Aptamil - which one?

[Cheffie100]

My daughter is 6 months old and I have just given her a mixed bottle. 2oz Aptamil and the rest bm. I use Aptamil Stage 1 and intend to introduce more and eventually give up bf over the next 8 weeks. I have also started in the very early stages of weaning over the last 2 weeks.

My question is-'at what stage should I move on to stage 3 milk? How is stage 3 milk different? Thanks

I never bothered with stage 3 - used stage 1 until 12 months old, then cows milk. Was told by HV that it was really not necessary to use stage 3 at all, it's a marketing ploy so they can offer discounts on it

Stage 1 til 12 months then cow's milk, the rest is just marketing.

Aptimal is the most expensive brand by the way, again just a marketing ploy.

I used Stage 1 Hipp Organic milk during the first year. The follow on stages contain extra nutrients (eg, iron) but they aren't necessary.

Only reason to use follow-on milks is that retailers can legally offer promotional discounts (they can't for Stage 1 milks, in case they are seen to promote formula milk over human breast milk.) So worth looking into if you're watching your budget. I preferred sticking with a milk that worked well for us, and ignoring the promo stickers.

Oh...we also switched easily to full fat cows milk at 12 months. And I used small volumes of cows milk in my weaning recipes from 6 months.

Ok thanks all - the marketing obviously got me!

You should only use stage one milk until one. The other milks are bollocks

You may not NEED follow on milk but the extra Boots points or other were more than welcome. We used Aptamil and Cow and Gate follow on which are very similar...
no problems and will use them again.

I used cow and gate follow on milk as it was cheaper and you got offers on it

Aptamil and C&G are exactly the same thing. Same production line, different tins, different prices, different marketing. I work with a girl who used to work for Milupa, she told me this; I spent hours scouring the tins in Tesco and scrutinizing the websites and couldn't find any difference apart from packaging. I changed seamlessly from Aptamil to C&G without dd noticing.