FF - When did you move from first milk?

[ohnelly]

Hi all I am ff my DS, currently 5 weeks on Aptimal first milk & was just interested to know when it is usual to move to the second stage milk? As in how old was the baby & how did you know they were ready/needed to? thanks

We tried to change at 6 months but dd got awful stomach pains and contipation so we stayed with first milk until 12 months when she went onto cows milk.

But 6 months is the earliest you can change. There is hungry baby milk but I didn;t like the idea of that as it bloats them and isn't good for their digestion.

They have to have first milk or breastmilk until 6 months I thought.

Oh it was the hungry baby milk that I meant as the next stage - so I assume thats just if the first milk isnt satisfying them?

I would just up the quantities rather than change to hungry baby milk. It has different rations of whey and casein and just makes them feel fuller for longer whereas what a small baby needs is to be fed little and often.

Ok thanks I wasnt thinking of changing at the moment anyway as he seems happy enough on the first milk still - was just interested to see what others did

You don't have to use the hungry baby stuff. DS was on first milk (also Aptamil) until about 8 months. We just increased the quantity until 6 months as he needed it.

After weaning at 6 months, he dropped a couple of bottles when he was eating more solids.

We switched to follow on at about 8 months, mainly because it's what I felt he "should" have and I was worried about iron...totally sucked in by the marketing on that one!

I may be completely wrong, but I think (someone more knowledgeable, please?!) that there is no need at all to move on to second-stage or follow-on milk? It is just a marketing con, so they can get round the advertising legislation I think.

Second stage is hungry milk and cannot be advertised. Follow on can be marketed as it is aimed at babies over 6 months. I used hungry milk from around 14 weeks and it helped keep ds more settled between feeds (even though he didnt really go much further between feeds). It never bloated him or constipated him.