which is the most ethical formula company

[Reallytired]

I will be going back to work when my daughter is 10 months. My daughter is 3 months at the moment. I will have to mix feed as I cannot express milk to save my life. [guilt emoticon] I am hoping to carry on breastfeeding morning and evening and night feeds.

Assuming that she takes formula at nursery which formula company has the least poor record for breaking marketing rules.

Is there such a thing?

Both of my ds's have been bf, but had some formula as we came to an end. They both took to Aptimil well and we didn't have any problems with it.

Is it just a manual pump you have tried for expressing?
I was given a small medela electric pump ( I know I was lucky!) but they cost about 55quid at the moment I think. That was a lifesaver, without it my son wouldn't have had any breastmilk!

reallytired that is AGES. unlikely as it may seem now, by that time you may well only be feeding a few times during the day anyway.

i went back to work when ds was 12m and just bf morning and evening, he was offered cows milk but never bothered. i have never expressed anything worth having and have fed ds for years.

At ten months a baby can have 3 feeds in 24 hours. You really don't need to introduce formula if you don't want to. She can drink water in the day and eat solid food.

It's also very early days to rule out expressing. It depends a lot on type of pump and there are lots of tricks that can help.

Sorry I am not answering your question but I think you can just stick with the breastfeeding if you'd rather.

www.ethicalconsumer.org/FreeBuyersGuides/babychild/babymilkandformula.aspx

hth

I read that Cow & Gate offered to pull out of Africa when the Nestle boycott first started - but they are now owned by Milupa (aptamil) so I don't know if they are still the same company.

But yes, I don't see that you would need nursery to give her formula at that age if you didn't want to

Hey! Don't feel guilty! Mixed feeding has worked very well for us, meant she could have breast milk till 18 months.

We used Hipp organic.

If I exclusively bf for six months will the number of breastfeeds really be 3 at 10 months. With my son whom I started weaning at 4 months I am sure he was having about 4 feeds a day at that age.

My sil babies just fed at night when she went back to work.

the difference between bfing a 4 (or 3) mo and 10mo is enormous yes.

My DD started nursery at almost 10 months a few weeks ago for 3 days a week. She doesn't have a bottle and I just feed her morning and evening and normally on the days I'm at home. My milk supply is fine and well enough established at this stage to adjust to the different patterns on different days too.

I was so worried too as she never took to a bottle and I didn't want to get her hooked at that late stage. She drinks water at nursery from a beaker during the day and gorges on me at night!!

Try not to think about going back to work too much and enjoy your time at home as it whizzes past too quickly...

Since 10 months DS has only had one feed during the day, often very late in the day. You may well be able to continue BF entirely if your DD will drink just water during the day alongside her solids.

As others have said, at 10 months you may find you don't need the formula bigger babies can regulate their intake to take what they need from you in the hours you are together. Also, expressing when separated from your baby and actually missing feeds is very different than trying to express on top of normal breastfeeding, so again this could be an option that might work, even if you find expressing now very difficult.

Thanks Really, I will also have this issue when I go back to work when DS2 is 9 months (just over 3 months away). I will be full time and am prepared to try expressing again though I was no good at it, but won't be doing so at work.

I went back to work when dd was 10 months and she never had formula and I did not express. She had water in the day and I would bf in the evenings and mornings. Whenever she was with me, she would feed more but was fine without.

My daughter feeds constantly at the moment and I imagine it will be like that until I introduce solids. Do you think I can reduce the number of feeds from 8 to 9 a day to 3 a day in a space of three to four months?

I work in a school and finding privacy to express would be next to impossible. Even then I hate expresssing with a passion.

Things will change so much over the next 3 months in terms of how often she feeds. And then once you introduce solids things will change again. You won't have to force her to drop feeds, as her tummy gets larger she will take more in one go and drop them by herself.

Honestly - for now just relax and enjoy your baby and don't worry about it. The time to reasses is probably about a month to 6 weeks before you go back to work.

Mine went from around 8 feeds a day at 3 months to 5-6 feeds at 5 months, then down to 4 after 6 months. She's 7 months now and although I am keeping up the 4 feeds in addition to solids, I suspect she would be okay with 3 as she never asks for the second one and doesn't seem to notice when it is delayed by a few hours (I sometimes forget to offer ). All of this was baby-led. So you might be surprised at what yours will do in a few months' time...

I have never counted how many feeds dd2 had before I went back to work. she is nearly 10 months now and she is happy to have solids and water at nursery. When I went back to work she was 7.5 mos and not eating much at all so i used to go in at lunchtime and feed her. within about 6 weeks her solids intake increased quite a bit to the point that by 9 months and a bit she was barely interested when I went for the lunchtime feeds.

I expressed at work (school) and have thrown away loads of ebm as she was just not interested in taking a bottle or cup (now in the last 2 weeks she is having water from a sippy cup). I have however been mixing rice cripies and weetabix with ebm and nursery gives it to her. This way at least one of her daytime meals includes my milk.

If you work in a school there is normally somewhere that can be found for privacy to express. I thought there would be none at mine but by asking, they will come up with somewhere as long as they want to support you to express at work.

I am a lot that Hipp is considered ethical. Their misbehaviour in the 3rd world and eastern Europe is embarrassingly so. I guess it is how the link below structured the grading system has made them come on top. They are all pretty naughty code breakers. the fact that it happens to be organic is well, 'meh'not really here or there.

it's hard to know what your baby will want isn't it?

I bf my DD (now 2.5 years) until 10 months, she started nursery at 11 months and I always used Aptimil formula on the advice of a very good friend who is also a bf mentor (and really rather anti-formula (bf her DD until 2.5years) and has done many,many courses relating to bf and ff. She told me not to go near SMA if that's any help.

Like another poster said (sorry can't remember name and am in hurry so no time to scroll back up postings) try not to spend the precious time you have now thinking about what you're going to do when you return to work. I know that's hard because naturally as mothers we do think way ahead of time and spend a lot of time worrying uneccessarily but you'll figure it out.

My DS (almost 6 months) is now having one formula feed per day in an attempt to get him to sleep longer overnight (not that successfully might I add) and he's also been fine with Aptimil.

Why should she not go anywhere near SMA? Is there anything your friend told you about it that you don't mind repeating?

Odd advice from a 'bf mentor' - going wildly over her boundaries I would say

She will not know any more than anyone else about the relative qualities of formula milk, and she certainly should not be touting brand names around in that way.

Not that I know what a 'breastfeeding mentor' is, but it sounds like a sort of trained and qualified person, doing some sort of role.

I think she should desist!

I think Tiktok that the mentor was not acting in a professional capacity, more as a friend. Even so strange for a bf mentor to suggest formula.

Prehaps it depends on how the question is phased. If the person asked "Which is the least evil formula company?" that is different to "Which is the best formula for baby's health?"

at 10 months our DD had:

waking up -breast milk

breakfast - solids using small amount formular milk

10 ish - snack [fruit, biscuit etc, drink of water]

Lunch - solids

3 ish - MILK, breast if mummy home, formular is at nurseyr or with daddy

Tea - solids

Evening feed - breast then formular [so daddy could put her to bed]

I was unable to express [don;t know why but had lots of hel and tried very hard!] and decided that some breast milk when I went back to work was better [for us] than all formula. My supply changed appropriately. I too work in school and found expressing not really possible..... [Hmmm "Miss, why have you got your boobs in a machine?" etc.}

We used Hipp as it was the only one I could stand the smell of, was cheapest per 100g and had recyclable packaging. [cardboard ot tins]

Its a worrying thing to think about going back to work, we were worried about feeding and stuff. However we all settled really, really well, helped by practise days [dd went to nursery and I popped into work before it was actually officially time]

You and your dd will be fine and you should be guilt fre and you have given your daughter as much breast milk as you could. I was still able to feed till dd was nearly 2