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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

Annoyed with the price of formula

212 replies

pigletmania · 07/06/2012 22:27

I am mixed feeding, after a rocky start bf and ds not latching found myself having to express and supplement with formula. The formula is over 10 pounds a tin, and the tin is never full up. This is an essential product if a mum is not able to bf, or chooses not to. There should be an upper limit on price, and formula should be unbranded.

OP posts:
OhNoMyFanjo · 08/06/2012 07:55

Well have to say you do get help it's called child benefit. Use my supermarket.com and it will tell you tge cheapest prices closest to you, make sure you have the loyalty cards for offers and points. I have a co-op close to me and it is more expensive than other shops in lots of ways.

strawberrypenguin · 08/06/2012 08:01

I agree formula is horribly expensive I use cow and gate it's 7.99 a tin and a tin lasts roughly a week. Not sure what can be done about it though, obviously the companies need to make profit or they wouldn't produce it.
To whichever poster it was who decreed I could have bf if I tried harder Angry I tried to bf for over 2 weeks my DS refused to latch and he had unstable glucose levels as I had had gestational diabetes so without formula he would have been in a whole heap of trouble.

EauRouge · 08/06/2012 08:06

Thanks goody :)

GnocchiNineDoors · 08/06/2012 08:08

I dont mind paying ten pound a tin for a weeks worth of food for dd. What I do mind is how much of that is ear marked for marketing. If it inly covered costs, research and a little bit of profit, then no complaints from me.

NichyNoo · 08/06/2012 08:09

It is around 19-20 euros per tub in Belgium....Brits over here tend to bulk buy in the UK as it is so much cheaper there.

soveryhard · 08/06/2012 08:16

Noel you are referring to me - onlynyou are misquoting me.

I did not mention trying harder - I mentioned better education.

I also said where bf can't happen - a medical indicator should male formula cheaper.

Chubfuddler · 08/06/2012 08:17

Isn't this what child benefit is for? I agree for a significant proportion of parents, FFing is a choice not a necessity. It's a choice they are entitled to make of course, but not one that should be subsidised.

soveryhard · 08/06/2012 08:17

But as usual on these sorta of threads - why read posts properly when you can get on your high horse instead.

ceeveebee · 08/06/2012 08:20

As far as I understand it, formula companies cannot carry out price promotions (3 for 2 etc) on formula milk for

Finallygotaroundtoit · 08/06/2012 08:21

Goody - can't see anything from your link.

There are very few changes to formula and very,very little research. It sells at an artificially high price anyway - why would they bother Hmm?

Where do you get '100 changes per year' and 'constant research' from?

Are you referring to buying cheaper cow's milk from a different source to maximise profits?

Finallygotaroundtoit · 08/06/2012 08:22

Cee - they can compete on price as long as it's a permanent reduction.

But again why bother when it sells well at a high price?

rookanga · 08/06/2012 08:24

ceeveebee

They can compete on price as much as they like, they just cant do it in a temporary way.

If Aptimil say tomorrow, our tins now cost £3, then that isnt a problem. If they say 'special offer, should be £10, and at the moment it is £3', that is a problem.

ceeveebee · 08/06/2012 08:25

Oh and does anyone know whether formula is funded for those families where lactating mother is not around eg foster, adoption, death (I am think of the sad case I read about where a mother of triplets died shortly after giving birth. Unless the father is able to access a milk bank this cost must be crippling. In fact when one of my friends was raising funds for this man she approached HIPP and asked if they would donate formula milk but they said they couldn't due to the regulations)

ceeveebee · 08/06/2012 08:26

Oh and thanks for previous responses, I was typing my next post!

YouBrokeMySmoulder · 08/06/2012 08:29

I think it is one of those things that if you intend to ff should be factored in when you decide to have a child tbh. If you hadn't intended to ff I can see the price is shocking but it is what it is. I think when we had a small baby we were a lot better off then we are now with school aged.

SarryB · 08/06/2012 08:30

soveryhard - are you trying to be annoying?

FF is not always a choice. A close friend developed breast cancer during pregnancy, she can't BF due to treatment. Formula is not a choice for her.

It's not really a choice for me either. If I didn't FF (or at least supplement my 1 breast feed a day) my baby wouldn't survive. He flat out refuses to feed from me sometimes, and not only is that potentially bad for him (if there was no formula alternative), it's also very bed for my mental health.

I don't think formula is that expensive - £10 a week is not much to feed a person.

ceeveebee · 08/06/2012 08:32

Hmm. So does government think that a temporary reduction/promotional price would encourage mothers to ff, whereas a permenent reduction wouldn't? That seems counter intuitive to me.

soveryhard · 08/06/2012 08:36

And in both those cases there would be a clear medical indicator - which as I said twice now I think should mean cheaper cheaper formulas for mothers who cannot breast feed.

Which if you read my posts through - you would hbe read the first or indeed second time I suggested it.

Tangointhenight · 08/06/2012 08:37

I think midwives and HVs nave some sort of commission on Aptimil! And surprise surprise the one supposedly closest to breast just happens to be the most expensive. I was genuinely unable to BF for more than 6 weeks and felt guilted into buying aptimil, when she was 5 months I caught myself on, ditched aptimil and bought Hipp organic, which is only £7.40 ish in Asda!! At 6 months I moved her to Hipp organic follow on which is £6 and was only £5 in their baby event!!!

If I have another DC I will be breastfeeding hopefully, but if it doesn't work out I will definitely be using Hipp again....its Organic too which I like and smelled so much more pleasant than aptimil!!

Only thing about Hipp is that you will need to buy one of those airtight jars or something similar as it comes in foil bags inside a cardboard box!

rookanga · 08/06/2012 08:38

Its so that people don't get stuck in an unaffordable situation by acting on the basis of a temporary price reduction, because once you have reduced supply of stopped bf entirely it can be very difficult to go back to full breastfeeding.
That is also the basis of the formula companies tactic of handing out free samples (in places where they are allowed to do that).

StealthPolarBear · 08/06/2012 08:39

"Finallygotaroundtoit Fri 08-Jun-12 07:03:24
Boots used to do their own brand - I presume they stopped cos it didn't sell well.

The price is high to pay for all the advertising that people keep saying they need "

And then on the other hand when complaints are made about infant formula advertising, people say they feed their baby what they think is best, and are not in the slightest bit influenced by adverts.

OP, I agree, if all the formula companies got together and swapped notes to come up with one single formula that was least processed, organic and "best" (I have no idea what that would be, but the men and women in white coats should :o) and then agreed to sell it without free cows, polar bears and pens at a permanent low price (maybe linked to the price of skimmed milk) they would be the good guys.

moonbells · 08/06/2012 08:39

I am Shock at the price now. I was a mixed feeder and tried everything to bf but after about 4 months I realised I was flogging a dead horse. I had no idea initially what formula to buy (other than for the first 6 weeks it should be the sterile UHT sort) and so plumped for SMA. Someone told me that Aptamil is seen as posher, SMA as not so posh! I just figured that since I was fed on SMA then there was a good chance DS wouldn't react to it, and he didn't. It was a shade under £7 a tin back then (2008).

What annoyed me was that because of the stringent rules, you couldn't count formula in a 'spend over £50 and get xxx' offer. Bah. As if someone who has to fork out that kind of cash wouldn't like to get a little extra help!

You can get it at Costco. Not sure on how much less it is, though.

StealthPolarBear · 08/06/2012 08:40

Oh and to the people saying why shouldn't companies profit from food products - this is fairly unique, being the only source of nutritiion for a very vulnerable individual for 6 months. If the price of bananas becomes affordable, you buy other fruit. If the price of formula becomes unaffordable, either the family suffers or the baby and that isn't OK.

StealthPolarBear · 08/06/2012 08:41

"other than for the first 6 weeks it should be the sterile UHT sort"
Is that right? Do you mean the cartons rather than tubs of powder? I had no idea

smokinaces · 08/06/2012 08:43

I can't believe how much it has gone up, I used to feed ds1 for five pounds a carton in 2006/7.

The cheapest back then was farleys. Which they then rebranded, upped the price from 4.50 a carton to seven pounds and promptly lost the market completely. No Heinz formula exists bow afaik, nurture wasn't bought.