1st Timer needs advise re: best formula to use

[SpringChicken]

Sorry, i know there have probably been hundreds of threads about this already but i didn't look!

I am expected our first baby in July - have decided that i will be bottle feeding the baby but am a bit unsure of the for's and against's with different type's of milk.

I know there are lots of options, SMA, Cow & Gate etc etc but just wondered how you go about choosing which formula to use?

Any idea's welcome

Thanks

I think all formulas are pretty much the same stuff just made by different companies. However, some have probiotics and EFAs (essential fatty acids) in the mix which may be helpful to the developing baby. I gave my baby formula alongside breastfeeding and I tended to choose those ones, though I have to admit being extremely sceptical about supposed differences and certainly my baby didn't show any preferences except he preferred me!
(Ok, deep breath: Look, nobody can make you do anything you don't want to do, but...maybe when the baby comes you might give breastfeeding a little go, just to see if you like it. You never know, you might love it and it's definitely better than formula and less trouble IMO. And IME you can mixed feed - it doesn't have to be one or the other. Please bear in mind this is just a suggestion, not a criticism.

A friend of a friend did a taste test herself (!) and decided Aptamil was the better one althought hey were all pretty vile.

It also has long chain fatty acids in it that are good fro brain development

Oh and ditto Breastfeeding - think of lal the money you save to buy yourself chocolate with.....

I BF DS until about 12/13 weeks and Im now bottlefeeding - lots of people say they are all much of a muchness which Im sure they are but there does seem to be some differences as my baby is sick on some but not on others, constipated on some but not on others etc.

I use Aptamil - I like that becuaseit has prebiotics, LCPS and EFAs added which is comforting for me to know.

Aptamil is one of the more expensive milks available and isnt usually available to buy in clinics at a cheaper price unlike SMA, COW and Gate etc

Lots of brands of formula also make ready made cartons and sachets to add convenience for when out and about - this may be worth taking into consideration

There are also specialist milks that claim to help with colic, sickness etc

Basically it all boils down to what works best for your baby!

Ill echo what Aloha says (as a suggestion NOT a criticism) - it really is worth giving breastfeeding a go, I didnt BF my first but did my second and I was suprised at how easy it actually was and how much I really enjoyed it. If you have made your decision not to though I dont want you to feel pressured so hope some of my info has helped.

PS Can I also recommend Dr Browns bottles they are very good at reducing wind and sickiness

Becca
xxx

Hi Springchicken, I've bottlefed all 3 DS's. No.1 was on Farleys, No.2 SMA gold, No.3 SMA but now changed to Farleys. As aloha say they are all pretty much the same BUT I would never used SMA again. DS2 was a nightmare feeder and DS3 started doing the same but now we've changed it's amazing, he never 'fights' me and finishes almost every bottle.

Now I've done 100% bottlefeeding but am so sad that I couldn't breast feed and believe me I tried, my nipps have been pulled in all directions but a quite a few people. PLEASE please don't rule it out altogether, obviously I can only imagine how lovely it is, when I'm feeding DS3 and he snuggles down into me I could cry that I couldn't feed him myself.
Of course I've got 3 happy healthy and very noisy boys() who have been absolutley fine with bottles and formula so take my pleads to BF with a pince of salt.

as my midwife said - Its not on your cv .. but it is quite satistying to have done.

I have used sma with ds2 and 3 after bf as I could buy it easeily from our local shop - vital for when you realise you have none! - and I could get the cartons...thats worth considering.

you can change when they are older.

as a reward to myself for bf ds3 I have givetn him the made -up cartons from 7 months onwards, lavish But sooooooooooooooooooooo mush easier

Good Thinking coddy - I feckin hate messing on with the powder

SpringChicken, i bottle fed and i used Cow+Gate from the word go. DD always got on great with it and has had no problems. I rememeber the Midwife saying they weren't allowed to suggest a particular formular but she slipped in something "against" SMA!!!
Hope you get some better advice than mine

Good luck with everything++

BTW just re read my message, i can't remember what she said about SMA but it was nothing drastic so don't let me put you off.
I just remember registering at the time. The midwives are very unhelpful about bottlefeeding i found! Once i said i wasn't breast feeding it was like they sort of give up on the issue of feeding.
That was my only gripe though as they were FANTASTIC about everything else+

yes and hes almost 10 months and I am going to sgo onto cows milk sooon

Don't think there's anything more I can add apart from I had trouble with SMA Gold with DD, so avoided it like the plague this time with DS. Will second Becca about Dr Brown's. Also have tried to b/f both times but it hasn't worked out. DS is 16 weeks and I am feeling really sad about it at the moment.

Health professionals arent allowed to advise on formula nor is any advertising allowed as part of the baby friendly initiative I think

I have to say, I chopped and changed all the time, esp as ds got older and I did more formula feeds. In the end I most gave Babynat organic follow-on formula (ordered mail order) mostly because it came in the most beautiful tins! I still use them for ds's crayons. It also had EFAs. But mostly I liked the tins

Jems I tore my hair out over this one. I ended up with Aptamil as I heard that it was best for allergies (may be total rubbish) but it certainly smells/tastes much better than the others.

Beccaroll that drives me bonkers. I couldn't bf my baby due to being on immunosurpressants for my Crohn's disease (they don't cross placenta but do go through breast milk). So I was delighted to be told by the hospital at the ante natal classes that they would not even discuss bottle feeding as they were baby friendly.

I told the mw in no uncertain terms that I didn't think it would be very bloody friendly to my baby to compromise her immune system from birth and that I would take it much further if she didn't tell me about bottle feeding. Everyone else there agreed, although most of them were planning to breastfeed they still wanted to know in case they couldn't for some reason.

I think that they should consider people's feelings before coming up with these glib catchphrases - what a load of crap they are. I mean as if any hospital would be baby-unfriendly.

My sentiments exactly CountessDracula!
I'm so glad someone agrees!

Yeah, thanks Angeliz. Sorry for the rant on your thread Jems, but if you are planning to bottle feed you will encounter lots of stuff like this.

Just out of interest (and feel free not to answer of course, but I am not questioning your judgement in any way) why have you decided to bottle feed. I really wish I could have breast fed as I have allergies and dd has ended up with ecezma (luckily quite mild). Of course she may have had it anyway. I think breastfeeding is so much easier too, all that scrubbing bottles and sterilising and measuring powder - aaaaargh it's a mare!!!

I was advised to check it included LPCs (long protein chains) and the only other thing you might want to know is that SMA is the only vegetarian one (out of Cow and Gate and Aptimil at least) (has no fish oil in it....). Agree with everyone else beyond that they are pretty much the same - my ds is on SMA and quite happy (had aptmil in Hospital, but I found it stained like nobodies business...don't know if thats just the pre-made stuff.) Once you find the one that suits you the only other piece of advice I was given was to try not to chop and change. Also told that moving onto Progress milk is a complete waste of time - just a marketing ploy...

I'm glad you asked this question as I was wondering about this too Springchicken. I've seen quite a bit of mention of Aptamil on here and was wondering how and why everyone chose it. I'm using SMA Gold and I even wondered to myself yesterday why I chose that brand above any others (dd is only 5 weeks so I'm a bit fuggy.) I came to the conclusion that it was because that's what I bought last time for ds, 6 years ago. Mind you, I don't know why I made that decision either so it's not much help! I think it's mainly because when I was buying formula in case I couldn't manage breastfeeding SMA Gold came in ready made up cartons and I only wanted to buy a small amount in case I did manage b/feeding. I think they're pretty much of a muchness aren't they? Does anyone know? I may try switching to Hipp Organic soon, just because I do mostly buy organic stuff and I really don't know why I didn't buy organic baby milk. Pregnancy fug, I expect.

Yep I agree too - I find the term baby friendly slightly offensive - there will always be people who cant manage to breastfeed for various reasons and are then left in a very vulnerable position of not given any advice and in some cases compassion.

Ahhhh! that'll be it - ds is veggie

Mt ds was terrible with wind and vomiting on SMA but was really settled on Cow & Gate. I have heard that Aptamil is v good.

Good luck.

DD had SMA Gold when I finished BF at 10 weeks, she got on well with it. We changed to Cow and Gate stage 2 when she was ready for it and have used Cow & Gate ever since (now on their level 4) , DD is almost 17months. She doesn't get on with cows milk, strange, but true. Think we'll have to keep going with the formula until she is 2. I guess the bottom line is that they are all very similar but in the end, it depends on your baby and what they prefer.

Thanks for all your responses!

In response to the breast feeding points - i have decided 100% one way or another, just at the moment leaning more towards bottle feeding.
My only real reasons so far (if you canc all them real reasons) are:

1. I generally suffer from having very tender breasts - they aren't huge but are big enough - so i think along the lines of if they are tender and sore without a little one "latched" on then they are going to be 100% worse if i do b/f.
2. DP - he is desperate to be involved every step of the way and definitely wants to be included in the feeding side - i know you can express milk and i suppose it's down to individuals but every person i have spoken to about it said it was the most painful thing after child birth and generally couldn't get along with it.
3. Out and About - I really do not feel comfortable personally with breastfeeding in public and just think it would be better to be bottle feeding in that instance - i have no problems with other people doing it in public places or infront of me, just not what i would like to do personally.

And finally, i know the reasoning behind breast feeding and the fact that it builds up the babies immune system much better but i just tend to think along the lines of "if everyone was meant to breast feed then forula milk wouldn't be available"!

Anyway, as i said, i haven't come to a firm decision just leaning more towards bottle feeding as per my reasons above - not to say that i wont give it a try though.

Any midwife who says they can't discuss bottle feeding 'because of the baby friendly Initiative' is plain wrong. You can see for yourself at the Baby Friendly site

The Baby Friendly Initiative is designed to remove the institutional barriers to breastfeeding and to enable all mothers who want to breastfeed to do so.

It's been shown that group demonstrations of making up formula make the assumption that all women are going to formula feed, and these assumptions are 'unfriendly' to breastfededing. More than that, though, it is not an efficient or safe way of showing how it's done. Mothers who want to use bottles can, and should, be shown individually or in pairs (the way they do it at my local hospital) and ideally, they should also be shown individually in their own homes, with their own kettles and sterilising stuff and so on.

The ban of advertising is to do with the UK Law, which prevents direct to consumer advertising of formula intended for babies under six months unless it is through the health service. In the maternity unit, you can't have ads for formula milk or display material with the logo, at least not under Baby Friendly.

I think that is fair enough.

I can't imagine how health professionals could begin to recommend a formula - all formulas have to follow govt. rules for their nutritional content, and there is very little unbiased, non-commercial information for them to base anything else on. There are some studies which show that babies at certain ages seem to have slightly more developed skills if they have had a formula with PUFAs in compared to those whose formula was without PUFAs. But that is a long way from saying these formulas are 'better' - maybe the PUFAs have another effect, a negative one, that wasn't looked for! I don't know of any independent study showing that probiotics make any difference.

You have to remember that all these additives are not the same as the 'same' consituents in breastmilk! PUFAs (also known as EFAs) come from marine algae, for example.

A fully informed choice to formula feed would have to include all the known risks of formula feeding, too. I wonder if this is what freaks health professionals out, and leads them to say they can't say anything!

They need to get over the hang up, and talk to women about what we do and don't know about formula, and be frank about the limitations of our knowledge - just telling mothers they can't talk about it is useless!