If for whatever reason I can't breastfeed...

[wingingitmills]

What would you recommend for formula? I want to try breastfeeding but if it's not possible for me I wanted to know what would be the best one?

They're all the same. If there was a 'best' one, everyone would use that, and the others would disappear.

Indeed.

Whatever you can get hold of the most easily! Not a huge issue if you live near a big supermarket, but if you live somewhere where you are reliant on a corner shop or similar they may only stock one brand.

I was automatically given Cow&gate in hospital when Ds needed topping up so stuck with that, and plan to use the same (if necessary) this time.

Cow and gate is cheapest so I'd go with that to start. They are all much of a muchness. Some baby's tolerate some formulas better than others.

Lots say aptamil is 'best' as it's closest to breast milk but that's a load of rubbish and my marketing hype. It really doesn't matter.

I took the pre sterilized aptamil bottles to the hospital, not because it was aptamil but because all you needed to do was crew on the teat.

If you’re wanting to bf then make sure you have details of local support services, a lot of problems can be overcome with good support even if it’s hard going to start with.

Aptamil do sterile bottles for newborns so we took those to hospital and just carried on with aptamil for top ups for a while. She's now also had SMA and cow and gate and it makes no difference to her.

If you're on a budget apparently Aldi do one, because of all the regulations they're all going to be as nutritious as each other.

We’re using HIPP.

Started on cow and gate but it was very frothy and I was concerned it was giving my DC gas so I moved to hipp. They also do those premade steriliser newborn with teat bottles on their website

I started DD on SMA in the hospital and, naturally, carried on when we got her home. She began to get very irritable, especially in the evening, and we switched her onto HIPP (after a little research and asking around) We've had absolutely no issues since and she's gained perfectly

Thanks for the insight everyone!