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Infant feeding

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

Original poster

aptamil vs cow & gate....whats the difference ?

36 replies

MunchkinJess · 17/10/2013 08:52

...

OP posts:
HumphreyCobbler · 17/10/2013 08:55

I don't think there is any difference except price.

I bought into the whole 'closer to breastmilk' guff of Aptimil when I had my first child. I should have just gone for the cheapest option really, given that they are made by the same company.

allbottledup · 17/10/2013 09:04

None at all. There are statutory rules about what can go into first milk and they're consequently all much the same.

Original poster
MunchkinJess · 17/10/2013 09:31

looks like I got suckered in to it too lol..is it too unsettling to change ? or is it best to just stick to aptamil now baby is on it?

OP posts:
jumperooo · 17/10/2013 09:36

I was told that nearly all formulas on the market have the same things in them but some have different quantities of those things. hence why some babies get on with one but not another.

emmoB13 · 17/10/2013 15:33

I kept being told than aptamil and cow and gate where made by the same company when i was trying to decide which one to start my baby with. So i decided to google to check and found in fact they are made by the same company called Danone UK and just marketed differently and so are pretty much the exact same. Sneaky sneaky! So i went for cow and gate as its cheaper!

www.danone.co.uk/Products/

Gileswithachainsaw · 17/10/2013 15:36

Fish.

They are the same but C&G doesn't t contain the fish

HeffalumpTheFlump · 17/10/2013 20:33

Well that's annoying. I was told by two different midwives to go for aptimil for dd's topups because the others make lots of babies gassy and sicky. We really aren't made of money so the extra cost isn't really helpful!

mrsmartin1984 · 17/10/2013 20:36

They all contain fish. They even come from the same plant in Ireland. They are EXACTLY the same

TreTops · 17/10/2013 20:52

I read an article once that cow and gate and apitmal are made to the same recipe, but in adjacent factories and the milk comes from different herds of cow.....fwiw my first baby was very windy on apatimal so changed to cow and gate and was fine and I have heard of other babies being the same, not sure if it was just a coincidence or if the type of cows the milk comes from make a bit of difference.

mrsmartin1984 · 17/10/2013 21:03

Legally they all formulas should be made out of the same recipe. There is no difference between them. Any thing else they put in have no scientific proof of the benefits or the risks

FaithTheVampireSlayer · 17/10/2013 21:09

C&G makes my DD throw up more than usual whereas Aptimil doesn't.

Twoandtwohalves · 17/10/2013 21:10

I used Aptamil w DS1 until I got a free bottle of readymix 1+ C&g at an event (don't worry, well within "promotional" guidelines, some of my bf friends gave me theirs too!). I'd heard this about them being identical so sat and compared all the ingredients and nutritional information and concluded this was in fact true. We changed to c&g for our last few weeks of his bottles with no noticeable effect and started DS2 on c&g when the bf boat sailed away.

Interestingly I have been somewhat affected by the "Tesco finest" image of Aptamil, I feel a bit more self conscious pulling out my red carton than I did with the blue one (but that was extra self conscious as I had a load of bf-related guilt I've got rid of). The difference of nearly £1 per tub of powder makes me continue to worry less about this as the savings add up.

mrsmartin1984 · 17/10/2013 23:14

Twoandtwohalves How exactly was that in promotional guidelines. It giving formula for free is completely against the law, the who code and any standards of ethics

tiktok · 18/10/2013 09:57

"the milk comes from different herds of cow"....how would that work, then? :)

The stuff is the same - the source of the ingredients may be slightly different, because different production managers may do different deals with different suppliers at different times. But apart from that, it has to be basically the same by law.

I'd be interested if someone rang the info/care lines of each product to ask what the official line is on it all.

The stories of HCPs telling mothers about Brand X being better than Brand Y are very common - HCPs can be duped by marketing as well.

tiktok · 18/10/2013 09:58

And yes, it is against the law to give any free samples of formula to anyone.

Original poster
MunchkinJess · 18/10/2013 10:25

I was told aptamil was the best...probably just good marketing and im a bit nervous about suddenly changing to cow and gate and unsettling our baby. I have moved on to aptamil comfort milk.

OP posts:
tiktok · 18/10/2013 10:37

MUnchkin, who told you it was the best?

mrsmartin1984 · 18/10/2013 15:14

All formula should be the same based on scientific research on what is best for a child. It's shocking how people caan be suckers fo marketing

Gileswithachainsaw · 18/10/2013 15:18

Question. If they are all the same theoretically, why do some sit better than others. I tried three with dd1 and aptamil was the one that suited her best. C&G made her constipated and hippo turned her poo funny, really light and creamy looking.

Seems weird how they are the same yet it can take two or three try's to find one.

Gileswithachainsaw · 18/10/2013 15:19

Hipp not hippo lol I do not feed African wildlife to my babies

bonzo77 · 18/10/2013 15:26

We swapped after aptamil comfort became unavailable for ages. I reasoned that the packaging was v similar, the manufacturer was identical, and the contents were highly regulated anyway. Went to c&g comfort, then to c&g 1st milk once once ds2's reflux was properly medicated. Baby did not bat an eyelid and we saved £££. In NiCU the prem baby formula was c&g iirc. Pfb ds1 always had aptamil. I had a small pang of guilt that ds2 got the cheaper option.

mrsmartin1984 · 18/10/2013 15:42

Because the can use different protens and and fats. Palm oil, veg, fish. Basically whichever is cheapest at the time. Some don't sit as well with babies as others. They don't have to list it on the ingredients so they don't. It's basically a bit of roulette, lots of conjecture and marketing. That is all.

tiktok · 18/10/2013 17:16

I think it's perfectly understandable that parents equate cheaper option with poorer quality....that's exactly the sort of game marketeers play.

It should be perfectly possible to produce a legal formula that meets all the national and international standards of safety and nutrition for a low price. But the industry does not want to. Someone has to pay for all the frills - the 'free' toys, the advertising, the marketing, the packaging, and the mega-profits.

That someone is parents!

Formula differs only by a couple of quid a pack in the UK. If someone produced a 'basics' or a 'no frills' brand, and pitched it at (say) £3 a box, would people buy it? I think they probably would, in the end.

Amberbop · 19/10/2013 14:16

They are definitely not made to the same recipe. My DD was horribly allergic to C&G but thrived on Aptamil. C&G made her throw up the entire feed, every time and her weight dropped from 91st centile to below 20th in a short space of time. On Aptamil she stopped being sick entirely and porked up again nicely!

tiktok · 19/10/2013 16:32

The recipe is the same, but the ingredients may differ - so the source of oil may be different, for example.

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