QUICK POLL, IF YOU BOTTLE-FED ......... NOT FOR A ROW, GENUINELY INTERESTED!

[lissielou]

if you ff, did you choose to because of packaging?
advertising?
logos?
and if not, why not?

I complimentary fed my baby with ff, I bf her, but she was hungry. Nothing to do with advertising/pressure etc.

No I made a decision before I had even had DD1 that I was going to bottle feed (lots of personal reasons)for her I chose SMA gold as that is what my mum fed me and db with.

Again with dd2 I had made a choice prior to having her to bottle feed again and she started on Sma Gold but it was to thick for her so she is now on Aptamil (on advice of Dr and HV)

So no advertising/pacakging/logo etc came into the thought process just used what I recognised as a well known brand (when I chose sma) and the fact that it was stocked in the miniscule tescos that is within walking distance of our house and aptamil because it was recommended as an alternative. I thought all baby milk was very similar and therefore never really looked into the different brands

I started with SMA (my brother used it), it made ds constipated, I then went back and looked at other brands and found Aptamil has prebiotics in (friendly to the gut)and he has now been on it for 8 months and has no problem.

So first choice was word of mouth, second was reading the label. I don't go for the prettiness factor.

Nope.
Chose it because I couldnt successfully BF.

I don't know anyone who thinks their choices are affected by advertising but somehow, it does seem to matter, otherwise there wouldn't be a multi-million pound industry based on it.

So maybe we just have to accept that it does play a part, if we recognise that or not.

Take nappies for example. How many people went for Pampers and Huggies in the first instance rather than supermarket nappies?

Same as Nbg. And I knew what was supposed to be happening, 'cos I'd successfully bf dd1 a few months earlier.

nope - couldn't BF successfully either for loads of reasons. Chose SMA because it was the only one i had heard of ...

When I switched I went to cow & gate because my friend said that out of x amount of her friends, they all seemed to end up with cow & gate eventually. I then attempted that omneo stuff in a desperate attempt to get her to bring up wind (I now think she just wasn't a windy baby!!)

Stepsisters chose different to each other - one because it was what her mum used, and the other because it was the only formula she could find in a small packet (which I noticed myself is appallingly lacking in supermarkets this time round).

So I guess step sis 2 was packaging based.

You are right though beansprout - it is the same with cloth nappies... women starting out tend to go for the more well known brands than any made by a WAHM.

well, for me, couldnt bf, SiL used sma, so used that, did try almost all the others but ds seemed to prefer sma.

and re the nappies, the own brand ones simply arent anywhere near as good, i moved between huggies and pampers according to ds's needs, eg newborn i used superdrug own and huggies 3m i used pampers coz that worked for him then, when he started crawling back to huggies coz of the extra give and when he started trying to walk onto the pampers pull ups

I chose to formula feed my first because that was just What You Do round here. My mother formula fed us, I'd never seen anyone breastfeeding before, and I HONESTLY thought it was something the midwives had to suggest but nobody actually did any more - like only having 3 units of alcohol in one sitting.

I chose Cow and gate because I was given 2 boxes of it by someone whose baby had just turned 1. That was the only reason! otherwise I'd probably have used SMA as I grew up with SMA tins all over the house - full of plastacine etc.

Ds2, I was told I shouldn't breastfeed because of my medication - something I have since found out is untrue - and used Cow and Gate - and several others in an attempt to get him to drink the bloody stuff. He settled on Farleys in the end.

Gave up bf after 2 days as it just wasn't happening - I was still in hospital (after a c-section) and when I said I was switching to formula the midwife said they had bottles of C&G or SMA and which one did I want. Had no idea about either so picked C&G completely randomly and have stuck with it ever since.

Nothing to do with packaging, advertising etc - a complete random decision on the spur of the moment.

i ff as was unable to bf.i tried with oldest and youngest but not with middle.the only thing that affected my choice in formula(i couldnt care less what it looked like!)was that some contain fish oils and were vegetarian so i had to buy the only one i could find without it.with ds2 i tried bf,didnt work out,couple of weeks later milk was still coming so tried again ,great for couple of weeks then stopped again.

I chose to ff ds1.
I tried to bf ds2 but found it so painful it brought on a migraine, flashing lights, zig zags etc. Sent out dh at 11pm to buy bottles and formula!

I chose C&G cos it seemed the most popular

No definitely not! I formula fed because I couldn't sucessfully bf. I had never seen any formula advertising (or consciously taken it in anyway) I had no idea of their logos. Things like logos don't influence me anyway particularly on things like formula. I chose to give ds Cow&Gate just because it was the last one on the list spouted by my midwife. Ds was ff until he was a year old and I have no idea of the logos of Cow&Gate but I can remember it came in green cartons. The only thing that did stick in my mind is I can remember reading on the carton something along the lines of "This is no substitute for breastfeeding and should not be given instead of breastmilk", or something to that effect.

I only ff my dd because I just couldn't seem to keep up with her demand. Absolutely nothing to do with packaging, advertising etc.

A series of unsupportive hvs didn't help - when I asked for help and advice, they said "You'll never provide enough milk whilst you're running around after a toddler as well, try topping up" and that was a slippery slope. Now I wish I'd persevered, but at least I managed it for 4 months. I was sad because I'd managed to exclusively bf my first child (although he was much smaller than my dd!)

Bottlefed so dd didn't die from lack of food.

Was offered SMA or C&G in hospital. Had read/been told that some babies get constipated on SMA so chose C&G. Tried a couple of others after getting out of hospital but C&G suited dd better.

those of you who chose SMA because it was the one you had heard of the most...do you honestly think that has nothing to do with advertising? or logos? or very subtle, clever, insidious marketing?

After I stopped bf I moved on to SMA my friend had used it and chosen it because it was the most readily available in all shops here not just the supermarkets. I knew that if I ever was desperate I could pop down to the local Spa and get it.

i became a mad hysterical crazy woman, that stomped round to the shop and grabbed the green carton (c&g)... so yeah my choice was down to packaging, the only one i could see trough my hysteria !

just chose SMA gold as I remember my mum using it for my sisters. Ds moved onto SMA white very quickly as he was always hungry. DD1 was put onto enfamil AR for reflux. DD2 is still on SMA gold.

i used sma gold on ds1 as it was the only one i had heard of.

When we switched to formula with ds2 we went straight to sma but he was extremely sick so tried hipp (i think it was that but could have been farleys) but when he was sick it looked curdled so ended up on cow and gate. packaging didn't come into it but we did apprieciate the thought that went into cow and gate packs (scoop holder, one handed opening, leveller thingy)

because it was the only one (after trying several) that didn't upset his stomach and because it was organic and I did not want to use certain brands for other reasons

hipp organic because its organic (have no idea whether it makes a difference but makes me feel better) and he likes it.

I ff after I stopped breastfeeding DS and DD (around 9 months or so). Used SMA gold for DS - no idea why. Used Aptimil for DD as I had heard something about it being better on the tummy (and DD has always been windier than DS).

Didn't look at the packaging, apart from noticing they were different shaped boxes.