formula brands and follow on

[Nettee]

My ds is 9 months and I am trying to introduce formula and bottles. He is good at drinking apple juice from a cup or a bottle but very rarely will take any formula. I wonder if he doesn't like the taste and might it help trying some other brands? has anyone found this? I am also wondering whether to use first milk or follow on milk at this age. Does anyone have any information on which is better or what the difference is?

follow-on is marleting ploy. i wouldnt bother lol.

can i ask why you are wanting to introduce formula now? its so close to the 12month mark when you can give cows milk as a drink, that i am just wondering. not dissing your choice.

if you are going to switch to formula then give it in a cup.

well at 12 months I am going back to work and I want not to be worried about ds not eating anything all day. I suppose he will be eating lots of solid food but I work really long days or nights and someone else is going to have to put him to bed and get him up in the morning. I am still feeding him to sleep and if he would do this with a bottle it would make it easier. prob wouldn't go to sleep with a cup. I suppose that is a bad habit anyway but it works.

I am just getting him used to the idea this month and then am going to start weaning him off the breast next month so that I have a month spare. I don't want to go cold turkey at 12 months and get mastitis.

I thought it wasn't cheaper because the scoop size if different.

I'd be tempted to go straight to cow's milk and cups (particularly if you're doing a slow introduction, and not really offering it regularly for another month or two). Or at least formula and cups. Don't introduce a bottle now, you'll just have to get him off it later!

And as you say, by 12 months, he may well be eating loads. Is he not impressed by food at the moment?

Will you be doing lots of long days in a row? If not, you can easily (if you like) keep breastfeeding now and then, I think.

At any rate, you can afford to be mellow about these things, you have loads of time. And as for stopping bf, I think cutting out one feed per week is safe, so it shouldn't take more than a month or so ...

(Follow on is indeed a marketing scam, and it often causes constipation. I would not bother with it.)

Thank you NQC. ds does enjoy his solids which is fine but aren't they meant to have 20 oz of milk per day as well at 1 yr? The lots of days in a row thing should be ok - three at the most. maybe as you suggest I should chill a bit and introduce cows milk towards the end of the year and continue bf as well beyond the year. I don't know if he would like the taste any better than he does the formula though - will have to experiment. So many decisions. I do think I need a bed time routine that does not involve bf though - He is not bad a going to sleep on his own - maybe I should start doing that more often

Nettee, I don't remember what the recommended amount is, but whatever it is, it means that much or equivalent, including cheese, yogurt etc. And if he has less than the recommended amount for a few weeks, that won't do him any harm, he'll make it up.

At a year, breastfeeding is thoroughly established, and you could go to feeding once a day, or whatever's convenient.

In your situation, I'd probably offer cow's milk in a cup or beaker, starting now, or in a month or whatever, and let him try it when he wants. Small drinks of cow's milk at this age aren't going to be a problem, it just can't be his main beverage now.

you could put him straight on cow's milk if he doesn't have any dairy issues .. I put DD on cow's milk at 10.5 months .. in Australia the guidelines are 9 months for cow's milk

My dd was having goat's milk from 9 months - but it's more digestible than cows milk. If you do want to use formula, I have taste tested all the major brands. SMA, C&G, Farley's all tasted very bitter and chemical ridden - really foul. Aptimil and Hipp Organic both tasted quite nice - sweet and creamy with no chemical taste. So, if I were going to use formula again, I would use either of these. Cows milk tastes much nicer than any of the first three, much less sweet than the last two.

I stopped BFing DD at 12 months she was down to 2 feeds a day by then morning and night. At bedtime she was only having a tiny feed then though so we would give her a cup of cows milk instead of a BF. For a few weeks she would only have a few sips then have a BF. But then she got the hang of it and had her beaker of milk. Morning feed she didn't wake one morning and asked for it so I never offered just gave her a beaker of milk when she did wake. She's so funny now she doesn't function until she has had her first beaker of milk in the morning.

I wouldn't bother with the follow on milk either, if you can persevere with the beaker, I used a different colour to juice/water beakers so she associated them with milk. Let him play with it have a few sips but keep up the BFing if you can. I don't know about formula types cos I never used it I wouldn't bother at 9 months plus either.

I dropped a feed every 2 weeks and my boobs were fine.

Thank you - very useful information.

look at this

maybe I will go for cows milk after all - save me a fortune.....

In the paper last week Supernanny was advising a mother who wanted to stop BFing and she said that cows milk should not be given to babies under 2 and that the mother should give formula or follow on milk until the age of 2.

Was surprised as I thought it was cows milk from 1 (which is what I've read etc)

"It is important to wait until your baby is one year old, as cows' milk doesn't contain sufficient iron to recommend its use before then. Also, after the first six months of breastfeeding, breastmilk is not a good source of iron, so breastfeeding mums should make sure that weaning foods contain plenty of iron" here

so logically cows milk would be no worse than formula as an alternative to breast feeding....

Hmm, I'm not sure about that, about breastmilk and iron. From what I've heard, breastmilk doesn't contain that much iron, but the iron it does have is very well absorbed by the gut, as it's perfectly tailored for babies.

I have a strong antipathy to giving the formula companies any money, so if I had needed to give some sort of milk late in the first year, I probably would have gone for full-fat organic cow's milk, particularly if it wasn't going to be the baby's main drink.

the iron in formula is a con

.. iron is difficult to absorb in that format and is best obtained from a full and varied diet .. which is the same for fully breast-fed and fully formula-fed children after the age of 6 months

I'd go for cows' milk. Probably organic. Much much easier and I can't see the problems, myself.

Is 'follow on milk' the same as 'hungrier baby milk'? If it is my HV explained the difference to me just last week. She said - if you leave a bottle of full fat cows milk on the windowsill for 3 days the milk will separate. You will get a thick yogurty bit and a thin straw coloured bit. The normal formula is made of the thin straw coloured bit and the hungrier baby milk is made from the thick bit. Both have the same amount of calories. Its just that the thick bit sits in the stomach longer and is harder to digest. Which is why they don't recommend it for young babies. Over 6 months is fine if you have a particuarly hungry baby, or to give as a bedtime bottle to help push them through the night. She said it is a marketing ploy so they can use up the 'thick bit'.

Aptamil is meant to be the closest formula to breast milk so I am told. Don't know if that is true.

peach, follow on is iron-supplemented formula, and it's marketed for babies over 6 months. They don't have to have it, and you don't have to buy it unless you want to make extra profits for the manufacturers!

Your HV was trying to explain the difference between 1st and 2nd stage milks, both intended for babies from birth, but 2nd stage is more usually marketed for 'hungrier' babies, because, as she says, it takes longer for the baby's system to metabolise it.

The difference is in the protein component. 2nd stage is casein dominant (the 'curds', which is the bit cheese is made of, when you are making cheese from animal milks) and 1st stage is whey dominant.

Aptamil markets itself as closer to breastmilk, because of the type of additives in it. They have managed to market this notion very successfully to healthcare professionals. That's why you keep hearing it.

It may be true - but if it is, it is true in the sense that Potters Bar is closer to the North Pole than London.

Ah, you learn something new every day ...