Before I switch to 6month old formula does anyone want to scare me off????

[Thomcat]

I'm still breastfeeding DD2 but as I'm back at work I'm doing formula when she's not with me.

She's 6 months old now.
We've been using Cow & Gate formula with her.
Noticed they do a milk that is for 6 months plus that seems to have more iron, vitamins etc.
Thought I'd switch her onto that.

Before I do so just wamnted to know if any of you know of any really good reasons not to do this.

TC x

I was told by hv not to bother, but as it had more iron, and ds such a fussy eater I put him on it as a safety net for when he doesn't eat.

AND it's cheaper!

So there's not that much difference and won't upset her tummy or do any harm if \i do switch, and I could save a bit of money.

Unless I hear to the contrary I'll switch her in the next few weeks.

Thanks.

I think I tried it with ds1 but it made him constipated so I switched back. I didn't bother with the 'follow on' milk for ds2 or ds3 either - I just continued with the normal green C&G until I switched to cows milk entirely at about 10-11 months.

How about mixed feeding? Formula when you're at work, breastfeeding otherwise? Cuts down on the bottle faff

Allegedly, the extra iron is a red herring because they can't digest it (or something!).

Blujelly, I am breastfeeding her still, when I'm not at work. On the 3 days she's not with me from 9-6 she is on formula.

Hmmmm, so the iron can cause probs and can upset tummies. Perhaps best to stick to the usual baby formula then?

Dp bought a tray of the purple 6months plus stuff at Costco and i'm not sure to let her have it.

Would hate to upset her tummy but seems such a waste

Dd who was formula fed from birth couldn;t tolerate the follow on formula. She screamed with tummy ache all the night the day I gave it to her.

With ds who was breastfed I expressed for a while then when he was around 9-10 months used to feed him morning and night and let him have cows milk for one feed in the day.

They only make follow-on so they can advertise it. It's not worth bothering with, from what I know. If the formula she's on is working for her, then leave her on it.

doubt it actually is cheaper .. usually they change the scoop sizes so you're paying more per feed

I bottle fed my dd from young and when I first moved her over to the follow on milk she had bad constipation so I had to move her back. The 1st step formula is closer to mothers milk and can be given up to 12 months as I'm sure you know already, if I was you I would just stick with the 1st step formula esp as your bf too.

But that is my personal oppinion and my dd was on SMA not cow and gate although my friends dd was on cow and gate and had the same problem.

As you are still bf then I wouldnt bother changing the formula. Bm contains less iron than formula but it is more easily absorbed.

I changed to the follow on stuff at 7 months ish and DS did not seem to notice the difference (was mix feeding as you are), is cheaper as is oten on offer and you can get your boots advantage points/ clubcard points etc on it. They are not allowed to discount normal stuff or give poinyts on it, same a sadverising as cannot encourage you to buy it!

I stuck to SMA Gold for a year and then changed straight to cow's milk. No need for follow on milks unless you have a really fussy eater (of food) The reason I stuck to SMA was because I considered it was closer to breastmilk than follow on milk and seeing as you are supposed to bf for a year that made a weird kind of sense to me!

Thanks all.

We never has any upset tummies or anything with FoF. We changed to SMA Progress at about 24 weeks when DS went on milk strike. He drunk about 6oz a day for a week, then 18 oz of Progress in 6 hours LOL

I also heard the iron is a red herring as it is not as absorbable, but have never seen any evidence that it does any harm.

It is def cheaper cos it is often on offer, and a few pence cheaper before the offers.

The 'fllow on' milks have higher nutrients per 100ml made up because children start to eat more and drink less.

The milk is devised to give otimal nutrients in 20fl oz/1 pint where as with first and hungrier milks child must drink more than this to have the same level of nutrients per day.

'follow on' milks.

optimal

Shouldn't be watching tv and mn it seems tonight.

thomcat dont know but when earwigging in at clinic i heard the hv's say to someone who had milk tokens that the gov't only gives vouchers for first stage milk not follow ons so to use that on an older baby hth

I have just changed my dd onto follow on milk (cow and gate). To be honest she has not noticed the difference and has been fine.

I was told (and this is totally unscientific and unsubstantiated) but baby milk manufacturers LOVE stage 2 and follow on milk because they don't have to remove so many of the 'things' that cause allergies and so are significantly cheaper to manufacture hence cheaper price.

DS is on the 6months+, he didn't notice any difference at all and I love the fact that I can now get points/money off etc.

I suspect its the same as when you introduce anything new into a babies diet you can never tell what there going to think of it or how their bodies will react. I suggest you don't listen to any of us lot on here and just do what you feel like doing, I do however suggest if your dp has bought a load why not just try her for one day.

Just tried it on DD2. She's beyond constipated. Switching back to the regular stuff as soon as teh box runs out.

DD1 was fine on it.

But man, even the prunes aren't working well for DD2 here.

extra iron in follow on milk as others have said, is a common cause for constipation. most of it can't be absorbed by the body and bungs up instead.

even adults get constipated if too much iron in the diet.