What formula works best for you?

[xocinot]

Hello!

I recently made the decision to wean my baby off of breastfeeding and switch to formula. She's just over 4 months old and breastfeeding was really taking it out of me. We've been making the transition gradually, so we're coming up to 4 weeks now and she's now only on the breast during the night if she wakes which isn't multiple times every night and I feel quite confident my supply has adjusted appropriately as i'm no longer even leaking (which was a problem I had every day when breastfeeding exclusively and when I initially started to wean off the breast) and I haven't suffered with engorged breasts, not too much pain, etc so I'm hoping that means as I did it gradually, the supply reduced comfortably due to that.

My little one definitely seems to have chunked up since making the switch and whilst i'm not too concerned at the moment, I just wanted to see what other UK based parents find is the best formula for their baby to maintain weight opposed to put it on? I've been using Aptamil (just the standard one, not hungry baby or colic relief or anything) as this was recommended by my health visitor. I'm aware every baby is different and I have no plans to try her on various formulas, but just wondering if there's any that really stand out or really have bad reviews, etc.

We use Kendamil For our LO, works amazingly but not available I'm ready to feed at the moment which is very annoying.

@loner223 thanks for replying! By works amazing, what do you mean? Keeps his/her weight maintained or is there another reason why you think it's good? ☺️ I've read great things about Kendamill ingredients, I just couldn't find it in our local supermarket was all!

Baby formula is such a regulated product all brands are really similar tbh. There are some ingredients that you might want to avoid (e.g. palm oil) but nutritionally they will all be more than ok for your baby.

Remember growth isn't linear. Your little one might have had a bit of a spurt (possibly a coincidence of the timing with a switch to formula) but they are equally as likely to have periods of slower growth.

@Lockdownmummy good advice, thank you. She seemed to chunk up quite quickly but before she was actually quite small, around 30 on the centile for weight. She's had SO many new developments and changes over the last few weeks that pointing out about a growth spurt is good thinking, I hadn't thought of that. Thank you!

Health visitors shouldn't be recommending formula brands. There is no one brand that is better than the others. Formula companies may make claims but most of these are not evidence based, simply designed to sell because sadly baby milk is big business and they don't care about you or your baby. They care about profits.

The best place to get information about different milks of First Steps Nutrition. They are completely independent and evidence based. You can be confident that the information you get there is highly accurate and not influenced by marketing and profits. You can find all sorts of info about the ingredients, manufacturing processes and marketing claims.

K**damil by the way are to of the list at the moment for a lot of people purely because of the effort they have put in as a newcomer to corner a share of the market. Don't be conned! Most of their marketing strategy is about telling you how wonderful it is they are made in a world heritage site because obviously that makes their factory better!

Marketing and advertising is predatory and can put babies at risk. Women and babies deserve better.

I combination fed both my DDs. Ended up with aptamil only because I tried SMA with first and seemed a bit rich and made her quite sick, but seemed very settled with aptamil so stuck with it, then went back to it second time round.
I'm not sure there's much difference between them to be fair, could've picked any other brand up and potentially seen the same.

I can't say I found any particular weight gain with it though, they weren't especially chunky babies. I'm not sure it's anything to worry about though in such a small baby.

I've now got 2 completely different kids in terms of appetite, eating habits & build despite them being fed identically all their lives 🤷🏻‍♀️

Cow and gate was given by the hospital after two days without her latching and we used it since with no issue

@OakleyStreetisnotinChelsea great advice, thank you!

@endoflevelbaddy brilliant, thank you for your input! It could be she's going through a growth spurt too and also where I was weaning off the breast milk, maybe she was having more than I realised the times she did still feed from the breast! My Aptamil atm seems to be going quite frothy but I have contacted Aptamil who said this is normal, so I guess that's that.

@thebigpurpleone good to know, thank you!