Belgian, German, Swiss, Italian and French formula milk

[CheshireSplat]

Hello.

DH and I are planning a 7 week camping trip in the summer with DD1 and DD2 who will be 8 months. DD2 is bottle fed and as our car is going to be full to the gunnels, I was wonder in how easy it would be to buy ready made formula. I'm not worried about the brands as DD2 is pretty adaptable - just whether babies on the continent have ready made up formula? I'm sure I bought some very sweet tasting stuff in France for DD1.

Thanks.

I only know about Italy. It's phenomenally expensive and they tend to stock it only in big hypermarkets and pharmacies. I haven't, in all honesty, seen much of the "ready made up" formula at all.

In my medium sized town for example (60,000 people) you can only buy it at the chemist.

In 2003 you were paying about 28 euro for a kilo.

People get in their cars in the north and go over the border to places in Austria where it's cheaper.

Thanks Sangria. Looks like we'd better add Austria to our list!

In France you can get lait de croissance cheaply anywhere but it might just be from a year up. Don't recall seeing bottles of ready-mixed formula, just powder to mux yourself.

I met up with a french friend in the uk recently and she marvelled at the range of ready to drink formula available.
I have bought some myself in switzerland and it was extortionately expensive.

Can you not use powdered? I used to go to Spain and always bought when I was there. I called our formula manufacturer, and asked for the closest match "for emergencies only"

Just adding a slightly controversial old gimmer point of view - there will be no harm in some cows milk to drink at 8 months. When dd1 was weaning it was onto cows milk from6-12 months. If you can be sure she'll take the occaisional bottle ( not as full nutrition etc ) then you'll never have a desperate crisis.

Uht full fat is easy on the continent.

I'd be very interested to know what the formula guidance is abroad -judging by the expense I'd wonder I'd actually they still recommend cows milk?

You can get ready made aptamil formula cartons in Germany at shops like DM, Rossmann and Müller (like Boots in UK). There is huge demand for normal powdered formula boxes/tins though which means there is often none of the main brands on the shelves/very low stock and restrictions on how many you can buy at once. just to be aware of that in case you decided to go that route.

In Switzerland it will be expensive.
In Germany there is a company like Boots called DM. Website is www.dm.de and I'm pretty sure they sell readymade baby milk. Maybe you could email them?
An alternative would be to get a Germany delivery address like ww.grenzpaket.de you register on their website for an depot in a town on the boarder of Switzerland and they give you a number. You can then order milk from places like Boots.com and have it sent to the delivery address. It's a couple of Euro per package. For the delivery you write you name followed by the number and they email you when the package arrives.
Enjoy your camping trip!

Wow, thanks everyone. That's great.

angel, I will use some powder when we are on the campsite itself, but when we are out and about I'm worried about made-up formula getting too hot in the heat.

theas, I'm inclined to agree. maybe a combination of cows milk, and formula...

Heather. thanks so much, really useful.

and Welshcake thank you. I won't reply on it then.

interesting how different it is here. I use a ready made carton about once a fortnight, so not often but they do have their uses.

just buy the powder and mix it with evian

Also remember if your travelling in summer I assume baby is around 6 months now so only just starting solids. Another two months on he will be able to eat anything rather than just milk like now so you won't need as many each day. And as over 6 months can easily miss a day of formula and just give food and regular milk until you find some formula.

Personally I would take a tin of powdered milk, and a box of ready made ( about 20 cartons). He will probably only need around 3 bottles a day on average alongside food. Then can just buy more as needed but that should last you over a week if you use the powder morning and Eve most the time.

Germany and Austria sell aptimal and hippo. Own brand holle is also good and does good baby porridge with formula powder in ( you just add hot water). Dm is a great store btw for nappies and all other toiletries

Whatever you do, don't plan to stock up on anything in Swirzerland other than chocolate ! I can't recall seeing ready made formula there, but the formula was mindblowingly expensive.

thanks all! feeling I have a plan now, so that's great

In Belgium, aptamil is sold as "Nutrilon" powder in the exact same packaging and can be found in most supermarkets. (Except first infant formula - only in pharmacies but that wont affect you) Ready made formula isn't really a thing here, just lait du croissance for 1yr+ which is horribly sweet IMO. Also remember fresh milk is less easy to find here/France in smaller shops as its all UHT.

thanks cosmic!

I'd go with the full fat UHT solution. It's more tolerable than fresh milk. In Germany powdered formula is available in supermarkets and pharmacies and in France in pharmacies.

I would also switch to cows' milk if I were you, for the main part of the day at least. I did this with DD at a similar age as I went back to work (breastfeeding) and she didn't like formula. I fed her first thing and at bed-time but she had cows' milk during the day. It did her no harm. Switching to cows' milk at 6 months was the norm until very recently.

Incidentally, watch out for the water if you are mixing formula with powders. I'm sure I read / heard somewhere to be careful when using mineral water to make up formula, as the minerals can upset babies' tummies if they're not used to them.