Is there a 'best' formula milk?

[Ali5]

I breastfed til DS was 6 months old and now use formula. I use one that was recommended by a friend and have had no probs.
I'm interested to know because a friend who bottle fed her ds since he was 2 weeks old, has been advised by her GP to change the brand she uses because her little boy has had a few tummy bugs (one of which got quite serious) and he told her to buy a certain brand because it had prebiotics in.
I've read on other threads that some formula milk manufacturers just have better pr than others and wondered whether she's being mis-advised.

I suspect the brand recommended by the GP was Aptamil? That is certainly the one all the Health Visitors seem to recommend and hence the brand of follow on milk I used for DD. But I've no idea really if there's any difference or not...

It was Aptamil! She currently uses SMA.

C+G milks have prebiotics in too.

Personally I think whichever suits your baby is the best milk - once I started bottlefeeding I used Farleys - it seemed to suit DS well - tried SMA gold but the smell made me feel sick.

When I had to stop breastfeeding suddenly after surgery every health professional asked which formula I'd started using- they all advised Aptamil for the LCPs. My HV said SMA sometimes causes constipation. This was 2 years ago though, so things may have changed now.

My understanding is that probiotics are so fragile that it is unlikely that they would even survive if not refrigerated, so there's not much point in buying them in formula. Exactly why aptamil keeps the poos yellow and runny like bf poos is a complete mystery to me, but they'd have you believe that it's because it's so astoundingly similar to bm.
The Patrick Holford book, optimum nutrition before, during and after pregnancy recommends Nanny goats milk formula as it is apparently closer to human milk than cows milk, as a second choice for those not so keen on goats milk, he recommends babynat cowsmilk as it is organic. However nanny goat Blair has decided in his wisdom that goats milk is unsuitable for babies, and banned the sale of it when it is labelled 'infant milk'. It is still possible to buy Nanny formula milk, but the labelling is confusing.

I like my dd's Cow & Gate Organic, it doesnt have anything unneccesary added to it. Both my dd's loved it. I hate SMA heard many bad stories about it and most others contain fish oils which we are allergic to. The aptimal cartons also contain egg.

SMA is cheaper than most of the others which made me suspicious of it from the start. I've also heard bad things about it.

fed both of my babies SMA, and never had an issue with it

i found formula to be much of a muchness, havign to buy a tub in spain when we ran out ,that was not SMA, or even one i recognised!

aptamil seems to get a lot of PR with docs and HVs

No there isn't.

Interesting. Thanks for your comments.
When I started using formula I looked at a couple of SMA cartons I'd bought just in case when ds was born and was shocked at the list of ingredients. All those chemical sounding things can't be good!