Wrong age/stage of formula

[afishnotabird]

I work in a supermarket, and last night served a woman who, on realising it was not on special offer, returned newborn formula and bought stage 3 formula instead, as it was in the offer. Not my business, but I wondered, if the same child gets the milk, how much difference does it make? What is the difference?

I believe that newborn baby milk cannot be on special offer, to encourage breastfeeding. I wonder if the government considered the people who may have to risk their baby's health to save around £1.75 a tub.

I may have the entire wrong end of the stick, and the moment has passed now anyway, it just made me wonder and has stuck with me.

I read on here a while ago that stage 2/stage 3 milk is a load of bollocks invented by the formula companies to get around advertising restrictions on newborn milk. DS is lactose intolerant and the lactose free formula doesn’t come in different stages so I can only assume the stage 2 and 3 milks aren’t much different and aren’t necessary!

I still buy 1st stage formula for my 10 month old but if the 2nd stage was on offer I would probably buy that instead. Up to 6 months they should definitely only have 1st stage milk as it has everything in that a baby needs!

I actually think that all the formulas are exactly the same and it’s all about marketing. I used stage 2 after 6 months after spending a lot of time comparing ingredients and researching and finding very little difference as I could get 2 tubs for £15.
Unless the woman had a newborn with her there’s a good possibility she did the same thing

If formula companies spent less on advertising then formula would be cheaper. They market follow in milk aggressively in markets which restrict stage 1 formula advertising to create brand awareness. They market aggressively where there is restrictions.

The politics of breastfeeding is a good read. Mark steel did something in it too but I can remember the shows name.