Annoyed with the price of formula

[pigletmania]

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.

Thanks G1nger, I will try that this time :)

tiktok some years ago I was doing some research and spoke to a midwife about breastfeeding, and she said they didn't tell women it was cheaper than using formula as one of the pros of choosing to breastfeed.

The impression I got was that it was their policy not to mention this advantage.

Do you know why? Or if this is even a policy?

I guess they also don't really tell you how handy it is.

Skipping the BF vs. FF discussion, just want to say this: I compared a tin of Cow & Gate with Aptamil a few weeks ago, as I was trying out different brands for DS, and the ingredients are completely identical. In fact, the tins are nearly identical as well, just different colours. C&G sells for £7.99 in Tesco, and in most other places where I've seen it. So you can make a quick saving by moving brand.

SMA uses the same ingredients as C&G/Aptamil, but in slightly different amounts.

Aptimil is more expensive because it makes people think that it is better.

C&g and aptamil are made by the same parent company (Danone) the prie difference would be because of the prebiotic ..?

Oh and the nutrient levels are what's required from different 'recommendations' from scientific symposium that companies are required to adhere to...

No, the price difference is because Aptimil has been marketed as a 'premium' product. But unlike, say, premium sausages and basics, the content of formula is so tightly regulated that there is basically no difference in the products. This is obviously a good thing for the health of babies . But buying Aptimil is rather like buying an Abercrombie T-shirt, you buy it because you like the brand, not because it is somehow so much better quality than a t-shirt of half the price.

I found that I had way less cravings when I switched to 'using' my calories on cereal bars, nuts etc., rather than cakes :( even better I lost over 2st. It was great!

I think there's quite a bit of misinformation about the optimal diet while breastfeeding, which really doesn't help anyone tbh.

That's interesting about Aptamil and C&G - we switched to C&G, I think it's a lot thicker than Aptamil, and darker in colour.

But it's certainly cheaper. I'm going to try Hipp Organic next (but breastfeeding is getting easier, so hopefully won't be using formula too much!)

AThing, no idea why a midwife would not be allowed to mention this, sorry - never heard of this policy before, myself.

Not read all the thread but jut to say I'm sure Boots DID sell own brand formula at one stage when mine were small (between 18 and 12yrs ago)

A few 'own brands' have been tried, over the years, IIRC, but it's a very hard market to break into, apparently.

In the US, the own brands are more common, sell for a much lower price, are identical to the heavily-branded types....but they still sell in far smaller quantities.

completely agree - it's £9.97 here for aptimil. I mix fed dtds for 6.5 months but with a 4yo too it was too much. Looking forward to cows milk at 12months! We tried a cheaper brand but there was 100g less in the pack and the scoop was bigger so it was a false economy (plus it smelt vile and I felt guilty giving to the girls - although they didn't mind!)

My friend's dd has a dairy allergy so all formula is on prescrption (I'm actually slightly jealous but it would save me £60 a month!)