Aptamil and Cow & Gate - the same product with a different label?

[smudge44]

Hello!

My son is two weeks old, he has been formula fed aptamil and seems happy with it. However now I've had time to read around, I've seen some threads suggesting that Aptamil and Cow & Gate are essentially the same product with the difference being Aptamil is the brand that does the research and has the fancy branding/adverts.

There is a big price difference between the two, an 800g tub of Aptamil is £11 whereas C&G is £8. With such a big saving every week, I am tempted to switch to C&G. However if Aptamil is better for whatever reason then perhaps should just stick with that. Bit confused!

Any advice appreciated.

There is no 'better' one as it's whatever suits your baby. There is no harm in trying the other milk. If it doesn't suit you can always change back

It's not the same milk, but it is produced by the same company.

There's no harm in changing to see if your baby likes cow and gate. You're right the price difference is simply marketing related.

We swapped for the exact same reason about 12 weeks- DD didn’t seem to notice any difference. Mind boggling the difference in price all because of the sciencey bits aptamil put on their packaging!

About three months ago we swapped again to the Sainsbury’s own brand formula (follow on milk) which has gone down a treat.

Thanks - it's a tricky one to know what's best.

Legally formula has to contain certain ingredients to nourish your baby. So there's no harm in trying the cheapest even and seeing if your baby gets on with it.
The marketing that goes into formula is huge, for essentially one product.

No formula is “best” you may as well
buy Aldi mamia.

We switched from Apatmil to Cow & Gate and noticed no difference other than the price

They are definitely not exactly the same, I've used both and they smell different. No discernible difference to the baby though, he didn't like either! We switched him to the cheap Aldi one in the end and he liked that.

We have switched to Cow & Gate and will see how it goes, if baby doesn't like it we will switch back to Aptamil.

The Aldi formula looks good but our local Aldi is not the most reliable for having its shelves fully stocked and only having that one shop selling the baby formula is a bit of a worry, at least the brands can be picked up at all the major supermarkets and health shops.