Best formula milk....

[Harrysmom]

Hi everyone. Which formula milk is the best on the market? My HV recommended SMA Gold. Also, do you think its a good idea to switch to follow on milk at 6 months for the extra iron? would appreciate your advice ta

I agree with the last post, babies do absorb the extra iron and they do need it, they can become anaemic. likewise I always cringe when I see mums giving their babies tea, I hate that because most dont realise tea contains something that stops/inhibits iron absorbtion.
By the way, yes the scoops are bigger in follow on milk, but I use the scoops from first milk!

HCPs seem to be targeted heavily by all the babymilk companies -we won't see them where I am and the mat unit no longer allow them in. I get a bit hacked off though if I go to any educational study day to do with infant health and find it heavily represented by these companies. If they haven't sponsored the whole bloody thing then they are there giving out pens/diary covers/gestation wheels for midwives etc etc etc. And no - Aptamil is not "the closest one to breastmilk" - despite what they'd have you think. That slogan comes from about 10 years back when they were the first to add LCPs(long chain fatty acids) to their formula milk.
Anyway - hi-jacking thread now - sorry.

I think most formulas are pretty alike - small variations here and there like everything else - what suits one baby does not suit another.

suzanne and busy: there is no advantage to babies of switching to follow on from regular formula. The marketing of follow on (if you read the small print) focusses on the advantages compared to regular cows milk, whose iron content is less well-absorbed. However, much of the iron in follow on is indeed not absorbed - this is well-known and not disputed - and babies who are fine on regular formula have no reason to change. If you want to change, then that's ok, too....but no one needs to think they have to.

Tiktok, if follow-on formula has twice the iron content then that's reason enough for me to change to it (twice as much iron to absorb, even if much of it isn't absorbed in the normal child). Toddlers who are anaemic are disadvantaged in all sorts of ways (intellectual and immune system development may both suffer) and by the time it's diagnosed they will often have been anaemic for a while. Of course most children get enough iron from their food, but toddlers who are low in iron will naturally absorb more iron from whatever you give them (by increasing their transferrin levels), so makes sense to me to maximise iron intake in milk too just in case. If they don't need it, it isn't taken in and no harm done. If you don't give it to them, they may not get enough from other sources and could become anaemic. It's not terribly likely but it happens. I can't think of a disadvantage from changing to follow-on milk so as far as I'm concerned the risk:benefit ratio is weighted in its favour.

Hello this is my first time on your site and I have really enjoyed reading all you discussions I hope someone can help me. My son is just over 4 months old and weighs over 18lb. I swapped from SMA gold to SMA white 3 weeks ago to delay weaning but he is still feeding every 3 hours. He has slept through the night from 5 weeks old and has continuted to do so. My health visitor suggested I start weaning and so far he has had a teaspoon of babyrice at 11am. My question is can I swap back to SMA gold as I only swapped to SMA white to delay weaning and this didnt work. This is my 3rd baby but my first boy, my girls were no where near as hungry!

Sophie, can you express during working hours? I did and found it to be the best for my 3 boys. Ds3 tolerated Aptamil, unfortunately it caused exzema in ds2, though Nanny goat milk formula was fine. Ds3 refused all dealings with formula and only barely tolerated a bottle of EBM.