Hipp Growing Up Milk - Warning!

[Lumie]

Just so that other mother's don't make the same mistake I did Hipp Growing up Milk has glucose syrup as its fourth ingredient - an artificial sweetner. My DH and I noticed our 10 month old son go bananas - hyper and goofy -when we started using this formula milk. When I emailed Hipp to ask them for a refund they ignored that part of my email and instead suggested that toddlers needed more energy and which is why they add glucose syrup.....

Here is their response to me:

"Thank you for your e.mail concerning our HiPP Growing Up Milk.

The Hipp Organic Growing up Milk contains glucose syrup which is not a sugar but an oligosaccharide. Oligosaccharides are chains of sugar molecules joined together and they are much less sweet than sugars. They are used to increase the energy content of foods in an easily-digested form. Hipp Organic Growing Up Milk has a higher energy content than many standard milk formulas and this is intended to help meet the high energy needs of toddlers.

Hipp Organic Growing up Milk should be used as part of a mixed diet, alongside a wide variety of other foods including fruits and vegetables, cereals, protein foods and other dairy products, and the presence of 1.7% oligosaccharides in the prepared formula should not cause you any concerns.

We hope this has reassured you and that you will feel able to continue to use this product.

Kind regards

Jan Lambell
Customer Services Manager
HiPP UK Limited"

all the formulas have some form of sugar e.g. lactose (milk sugar) is the main one in the first milks (and is also in breastmilk so not all bad!). The growing up milk actually contains less total sugars than the first milk as out of the 8.4g of carbohydrates it contains only 3.7g of sugars (the rest is starch) compared to the first milk which is 7.3g of carbohydrate all of which is the milk sugar lactose.

I have a PhD in biochemistry so I read some of the comments with interest. There seems to be some misconceptions here. Dextrose is just another name for glucose (dextrose is a term is more commonly used in the food industry). It is not an artifical sweetner (and in fact fruit, esp grapes have a huge amount of glucose in, so hardly really "harmful" but it does provide the body with a pretty immediate energy source). So, it will add calories but not much else. Also by the way, plain old granulated sugar is actually a disaccharide, not a polysaccharide.

Lol, I stand corrected! It's been a long time since I studied biology, I did have a niggling doubt about whether I'd got the number of saccharides right.

I don't have a problem with them adding sugar of any sort to their product.

What I do object to is the quoted part of the letter from the OP where some marketing idiot boffin wrote a fistful of shite insinuating that glucose syrup was an 'oligosaccaride' which was 'less sweet than other sugars'. I do agree with the bit where it says that it is an 'easily digested form' of a sugar. But it is glucose! Of course it is! It is trying to come over like the easily digestible bit is some wonderful property of this, ahem, oligosaccaride.

that is why I am so riled by that letter.

Oh, I agree but unfortunately the food industry (and others) is full of this and baby products are no exception. Trying to sell pseudo-science where products are not dangerous, but often don't have any particular health benefits either. Its one step above the quacks with magic potions of days gone by...

So I used some of foxytocin's language from New Year's Eve. I got a reply today. Here is what Hipp said:

Dear xxx

Glucose syrup is an oligosaccharide and not a sugar; it is made up of several sugar (glucose) molecules joined together in a chain and it has a much lower sweetness rating than sugars.

We use it in this formula to help increase the energy content of the formula without adding more lactose/milk sugar (found naturally in all milk products) which has a greater sweetness rating - if we were to add more lactose rather than glucose syrup the product would infact taste sweeter which is not desirable. Glucose syrup is an approved ingredient in infant and follow on formulas and is permitted by the UK and EC Regulations for milk formulas.

It is of course your decision whether or not to use this milk and we appreciate your comments and feedback. As a gesture of goodwill, we can only offer you a refund in the form of some vouchers and a postal order, but as you can appreciate we would need proof of purchase for so many boxes to be refunded, or alternatively you would need to return these to the store from which you purchased them from.

Kind regards

Jan Lambell
Customer Services Manager
HiPP UK Limited

I am happy to report that Hipp has refunded me the entire amount of my original purchase. So there's some good news in all of this.

In my particular circumstances, I think follow up formula is great! DD has been on cows milk since 12 months but we travel a lot and go out a lot and fresh milk isn't always avialble or even if I buy it there have been times when its gone warm and funny wherease the follow on forumla doesn't. Different strokes for different folks maybe but I would recommend it if you have a similar busy lifestyle

I'd be very worried about a milk that doesn't go off.What the hell is in it then? To say nothing of the fact it costs seven times more than regular milk.

After about 12 months, babies don't need other milk if they are no having human milk.It's a fallacy that they do.

but of course formula milk doesn't go off i.e. in short-term....I got really stuck on a flight recently.....dd got sleepy and needed milk and airport staff had stripped me of all formula I couldn't fill into my spare bottles.....bought cows milk at UK shop but halfway to US was very warm and smelt funny, formula in ready prepared bottles doesn't so the same....and was a life saver....as has been in many regular travel situations

and cost is only relevant if you need to save money, the practicalities override that for me in many situations

As I said, they don't even need milk.

What??Of course babies (over 12 months) need some milk! Mine won't go to sleep without it....as all other babies I know!

They don't actually.
Mine never had any milk form 11 months. They might want it but they don't need it.Milk is a food for infants, whatever species they are.

Milk is a food for infants? What do you take in your tea/cofeee? I wasn't talking about it being a food more a warming healthy vitamin enriched drink that enables sleep

drink it black?

over 1's on a varied diet do not need milk or formula at all. it is a cultural thing to offer them milk.

swers > Food ingredients > Sugar and sweeteners
What is glucose syrup and where is it made from ?

I found this on the net:

Glucose syrup is a solution (up to 80%) of glucose (dextrose) in water. It is normally obtained by enzymatic hydrolysis of starch, which is a polymer of glucose. Starch from wheat, corn, potato or any other plant can be used for this purpose. The origin of the starch does not have to be labelled and can only be provided by the producer. However, due to new EU legislation on allergens, glucose syrup derived from wheat has to be labelled as such.

Glucose syrup is less sweet as normal sugar, but has several technological advantages in the food industry.

So it is a manufactured simple sugar.....

An oligosaccaride is defined as a a saccaride (sugar) with a few glucose molecules. (3-10).

Glucose is a monosaccaride (C6 H12 O6) so an oligosaccaride are the sugars (like dextrose, fructose, maltose, lactose) made up of a few of those.

She is still using a big word where it is not supposed to be....

It's true - milk is for infants. Most adults don't have the right enzymes for digesting milk, although the ability to tolerate milk is fairly common in western europeans - hence the western practice of drinking milky tea and coffee and eating lots of dairy food, which isn't found in many other cultures.

Apart from human milk, babies don't need any milk at all. They certainly don't need cows' milk. It's a useful source of protein etc to be sure, but not at all essential.

Of course the likes of Hipp don't want you to know that!

Oops, sorry, missed a bit out from that post, which was to say that the only babies who truly need cows' milk are the ones who aren't getting breastmilk (ie are formula fed).

And they only need that until they're eating well and can get the relevant nutrients from solid food.

HI welliemum! You still around? I am currently on mat leave in Abu Dhabi so I am GMT +4. When everyone gets lively between 9pm and midnight, I am asleep.

Hello! Haven't been around much - the 1 handed typing is toooooo frustrating (DS is 8 weeks and still feeding all the time.) Also it's summer holidays here so the other 2 are climbing the walls...

You need to hang out on the overseas board, much more going on there!

thanks for the tip. DD2 is now 14 wks old and currently asleep on my back in a rucksack carry. hence 2 handed typing. yyaaayyy!

I should be doing the dishes instead though. Did i miss your birth story? (did you write one?)

Wow, 14 weeks!!

Never did a birth story - it was all too hectic! I loved yours though!

Mine in a nutshell: woke at 1.30 am with big contraction, arrived in hospital around 3.30, marched up and down, hung onto DH and delivered DS standing up just over an hour later.

Escaped from hospital as soon as DS had fed and I'd had a shower and we had a lovely breakfast all together with dd1 and dd2.

I feel v. lucky although it was a very intense labour, not much fun at all.

AAARGH! Sorry, OP, as hijacks go, that is pretty appalling

sorry op

i made this for you.