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Infant feeding

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

Original poster

1st Timer needs advise re: best formula to use

112 replies

SpringChicken · 07/01/2004 09:13

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

OP posts:
Original poster
SpringChicken · 07/01/2004 10:44

Also, had never heard of Aptamil until now!

OP posts:
CountessDracula · 07/01/2004 10:49

Hmmm someone should tell Chelsea & Westminster that tiktok!

I am not in any way anti breastfeeding, as I said I would have done it myself if I could, no question. I do think that this drive to promote breastfeeding does make those of us who can't feel inadequate. All over the hospital there are posters saying that breastfeeding is so much better for your baby than bottle, maybe they should try and think for a moment about the message that puts across to those who can't breastfeed - you are a bad mother, you are not doing the best thing for your baby, you should be taken outside and lined up against a wall and shot.....

And I had more than one midwife come into my room and tut at me when they saw me with a bottle - I ended up shouting "read my f*cking notes" at one of them. I felt REALLY sorry for the mums who didn't breastfeed but had no medical reason, they probably beat them on the bottom of their feet with a bedpan.

codswallop · 07/01/2004 10:51

Ok spring Chicken

BUT I owuld say that men are less willing to be involved in the middle of the night!! Why not try bf for say 2 weeks when you rare stuck at home any way.. and then you could do mixed feeding.. bf at night and bottle if out and about

BTW you dont care about boobs after you have given birth!!!

Beccarollover · 07/01/2004 10:56

yeah breastfeeding is worth it if ONLY for the middle of the night feeds being so much easier.

Original poster
SpringChicken · 07/01/2004 10:58

TBH i hadn't even thought about mixed feeding Coddy - i didn't even think that was an option.

Would it not confuse the baby to be having one at night and one in the day?
That could be a really stupid comment to make but i honestly don't know!

OP posts:
SoupDragon · 07/01/2004 10:59

SpringChicken, do give the bf a go. If it doesn't work it doesn't work, but you'll know you tried. It does need some hard work in the beginning and yes, it probably will be painful to start with as very few women get away with no sore nipples despite what the experts say If you manage 2 weeks, great. 3 weeks? Marvellous. 6? Fantastic! Every week is a week's extra benefit for your baby that they wouldn't have got if you bottle feed from the start. Even just the colostrum before your milk comes in is better than no bf-ing at all and that only takes a few days.

You don't need to express - DP can give formula and mixed feeding can work well as others have said. You don't have to feed in public either as there are loads of places you can feed privately - I don't think I ever fed DS1 in public except when I tucked myself away in a quiet corner somewhere and turned my back to everyone. Of course, one of the pros of bf is that you always have your baby's food with you, ready mixed and at the right remperature wherever you go.

At the end of the day, your baby needs you to be happy and comfortable with your choice. To answer your original question, friends mostly used Aptamil as a first milk.

aloha · 07/01/2004 11:01

Can I just add that I had always considered myself to have (blush) rather sensitive nipples (double blush) and got infuriatingly sensitive bosoms when pg... but I had no pain with breastfeeding. If the baby gets the right latch - and I was pretty ruthless about getting him off and back on again until I felt it was right - then in most cases there is little or no sensation of pressure or sucking on the nipple itself - the baby presses on the area around it. I was lucky in that I never got thrush or blocked ducts or any of the other things you hear about and also, my baby had no teeth at all until after his first birthday I just thought it might help to hear a positive story to counteract some of the awfully negative ones you have been hearing. And as I said, mixed feeding is possible so your dh could, for example, give a late feed at 11pm allowing you to go to bed early. Agree with others that 'being fully involved' sounds lovely until you realise it means getting up in the night! Even a little breastfeeding seems to have beneficial effects on a baby - even just doing it for a few days.

aloha · 07/01/2004 11:04

As i said earlier, I mixed fed. It really doesn't confuse a baby IME. Why would it? They have no expectations one way or another of anything at all The more you breastfeed early on the better for your supply and after that it's really very adaptable. I loved being able to go out with just a spare nappy, a few wipes in a plastic bag and a babygrow - all so small they fitted into my handbag. The food was on me! I used to drive off and feed in my car. It felt very private, I put on the radio and ate a flapjack at the same time.

Blackduck · 07/01/2004 11:11

Like you, Springchicken, I wasn't going to b-f, however, ds was such a dot (4lb 15oz) that I felt I had to give it a bash. I lasted about 3 months and gave up really because I was losing so much weight I was disappearing - he needed LOTS of feeds! I did do mix feeding, and, yes I was told he would get nipple confusion - in my experience that was total bo**ocks. Yes, the sucking action is different, but belive me he knew the difference and could do both without a problem from the word go. I do miss the really drunken milk look he used to get on the breast - doesn't seem to happen with a bottle...

Cavy · 07/01/2004 11:12

A friend who only bottlefed her first managed to combi-feed the 2nd baby from 3 days old... And she said what Beccarollover said, that the night feeds when breastfeeding were absolute bliss compared to the faff of getting a bottle the right temp.

Mum2Ela · 07/01/2004 11:14

Hi Springchicken!

Thought I would add my experiences.

I breastfed DD for, ooh, all of about 2 weeks. Thought I would give it a go but I was miserable. DD wouldn't latch on properly and so I would end up soaking wet - milk EVERYWHERE!! Couldn't possibly go out in public when she needed a feed, so I gave up. Quie frankly I had be pregnant for the last 9 months and I wanted to go out and show off my new baby and my flat tum (which, at the time I thought was flat but looking back at photos I now see it was like a plate of jelly!).

DD went onto SMA gold.

When she was about 4 months I moved her onto Aptamil for the reason only that it was the most expensive and therefore must be the best. its as scientific as that!

Now 16 months DD drinks loads of cows milk a day but she has formula for bed, just in case she hasn't eaten very well.

My bottle feeding top tip:
Don't make up bottles and keep them in the fridge. Instead keep the freshly cooled water in the bottles and use one of those Avent 3-compartment container things. When you are out and about and baby needs feeding the water is already at room temp, prob won't need warming, and then simply tip the already measuerd out powderd milk into the babys bottle. Job done.

codswallop · 07/01/2004 11:15

Hooray for all this advice Spring Chicken - do you feel better?

I hope you do try it - you have nothing to ose do you?

Mum2Ela · 07/01/2004 11:17

Ooh, perhaps I should have said, when you first have the baby and you are holding it, still groggy in the hospital, I felt it to be completly natural to breastfeed it then. It would have been odd for me to go 'wheres the bottle?'.

I fact, when I first gave her a bottle I cried cos it felt so unnatural. But I was crap at breastfeeding, and as a mum you will feel guilty about EVERYTHING!

Mum2Ela · 07/01/2004 11:18

God I sound sooo common when I type fast!

Am v posh really

zebra · 07/01/2004 11:28

That's great your husband wants to be so involved every step of the way, Spring Chicken.... So how come you're asking these questions, and he isn't doing the research for you? Presumably, he'll make it up to you, by researching which bottles to use, buying them, choosing a sterilisation method, making sure the bottles are sterile, using cooled freshly boiled only once water only, following the mixing instructions precisely, making up the bottles for you, heating them correctly, making sure you never caught out and about without any way to feed the baby, getting the bottles clean & sterile afterwards, reading the 'Help with Bottlefeeding' forums if you have any trouble, cleaning what comes out of the baby's bottom afterwards.. oh, and earning the money to make sure the cost of it all is covered, too.

See, my husband was WAY TOO LAZY to do hardly any of that. And no way was I going to go to all that trouble without giving breastfeeding a jolly good try first!

CountessDracula · 07/01/2004 11:31

I used to get dh to do it

elena2 · 07/01/2004 11:32

Second what others have said here, SC, give bf a go and see how it goes.

Mixed feeding sounds fantastic, I didn't know that it was possible to be successful doing this, I too had been told about 'nipple confusion' by the Midwives. If I'd have known this was possible, I probably would've perservered with bf ds2. My problem was v sore and bleeding nipples due to the wrong latch, ds2 used to be on the breast for over an hour at a time, then back on again after 15 minutes.
My midwife did ask if I wanted to see the local bf councellor, and I said yes, but then the Midwife came back saying "She just advised lots of skin to skin contact". So I didn't really get any help in finding the right latch, and gave up after 4 or 5 days.

I would say, if you do decide to give bf a go, read loads about it on here first, success stories, problems and how they were addressed, and keep in touch on here once you are home with baby. That way if you have any probs everyone here will give you lots of support and advice.
IME the advice on here is second to none, including the Midwives that will come out and visit you, because you get such a huge perspective from lots of different people.

I

Mum2Ela · 07/01/2004 11:36

Zebra - bottlefeeding really isn't that hard.

Breastfeeding I found to be hard.

And blimy! I spent in a week what I would have spent on formula, on breastpads!!!

mears · 07/01/2004 11:41

Springchicken - your DH can be involved as much as possible even if you are breastfeeding. My DH used to love watching our babies breastfeed. He bathed them, changed them and sat for hours with them snuggled on his chest after a feed.
Unless breastfeeding is not medically advised, breastmilk is the best food for babies. For those mums who tried it and it didn't work for them, thankfully formula milk is available.
However, when planning for a first baby I think breastfeeding should be thought of as the first choice for feeding. No formula can match it. As a midwife I cannot recommend one formula over another because, despite LCPs, probiotics and all the additives put in them, it is no where near breastmilk. If you bottle feed, you will find a formula that you like, possibly on other mothers recommendations or possibly by accident. Sorry there is no definitive answer about a best brand at this stage. Good luck for whatever you decide.

mears · 07/01/2004 11:45

This is worth considering toohere

Mum2Ela · 07/01/2004 11:50

From the article Mears linked to:
'The best advice with premature babies is to make up the milk fresh for each feed, make it there and then and use it straight away rather than storing it overnight in the fridge,' she said. '

My tip for using the Avent storage container for the powder and adding the poder to the water when baby is to be fed would get over the problem in the article.

codswallop · 07/01/2004 11:55

hey - using ready made up catrons is better - I wil tell dh that!! as he moans about the extravagance!

CountessDracula · 07/01/2004 11:55

Cartons are the biz

Original poster
SpringChicken · 07/01/2004 11:58

Haven't read through all comments yet but just wanted to say thanks for all the good advice - i will print off and show DP

OP posts:
codswallop · 07/01/2004 11:58

cd you daughter isnt on formula anymore is she? how does the cost compare anyone know?

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