Combined feeding, which formula is the "best"?

[hannahlouhoo]

Hi my ds is 8 months old and as he has dropped to only 2 feeds a day i cant express more than an ounce a day! He sleeps out once a fortnight at my mums so me and dp can have a date night(or watch a dvd at home and fall asleep by 9pm!). I had a large store of breastmilk in frezer which has now run out so i will have to send ds with some formula.

The question is - which is the "best"? I would hate to fall under the spell of adverts which at the moment is all i have to go on! Any help and no judgey advice would be great!

thanks

I would never buy Aptamil for that very reason

'Immunofortis' ffs

Earthworm - am gutted there are no lavender udder massages with velvet gloves these days. Not even cows who provide milk for Waitrose???

I thought all milk had mucous/pus in it except that Cravendale stuff which is extra-filtered.

Is Aptimil the one that's the same as Cow & Gate or am I confused? Sure I've read on here that C&G is the same as one of them anyway

Can i just say that as a HP we are not lured to promoting formula by nice glossy magazines we much prefer pens and post it notes!!!!!
As a HV i would say that if you really felt you wanted to use a formula those available to buy are all very similar - it would be preferable to use a first stage formula rather than a second stage- as it is slightly easier for the stomach to absorb it.

BTW i was joking about the pens and post it notes!

strugstu, hes 8 months so i thought follow on milk 6 months plus was what i should give him now?

Not necessarily - its a clever marketing ploy to keep you buying fomula milk- if your baby is already on formula the marketing of the milk suggests you should move through all the stages- also 3rd stage formulas (ie progress) are usually a bit cheaper than 1st and 2nd stages (by law 1 and 2 cannot be discounted).

if your baby hasn't had formula before - and you wanted to introduce one -i would suggest a first stage formula as it will be a little easier to digest. hope that helps

"My HV said Aptimil was by far the best and most like BM. She said something about the cows feeding in much healthier areas of the world!!??"

ROFL what cack are they going to say next?

BTW If by 2nd stage formula you mean formula for babies older than 6 months, advertising is allowed. it allows for brand awareness for mums with younger babies.

a lot of formulas have a step/stage 2 formula which they market 'for hungrier babies' and other nonsense which is still for babies under 6 months but have a higher casien protein content which is harder for the baby to digest so they go longer between feeds.

Pussy cow's milk - think I am going to puke

Now, I have tasted a few types of formula (trying to find a tasy one for dd) and I have also tasted my booby milk - the one that tasted the best (and most like my booby milk - was

Hipp Organic. it is also one of the cheapest. Only problem is that they don't seem to do little cartons.

I am using Hipp Organic follow-on milk and my DD loves it. She'll drink it from a bottle but will refuse to drink my breastmilk from a bottle. It does taste lovely .

She loves her mummy's booby best though

I don't get the Cravendale milk extra filtered thing, all milk goes through a series of filters which start at the dairy to remove the big gunky bits (how scientific am I?) then smaller and smaller filters. After pasteurisation (again strict controls and more filters) then by law it is tested and is only allowed to have so many somatic cells per 100ml (somatic cells are the cows own body cells) and be free from other more masty bugs, I believe the standards for organic and non organic are the same, but organic would be free of pesticide residues/antibiotics etc.

Milk is very strictly controlled in this country.

I've never given formula but if I had to choose one would use Hipp Organic

Cows milk doesn't exactly contain 'pus'.

As I understand it, milk fresh from from any mother (bovine, feline, canine, human, whatever) contains macrophages, white blood cells that confer immune benefits and protect against disease. Fresh raw milk is a living substance, but the heat treatment involved in the pasteurisation, homogeonisation, and extended storage of cows' milk kills these cells. Dead white blood cells are a constituent part of pus, so I think thats where the 'pus in cows milk' thing comes from.

I am prepared to be corrected on this if anyone knows better.

I was told the pus thing by an insane militant vegan (so insane and militant that she actually converted other vegans on the board into not being vegan any more because she was so unhinged), so am quite willing to accept it might not be true!

you're right anarchyaunt.

I still buy organic though. not really for the whole pus thing though, just because of the hormones/antibiotics.

cow and gate and aptamil are produced by the danone group I believe, but that doesn't mean they are the same in make up. although, as has been said, most formulas are very, very similar anyway

Oh yes organic for anything animal in origin

LOL Anglepoise that she de-converted other vegans!

Aptimil is probably the closest in taste to breast milk. Obviously none replace everything in BM. I found that dd2 who bf for 6mths would not accept SMA but didn't mind Aptimil. HTH

sorry to hijack but mytetherisending how old was dd when she first slept over at a friend's house?

nappyaddict - i expressed for weeks and froze my milk, my ds slept out at 12 weeksm and has slept out a couple of times since then! does this help? how old is your dc?

what does that have to do with anything? As it happens I left dd1 with my friend for 4 days to go and sort my house out to sell as tennants had trashed it, she was 12wks.

nappyaddict If the OP wants a night out who the hell are you to take the moral high ground?

PS puss is only created when white blood cells engulf bacteria so the cows milk contains puss is complete crap! As the milk is treated at high temp any bacteria will be killed and if stored correctly is completely safe.

TIKTOK saying that all formula tastes the same is like suggesting that all beans taste the same. They are the same product with tomato sauce but believe me I know the difference when it isn't Heinz! Likewise, some babies but not all will have preferences. DD1 liked SMA gold. DD2 wouldn't touch SMA and would only have Aptimil. She bf for much longer and so I presume Aptimil must taste more similar to BM than SMA

MTIE - i don't know who's rattled your cage I did say it was a hijack as in nothing to do with this thread. I was referring to a different thread where the op was worried about her 3 year old going to a sleepover and you said your dd1 had slept at her friend's houses loads of times.

tether....I didn't say, nor do I think, that 'all formula tastes the same'. Read my posts (and apology for your aggressive tone wouldn't go amiss, either ).

I did say there is no evidence that one formula permitted for sale in the UK is any better than any other, and I am correct on that one.

Presume away about the reason for your baby's preference for Aptamil - could well be to do with the taste, but equally, it could also be to do with the time,place,mood she happened to be in at the time. I doubt your baby would be able to judge whether Aptamil was 'better' than SMA, though