix feeding now, but still had the emergency cartons of formula just in case - and can totally understand why people want to do this.