Should I continue with Aptamil 1 till one year.

[donb123]

According to the guidelines in the box Aptamil 1 should be used till 6 months and the baby should be switched to Aptamil 2 after 6 months. Our health visitor has advised us to continue using Aptamil 1 till 1 one year. She is saying that there is no real difference between the two and only the first formula (Aptamil 1) is regulated by the government.

Just wondering if anyone else have received such a recommendation.

Keen to hear others view on the same.

This is correct. Also have a 6 month old and sticking to Aptimil 1. The 2 was only invented to get round marketing rules about formula.

It is fine to continue with aptamil 1. I did switch around 9 months as it was cheaper and you could get offers on it that you don't get on the 1st milk

The formula companies are not legally allowed to advertise stage 1 formula. So they make 'follow on' milks to flout the rules,
Your health visitor is right.

My HV said it was a marketing ploy because they are the same, but not to buy stage 2, which I never understood if she was claiming they are the same. Stage 2 was cheaper as it was often on offer and you can get shops loyalty points for it, so I used it to be honest. The difference in ingredients just seemed to be that there was more iron in it.

Nutrition wise virtually no difference but financially it’s cheaper and you can get offers on it so depending on your circumstances it could be a better option

Yup. As PPs said, 'first stage' will be perfectly adequate until a year old. And you'll now notice (if you haven't already) that all the adverts will talk about "follow on" milk.

Plus, an aside, the rules prevent certain images being in the tin. For example you'll never see a sleeping baby on one.

Check the ingredients though, see what's different

Yep that’s right it’s all to do with marketing, I continued to use 1st milk up to 12 months when we switched to cows milk.

Also, if you recall the milk advert that showed babies becoming mathematicians etc, that broke the rules, by implying tour child will be successful by having formula.

It's actually quite interesting.

It’s a shame it can’t be regulated further so that the first milk is the cheaper option rather than stage 2

I suppose if it was cheaper it could be considered promoting the first stage...?

Yes I was told the same thing

Follow on formula have a different protein in them which while cheaper can be more difficult for babies to digest.

Check the iron content - I was told by a dietitian that I really needed to switch as the later ones contained more iron, which DD needed. Worth saying that DD struggled to wean, and was almost exclusively milk fed well beyond a year. However this was a few years ago, and the content may have changed.

Follow on milk is whey based like first milk. Hungry milk is based on casein and is harder to digest.
Follow on milk has extra iron which can cause constipation. It didnt affect my children though and I used it as it was cheaper.

You can use either. My understanding is that they tell people not to use #2 because they're allowed to advertise that and they would rather boycott that. But either is fine. The second milk you can get boots points and special offers so I did swap.

Stage 1 until 12 months and then on to whole cows milk. No need for any follow on milks, they are just a marketing ploy and a waste of money.