Should we switch formula from first milk to follow on purely because it's cheaper?

[Sunrise888]

We are mixed feeding my 7mo, trying to get as much breastmilk into my baby as possible, but he has always been reluctant to latch so we are very dependent on formula.

All advice I've seen is to stick with first milk because the follow on milk is a marketing gimmick. I'm happy to go with this. My DH says if they are essentially the same we should change to follow on milk to take advantage of the lower price. We looked at the ingredients together and the constituents are the same, the variation in amounts between the two is as much as the variation between brands. He also argued there was probably more variation in how we measure each scoop.

We don't know enough to judge how an extra gram of this or a micro gram of that will make a difference to the baby. He is starting to wean so he is hopefully getting some nutrients from that anyway.

The main bit about follow on that concerns me is that it has an extra gram per 100ml of sugar (mostly lactose) compared to the first milk, and I think formula is a lot sweeter than breastmilk anyway.

So if they are essentially the same, should we switch to follow on to save money?

I did tbh although I think ds was closer to 9 months. It can be constipating due to extra iron but it never affected ds

Every baby I know who has tried follow-on milk has ended up really constipated

We switched at 7 months, never had any problems with constipation or anything then at a year started real milk and transitioned fully to that over about 3 weeks

Yes it's a marketing gimmick but I switched to save a few pennies. I'd not heard of any constipation problems.

Ok thanks, I didn't know iron could be so constipating. I'll stick to first milk then.

I switched (also because it was cheaper) at 6 and then 10 months (cheaper again) and my son didn’t have any issues with constipation. A few weeks before he hit 12 months I phased in cows milk as that’s cheaper still (even with taking into account the vitamin supplement I mix in).

You could try swapping between the formulas gradually (which was what I did each time). For example 1scoop follow on and 6 original for a few days then 2/4 for a few days etc.

I also swapped between brands in this way, going from C&G to Aldi at 3 months. I swapped as Aldi own brand was cheaper. I also swapped to various French and Spanish brands from 6 months (we were travelling) each time going for the cheapest. Again no issues.

We swapped to follow on milk at 6 months with no constipation issues

We swapped at 6 months because it was cheaper and we got boots points. No issues with constipation or anything. Switched to cows milk at 12 months too, again without any issues. We only switched to save money and I would have reverted back if there were any issues.