Most formula is sold to women who didn't want to buy it - how manufacturers make their product appeal

[hunkermunker]

Given that most women want to breastfeed, yet most don't do it for as long as they wanted to, and given that only breastmilk or formula are suitable for babies under a year old, there's a lot of formula being bought by women who don't want to buy it.

Can we have a chat about how advertising formula brands (in the form of follow-on, etc) is actually unhelpful with regard to making the baffling choice of "which formula"?

How DID you choose which formula? What would've helped you with your decision? Do you feel that adverts for formula are a valuable addition to the information, or do you think that seeing words such as immunofortis, laughing babies and blue Ready-brek glows round breastfed babies and toddlers in adverts are really pretty meaningless?

It isn't always hard to get bf established. I struggled with DS1. DS2 was a doddle - he'd obviously seen the introductory uterine video about it, or something.

Yes, but I didn't realise how hard to would be either. But because I REALLY wanted to bf, I persevered, sought advice, etc.

Other people who had stated that they were going to bf, had given up after 24hrs, without asking for any help.

Yes, in the difficult hours/days post delivery, the help should really come to you.

With ds1 (bf 12 weeks, ff after that - I found bf near impossible) I chose SMA simply because it was what he'd been given in scbu when I couldn't manage to feed him myself or express any milk) and so it was the only brand I'd heard of. I'd assumed I'd bf him for the first 6-12 months, and knew nothing about formula. I live in an area where almost everyone bfs and there is a lot of stigma attached to ffing.

With ds2 I didn't want to bf a all. Managed for nly 3 days - felt a lot of pressure to do so from mws, hvs, et. Chose Aptamil merely because it was the only brand in plentiful supply at the local supermarket when dh was sent out to get some.

I chose the formula for DS based on the formula used to top-up DS in hospital. I suppose I assumed that if the hospital used that brand, then it must be OK as formula brands go. So the marketing to me was far less relevant than the marketing to the hospital. I think that formula ads contain bog all relevant information.

With both DC I bf for at least 9 months - but introduced ffing at about weaning time so I could have the odd break. With DD, I chose Aptamil as it was recommended to me by several friends - she took to it immediately and I used it until she was just over 1yr. DS turned out to be very picky about milk and I tried every brand until he decided that he liked Cow&Gate. I'm now introducing full fat cow's milk since he turned 1yr and will be getting him off formula asap. I'm not aware that advertising had any influence on my choices.

p.s. I can remember feeling slighly shocked and put out when I really enjoyed a new advert showing a lovely dad saying how wonderful parenthood and his wife were - only to find out at the end that it was for SMA

RambleOn, it's all on-topic for me - carry on!

I was stressed, in pain, upset, hormonal when I chose my first tin of formula. Mil got it for me and we just kind of said 'get SMA' cause that was the only one we had heard of. We assumed that if we'd heard of it then it must have been around for a while and therefore must be one of the better ones.

As it turned out it made ds constipated so we did some mn research and switched to Aptimil. I was reassured that Aptamil was expensive so therefore must be the best . I liked the cuddly bear on the packaging and the fact they said it was 'close to breastmilk' or soemthing like that.

I knew in all honesty that the cuddly bear did nothing and that the 'close to breasmilk' claim was a lie but it made me feel better about FF whten I didn't want to iyswim.

I didn't use formula much, but when I did I bought Aptimil. I don't know why.

I dithered and dithered at the shelf. Don't think it was adverts (although I could have been influenced without knowing it) but I suspect I was swayed by the price and the Immunofortis bollocks.

Why didn't I just buy the cheapest one? Why??? Intellectually I knew they were all the same and yet...

When the hosp forced us to top ds up I refused to choose what sort of formula 9choice was C& or SMA). I explained that i had no basis for making the decision, as I knew nothing about either. I also said it was them recommending that he had it, so they could choose. Poor nurse said she wasn't allowed to. so I just sat there. In the end she said "I gave mine SMA, so shall I get some of that?". I only topped up minimal amounts for about 2 weeks.

Another friend put in similar position at same hosp chose C&G as apparently she'd heard of SMA being contaminated (some fairly recent news story -I'd never heard it). She expressed for 5 months, but used predominantly formula from abour 2-3 months.

A third friend who started supplementing at about 5 months when she returned to work gave Aptamil, as "it's the closest one to breastmilk".

I don't think we're the right people to ask, tbh. There are lots of people on MN who bf for far longer than average and are often v well informed.

I agree the adverts are pretty meaningless (although I have waivered over that one I mentioned earlier).

But I have no idea how you would make an informed decision about which formula to use. If you hold the ingredient lists up to compare them, it's all a load of chemical names which leave you none the wiser.

I would boast that I am more than averagely clued up about nutrition , but it's just impossible.

Grendle, the OP was really just a discussion-starter - it has, so I'm not that fussed about whether what I wrote in it is answered or not!

So, to move it on a bit, maybe - I don't think formula should be advertised At All - but I do think it should be provided in maternity units - I know some disagree with me there.

Taurine FGS, isn't that the stuff that's in Red Bull?

A question for you experts then

Is that 'low sugar so needs topping up' thing a load of rubbish, or is there a genuine medical need?

It is so interesting to read other's BF/or not stories: it is in keeping with my experiences that good, easily available support at the time of need (immediately post-natal/knackered first night/at home with scary newborn etc etc) is far more important than more information about different brands of FF.
A LLL leader said to me once: "Succesful BFing is 10% technique and 90% stubborness." And I would agree with that.
It did best with DS3 because I was hellbent on exclusively BFing him and I knew where and how to get help and support. But it was hard for the first 3 months. I am not sure how somebody who was not as familiar with local agencies as I happened to be would have accessed the same level of support.

RambleOn, I'm not an expert by any means, though I have fought the "low blood sugar, so must be topped up" midwives (and won, dammit!) with DS2 (post gestational diabetes, etc).

I don't know how much is known about the normal path of blood sugar levels for neonates - Tiktok? I know you posted an excellent article that I think I put on my blog...hang on...

Absolutely agree pacific.

Me: DD1, exc bf til 'failure to thrive' at 6wks. Then topped up with formula. Affected supply, but struggled on bf til 6mo.

DS1, determined this time to bf, had brilliant supportive HV. Slow again to gain weight initially and was again on target for a ftt!

HV brought some special overlays round to my house (what service!) which can be put over the normal red-book chart. Showed that for a bf baby, DS was actually bang on target weight. Still exclusively bf at 5mo this time.

Confidence and stubborness is all

I should add, that we used the overlays on DDs red book as well, and they showed the same thing - that she had actually been on target after all

I am really suprised by peoples experience of midwives and breast feeding. Both my community and hospital midwives were hugely supportive of me breastfeeding. At no time was I encouraged to try ff - even though dd was a scrawny little mite & I was underproducing milk ( due to me being back at work when she was 5 weeks old, where somebody thought my carefully expressed milk was there for their coffee/tea [puke]).

As for the OP - when dd went onto ff at 5 months it was the cheapest whenever it was bought. She was such a unfussy thing in her yoof. Unlike now

When I bought some formula in desperation at 5 weeks in, crying with thrush pain and having gone to the bf clinic to find it shut for half-term (how the hell are you supposed to know these things??), I grabbed a carton of SMA Gold as it's what I was raised on (prem baby in hospital 30 miles from mother) and my dad had saved all the cans and still stores all his screws and things in them.

A couple days later I got a can of it but all the scary advice about making every bottle fresh meant I've never used it - I managed to get bf to work in the end so only use a small carton once a fortnight or so.

Midwives antenatally told me that they're all the same nutritionally so if I needed it to start with the cheapest and see if my baby liked the taste.

In restrospect, what would have helped me was 1) being told that bf helplines almost always have to phone you back some hours later as they're staffed by volunteers - psyching myself up to get MrNC to relay phone calls and then getting only answerphones from all three was a very low point, and 2) looking up where and when all the nearest bf clinics were before I gave birth - I'd idly noted there was one in Brixton but it hadn't occurred to me that it was only 1 2-hour slot a week (and shut and half-term...), I assumed these things would be full-time!

The MWs insisted that he had low blood sugar and said he was becoming lethargic. He didn't seem lethargic to me. Was feeding constantly and when not feeding, crying!

Everyone elses (formula fed) babies were sleeping like angels, as were their mums

Another one here who was forced to choose a brand of formula in hospital. I had done no research at all into formula as I had assumed that I would bf. It was made clear that I couldn't go home until I either managed to get bf going or gave DS a bottle. I was told a list of brands, that I couldn't be advised but that they were all pretty much the same. I 'chose' SMA simply because it was the first one mentioned. Ended up switching to Farley's because it was cheaper and available at Lidl.

Re: the survey Tik Tok mentioned about intentions to breastfeed, I am wondering what the actual question was? If it was, 'do you intend to breastfeed?' may give different results such as, 'what are your plans to feed your child until he/she is 12 months old?'

It's interesting that most people (including me) choose one brand and stick to it. I actually can't think of an intellectual justification for this except cost perhaps, as all are supposed to contain the same set of basic ingredients, and breastmilk changes taste all the time, so why not rotate brands and give the baby new tastes?

Just a thought .