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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

My local Waitrose are selling baby cereal that says on the packet it can be added to bottles from four months

99 replies

AnarchyAunt · 30/10/2008 14:42

Its this stuff and the packet carries instructions on making up a bottle feed of cereal mixed with full fat milk, from four months.

What do I quote to the manager when I go in there to complain later? Or is it technically legal despite being v v dangerous?

OP posts:
WobblyPig · 30/10/2008 19:36

Very common in other countries includign France to start babies on stuff such as cereal or pureed vegetables as additions to the bottle feeds. I've seen a friend of mine do it in France - on midwife's advice she added pureed courgette - raw and with skin - into the bottlefeed.

Original poster
AnarchyAunt · 30/10/2008 19:59

I have emailed Waitrose. Will be copying to Holle and to IBFAN in a tic.

I give up on the 4m issue but to recommend feeding in a bottle.... terrible.

OP posts:
Olifin · 30/10/2008 20:29

Would be really interested to see what response you get from Waitrose, would you keep us posted AA?

Wobblypig- I'm speechless at the pureed courgette-in-bottlefeed

Original poster
AnarchyAunt · 30/10/2008 20:33

I'll share their response, don't worry.

In fact I think I can probably share it before I even get it... "we are sorry to hear you are unhappy blah blah well established company blah high quality product blah rigourously tested blah blah guidelines not law so we'll sell wtf we like blah" or somesuch. If previous experiences are anything to go by anyway.

OP posts:
MadamePlatypus · 30/10/2008 20:37

"For the preparation of the Milk porridge and the Bottle feeds after 4 months we recommend to add 1 teaspoon of sunflower oil."

? Apparently you also need to add 'lactose sugar' if you want to add it to a bottle feed, which Ocado don't seem to sell.

GrinningGorilla · 30/10/2008 20:42

My health visitor (now retired) advised me to add baby rice to my 2 month old's bottles and cut part of the teat off to make sure it got through. This was less than 5 years ago. If first time parents are being given advice like this then perhaps there is demand for cereal additions to bottles.

Original poster
AnarchyAunt · 30/10/2008 20:46

There may be demand but its due to ignorance about the dangers.

100 years ago there was demand for laudanum based tonics/syrups for babies to knock 'em out - now we know its dangerous and so they are not sold anymore.

As I said, no other baby foods company in the UK advocate putting cereal in a bottle - it really is a choking risk and any HV who suggests it is a dangerous loon who should be reported.

OP posts:
AbricotsSecs · 30/10/2008 20:48

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

poppy34 · 30/10/2008 20:51

second what wobblypig say - was just over in france and ALL the early weaning cereal is designed for bottle use..

itwasntme · 30/10/2008 20:53

It's very common here in Spain too.. where weaning is recommended at 4 months. Full fat cows milk not recommended till a year though.

There are loads of cereals/biscuits for bottles on sale here.

itwasntme · 30/10/2008 20:55

I don't agree with putting cereals in bottles, but it's not really a choking risk.. it's just ready brek/baby rice-type powdered cereals.

Original poster
AnarchyAunt · 30/10/2008 20:59

Just about everyone (NHS, Food Standards, Dept of Health, Bounty, other babyfood companies yada yada) agrees it is a choking risk actually.

Babies are designed to be able to breathe and swallow liquid at the same time. Not thick goopy cereal.

OP posts:
Bienchen · 30/10/2008 21:11

AA, it isn't a goopy cereal. It is rather runny and you use a slightly bigger teat with it. Just about every country on the continent uses it and the babies seem to be fine with it.

It would be a different case to use normal cereals as you buy them here. I don't think there are more babies on the Continent dying from choking?

Lactose is sometimes added to help constipation and has been done so for generations.

When I moved to England, I found it rather odd not to have cereals in bottles, there you go. Oh and I and most kids of my generation got weaned at 2 months!

MadamePlatypus · 30/10/2008 21:16

The thing you have to ask is WHY do people add things to bottle feeds. Not for nutrition - everything a baby needs is in breast milk or formula. It will be because the baby is 'hungry' and needs more 'heavy' food to sit in the baby's stomach.

It should also be noted that the instructions recommend adding something called 'lactose sugar'. Do Waitrose sell that I wonder? It doesn't explain why this is needed or what would happen if you didn't add it.

Original poster
AnarchyAunt · 30/10/2008 21:18

Fine, whatever, lets all ignore the choking risk that lots of reputable organisations warn about, because other people in other places do it

Fact is its very very obviously not the physiological norm for babies as you can't add cereal to to your breasts. And before anyone starts, thats not a pop at FFers, its an observation that breasts do not have teats of which you can change the size, or a lid you can remove to add things to the milk, thus meaning that all a baby can get out of them is milk, and so its a reasonable inference that all they are meant to have from a milk feed is, er, milk.

OP posts:
littleducks · 30/10/2008 21:19

i agree it is common in Europe, i knew a polish woman trying to wean her baby like this and my lovely italian deli sells italian baby biscuits (like heinz biscotti ones but better) which i buy for dd and ds (as finger food) which give a 'serving suggestion' of dissolving in a bottle of milk

everyone is very anti it here and i think it is just a slip up on waitrose part as it is a foreign product

Bride1 · 30/10/2008 21:19

I'm very surprised that Waitrose are selling this pap.

MadamePlatypus · 30/10/2008 21:22

Maybe people on the continent do give their babies cereal in bottles from 2 months - perhaps people on the continent should be asking themselves why they are doing this. It is completely unnecessary.

MatNanPlus · 30/10/2008 21:22

Biscuits plain & chocolate and powdered biscuit for bottles freely available and used in Italy.

Plasmon a Heinz Brand!

Bride1 · 30/10/2008 21:26

A friend of mine with a weight problem is convinced that her metabolism was screwed up by her nanny adding 'extra' to her formula bottle when she was a small baby.

MadamePlatypus · 30/10/2008 21:47

If your having to add lactose to a product to avoid constipation, isn't that kind of a sign that it might not be the best food choice?

littleducks · 30/10/2008 22:02

plasmon is what i buy, no idea it was a heinz brand!

MatNanPlus · 30/10/2008 22:08

here Little Ducks

Peachy · 30/10/2008 22:10

as well as milk it contains gluten

bloody awful people

Brangelina · 30/10/2008 22:21

I used this stuff when weaning DD and noticed the instructions about boiling it up with cow's milk on the back. Was a bit especially as we're told here in Italy not to intoduce cow's milk in any form till 12mo, but then I put it down to Holle being a quaint Swiss/German co and maybe the packaging hadn't changed from the 50s. It does look a bit like something from a Heidi film tbh.

It's a shame as their cereals are excellent products, much better than the standard baby food cereals, and were the only "baby" foods I bought.

It's true that here there are baby biscuits that crumble and are supposed to be mixed with milk, but no one I know here has ever put any in a bottle, or at least in recent years. My cousins used to live off the stuff but always had it out of a bowl. Actually, I do know one person who did this but she only started when her baby was 8-9mo and that was a few years ago now. Maybe the custom does still exist but I've not seen anyone admit it and we're always being told in health centres to only use biscuits as finger foods (and rarely as it is sugary shite whatever the name).