Follow on Formula?? and Hipp vs Aptimil

[cocococo]

Hi
I can't decide whether follow-on formula is just a marketing ploy by the baby-milk companies and whether DS should just eat more spinach instead! At 5 months, DS is down to one BF in the morning, 3 bottles of formula and 3 solids a day and seems to be thriving - well he's a bit of a chubster actually!

I did a bit of research into the formula market when deciding to reduce the number of BFs a day and wanted a milk closest to BM and of course ALL of them are 'closest to BM'! I narrowed it down to Hipp as it was organic and Aptimil and went for the organic option in the end when I read something about fish eyes and the type of fat in formula - lovely! Which of the formulas do you think is best? If I switch to a follow on milk I may change brand if someone thinks there is a better milk out there than Hipp.
Hope you can help.

Hi there,

Just wondering if anyone could help on two formula-related queries:

1: My ds will drink water quite happily out of a glass or mug or anything going, and loves drinking soda water with a straw. But his formula milk HAS to come out of his bottle. He is 15 months and I read that babies of that age should be drinking out of cups only and shouldn't use bottles at all. Does anyone out there know WHY there should be no bottles? And should I be worried?

2: On the fresh milk vs formula discussion, is formula for a 15 month old actually harmful? THe reason I ask is that I live in Malaysia, and my pediatrician says fresh milk here isn't so good and has higher levels of antibiotics etc than fresh milk in the UK. I've no expertise in this field so I don't know if what he says is true or not (of course everytime we go to the pediatrician we get free samples of formula milk, so it must be quite a business...) My main reservation about formula milk is that it is sweet and tastes like vanilla. Any comments/advice????

Well my daughter was the same, anything but milk was fine in a cup, but milk had to be a bottle. She was like this until she was 2. I went cold turkey one night as I decided that she was getting other sources of calcuim etc so if she wouldn't drink the milk then so be it. She doesn't drink much milk now at 3 maybe 1/2 a cup a day, but otherwise eats loads. All I can say is don't worry. No2 is coming up a year and I am weaning off bottles slowely (ie none in the day and milk from a cup as well) but she loves her last bottle at night. If she continues this one i won't be too worried. How many bottles are you giving? By this age it doesn't really matter as long as the diet is varied to give less than a pint. Wean them slowly, or go cold turkey if you feel that yhey are getting the vitamins etc form yoghurt or cheese or whatever.

I maybe totally wrong here but I thought the whole issue of getting them off 'bottles' was the TEAT ISSUE as milk through a teat is in more constant contact with the teeth which can cause decay etc etc. Drinking through a teat takes longer so it is even longer in contact with teeth. Therefore what we have done is we brought the white spout type inserts to our bottles (avent type) so he has his milk in a bottle but not through a teat.....Then every so often we took the insert out of the bottle and gave him a straw...ds was very content because he still identified milk with the bottle but he has it through a straw...hope I've explained that ok. After a few months we introduced him to the milk in a beaker with a straw once a week and then we built it up gradually so that now he almost always has his milk in a beaker with a straw but it is always the SAME beaker he has a special beaker just for milk. I'm sure many of you have other proven ways of dealing but I really think the issue isn't the bottle but the teat that we should be concerned about, or maybe I've interpruted(sp?) it wrong?

Yes, Dixie, you are right, it's the teat that's the issue. In fact, dentists like straws, as the liquid almost bypasses the teeth altogether. With a teat, the teeth can be bathed in milk/juice/whatever - water wouldn't matter of course.

The other issue with bottles/teats is they become comforters and kids can walk round with an all-day bottle, swigging from time to time and the teeth never get a rest from the contact.

Oh, yes, there is another issue too! Bottles of milk, if they are drunk frequently through the day, can mean the toddler has a tum full of milk, and this blunts his appetite for other foods.

Just skimmed through this thread but I noticed that someone mentioned intelligence and breast feeding. There have been many studies done on this which show higher points on intelligence tests for breastfed babies. It is however difficult to show directly what factors contribute to intelligence because of the many environmental factors involved. However in a study quoted in the paper below results were selected from 11 studies in order to perform a meta-analysis. Using this approach, they quantitated a 5.3-point intelligence quotient (IQ) difference in cognitive development favouring breast-fed children; after adjustment for covariates the difference dropped to 3.2 points. So there is a difference although it is small. The difference is due to the composition of breast milk and also could be due to the act of breastfeeding itself promoting positive social behaviour thus contributing to a better cognitive development. This is explained below.

?Recent information on breast-milk composition revealed that despite the efforts of formula manufacturers, artificial formulas remain significantly different from breast milk. Several nutrients and other components present in breast milk could contribute to the enhancement of mental development. Long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFAs) in human milk have an effect on the chemical composition of the brain and enhance retinal and cortical function? The presence of growth factors and hormones in breast milk are also of potential interest. These agents can act directly, influencing brain biochemistry and functional development, or indirectly, modifying sensory systems that affect brain development?

?The act of breast-feeding itself, as a mode of mother-infant interaction, may favor cognitive development. Taking milk from the breast has profound effects on both mother and infant. Hormonal responses in the dyad triggered by breast-feeding, prolonged skin contact, the reduction in maternal stress with feeding, and the improved mother-infant interaction all contribute to bonding and may enhance cognitive development.?

Breast is best: human milk is the optimal food for brain development, Ricardo Uauy and Patricio Peirano, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 70, No. 4, 433-434, October 1999

The difference is higher in tests done on children who were premature because of their relatively immature brains at the time of birth. The difference narrows with time to reach a plateau of breastfeeding at around 6 months of age. Therefore this may not affect the discussion here about follow on milk. There are of course other benefits to longer breastfeeding such as the continued immunological protection for example.

This may be the wrong place to ask, but what the heck? My problem is that Kathryn (bless her) won't take a bottle at all!! She's just 5 months old and is now taking solids quite well, followed by milk (from me). I've tried introducing a bottle (SMA Gold) and she hates it with a passion. I keep trying, but I really hate it when she cries and won't drink. I've also tried a beaker. Any tips would be appreciated as I've got to get her on to bottles - I'm due to be going out to a dinner in 3 weeks and I'd like to have her taking a bottle by then. Help please?

Does she take expressed milk or water from a bottle? ie is it the bottle that is the problem or the milk? My ds hated every type of formula ( and I can't blame him because they all taste horrible!) until we found Nannygate which is a goats milk formula. I was getting quite desperate as he was 9m old and I was returning to work and couldn't bf anymore. Anyway he absolutely loves it. Worth a try maybe?

Deborahf, maybe you could try her with a different type of formula (my breastfed son did prefer Hipp to any other brand, for example), and what finally cracked it for us was giving formula to him in a Playtex System bottle. This has a rubber teat that looks quite like a human nipple. The bottles and teats (and liners, it's a disposable system from the US) can be bought from independent chemists, rather than Boots etc.
He never would take expressed breast milk that way, it had to be formula.
Good luck.

Deborah - can't you just breastfeed her before you go out to dinner (and when you come back if necessary)? She shouldn't need anything else.

I have just read some of the comments and feel more confused than ever.I was also considering using follow on as The pampers web-page did say follow on milk had less calories. I also read somewhere that you need vit c to absorb iron. I find weaning confusing as every book, website information pack says something different. One might say spinach is great at 6 months other will say not until 12. Life was so much easier when i was just breast feeding. I think i will just stick to the regular formula.

Liliansmum, this thread is six years old!

The best weaning advice I was given was to ignore all books, websites and information packs, especially ones that had a commercial interest (ie they want to sell you baby food) and offer dd a little bit of whatever we were having. The only things to avoid are honey, nuts, shellfish and added salt (so any processed foods).

Remember that until she's 1 milk is still her main source of nutrition and food is 'just for fun'.