Is Follow On Milk Worth It?

[nwlondoner]

Is it worth getting follow on milk for my 6 month old? What is the difference between this and the 0-6m milk? I know that follow on milk sometimes has offers which is a bonus but did anyone bother to change their formula as I've heard that I can keep using the 0-6m milk? Very confused!

There's no benefit. It only exists so that the companies have something to advertise. There's no need to change, and some babies don't react well to changing formula.

Follow on has more sugar and other unnecessary crap in it. It’s just so they can advertise it.

The adverts would make you think that follow on milk will make your baby an athlete and a genius, with all the wonderful additives. In reality it's no different. Stick to the milk you are using - your baby will thank you !

Isn't it that baby formula is not allowed to be advertised because bf should be promoted not ff. So they advertise follow-on milk because technically they are not saying their milk is a substitute for breast milk. But really it is just the same as any old formula? Surely "follow-on milk" for most babies is just the milk you buy in the supermarket?

As PP said, the concept of "follow-on" milk was invented to get round advertising laws. It doesn't really do anything different from 0-6 month formula, but they're not allowed to advertise the latter - so they invented something they could advertise.

I think follow on has a bit more iron than first stage formula, but from six months they are eating solids and getting extra iron that way anyway. Most parents I've worked for just keep them on first stage formula.

As others have said, it's a complete con. First milk until they're one.

A hv told me that even though they're not supposed to

I did switch to follow on milk at around 9 months. I did it because it was cheaper and you could get offers not because of spurious claims about extra iron/ nutrients.

The only reason it exists is because it can be advertised when baby milk can’t. The only reason to switch to it is that you can get supermarket points on them. It made DD very sick so we went back to baby milk.

Its the same but supermarkets will put follow on milks on offer and they add more iron. I use it because of those small benefits

I buy it only when it’s on offer! Otherwise I wouldn’t bother. Marketing ploy.

Created purely to get around not being able to advertise formula as bf should be promoted for newborns. 6 month old babies should be on a varied diet and receive extra iron from that.

I think I used the '0-6' stuff for about a year then switched to the Growing Up stuff because my daughter was a crap eater and it has extra vitamins in and she wasn't getting those vitamins from her diet. I seem to remember being advised that by a health visitor. If your baby is weaning fairly good and has a decent diet then they probably don't need extra vitamins.

Isn't follow on milk cheaper than formula?

Yes it can be.

Stacey Dooley (I think ) did a documentary on BF in the uk. Within the documentary it covered formula and follow on Milks and how they are advertised and what nutritional value they bring. Basically it shown follow on milk to be a marketing fad with regards to the nutritional value to the baby.

Follow on milk is not that different to first milk. Toddler milk is the biggest con I think as after the age of 1 cows milk is perfectly acceptable

Thanks everyone for the really helpful comments we'll stick with her first milk!