Which formula is better SMA or Kendamil?

[NewbieToThis]

Hi so my baby is due in March and I plan to combo feed from birth. The hospital I will be having my baby at provide either sma, Aptamil or Cow and Gate which is great. I was planning on either using Cow and Gate, Sma or Kendamil (preferably that). My midwife told me they are all pretty much the same as there’s certain rules the companies have to follow to make the milk up. She told me that Kendamil is more expensive than the other 3.

have any of you used those formulas for your babies? Which ones are better? Have any of you used them with combo feeding? I’ve seen a lot of combo feeding mums use kendamil that’s why I was going to use it. have any of you had any issues with any of those baby milks? I know every baby is different just like everyone is different so what works for one might not work out for the other and vice versa.

Nutritionally they are very similar ( they have to be) be they can use different ingredients and different proportions of those ingredients to achieve that .
Kendamil bottles are easier to wash up than some other ones! But didn't actually agree with my DSvtummy

I see what you mean. They are similar but can differ slightly with ingredients. I did a google search and found out that Kendamil is actually cheaper than SMA by like £2 so I could either transition them onto kendamil after hospital

They have have to meet the same nutritional needs.
I would start with the cheapest and one available in the your local shop and go from there. We only ever had prescription formula but the stress when there's a risk of not having it available

Is there a reason you are combi feeding from day 1 and not your first day at home? You might find it easier to just breastfeed whilst in the hospital and then formula feed once in the comfort of your own home usually 1-3 days later. We switched to formula when I was in hospital and it was much easier at home and quite stressful in the hospital to get it to the right temperature etc. I'm not sure I would have managed it whilst still recovering from the lack of sleep from labour and child birth

We used SMA at first because that's what the hospital had.

At home we used Aptimil because that was available in the shops.

We tried cow & gate and it upset baby's stomach.

These were all ready to feed bottles though.

Is there a reason you're going in with formula immediately? You might struggle to build up a milk supply if baby's not breastfeeding all the time. It took me 3 weeks to establish breastfeeding, which is why we used formula, but I did have some problems.

I know one baby on Kendamil and he's positively obese. Apparently they use full fat milk and there's quite a few very chunky babies on that formula. Perhaps have a Google.

Thanks for the advice. I’ve just googled and SMA Little Steps is cheaper so I’ll start with that and see how he gets on. They do ready to feed bottles with teats at hospital so I’ll not need to worry about measuring out formula. I’ll do 2 breastfeeds to 1 formula feed to help build up supply. I’ll get a pump to help as well. The reasons I’m combo feeding from birth is that I get migraine with aura and I fear they’ll get worse with lack of sleep so combo feeding from the get go allows me and hubby to share the night feeds so both of us can get a good stretch of sleep. I’m visually impaired and I find my vision gets worse with lack of sleep. Also my skin can be sensitive so if breastfeeding doesn’t work out my baby will be able to take a bottle as he’ll be used to it from the get go.

I’ve heard kendamil uses full fat milk which I think is why a lot of combo feeding mums use it but I’ll have to keep an eye on my baby’s weight in case he gets overweight on it. If I decide to use kendamil

Bump

We used kendamil, my baby was a tiny 4.12lbs at birth and she didn't become chunky. Would recommend it to anyone.

We tried 3 different formulas before we found one that worked for DD. I think we ended up on sma and that was best for her. The other ones upset her stomach or made her colicky.

Don't set you heart on using a particular brand. As with all things baby be open to change!

Also be prepared to try many different bottle and teat types.

I had to combo feed for a while DH had a tongue tie and couldn't latch then took a while to get to BF fully. We used kendamil organic and later when weaning the kendamil porridge. He was happy to switch between the two and he absolutely wasn't and still isn't obese 😂
It was harder to get then but I see it everywhere now. I liked that it didn't contain palm oil etc

Thanks for the replies. I know every baby is different and if my son doesn’t agree with SMA I’ll put him onto kendamil and if that doesn’t work I’ll try one of the other brands. Yes I’m going to get both the mam bottles and Tommee Tippee bottles as they are good with combo feeding. Which ones have you tried?

Bump

The calories and other components/ vitamins etc have to be the same for all formulas- Kendamil hasn’t got more fat or calories .

Kendamil and SMA are both palm oil free and fish oil free

Aside from that all formulas are very similar as the regulations are so tight.

You can get the mini hospital bottles of Kendamil if you choose that one

we use the kendamil organic one (because I wanted organic) and its locally made etc. i find it handy to order bulk deliveries of milk from their website as it can sell out at shops quite often.

I Really struggled to get breastfeeding to work and we didn’t manage it. Ds came early so was relying on pumping to get my milk supply up, which was ok but then really struggled and never successfully got him to latch or take milk directly. I pumped and combi fed. Then at 6 weeks switched to only formula.

We Started on sma in the hospital. Well sma pre-made and expressed milk. Then we found out when we were at home that the powdered sma didn’t work well (ds would be more sick). So we switched to mamia powder, and c&g readymade when out. He was also sick a lot and constipated on c&g powder but he was fairly ok on the readymade.

At 6 months we tried kendamil but he was back to being sick again and constipated. Tried hipp and that went as well as mamia for him.

There is no formula that is "better" than any other in general terms. They all have to meet the same nutritional standards. That's not to say that they are all the same though. They do have different ingredients and some brands suit some babies better. Unfortunately it's a matter of trial and error and asking other people isn't really that helpful, as for every Mum who says that formula A was terrible and B was wonderful for their baby you'll find another who says the exact opposite! The First Steps Nutrition Trust provides some good independent comparisons of different brands on their website so you could look there, especially if there's any ingredients you particularly want to avoid. No particular formula is better or worse than any other for combination feeding as despite what the manufacturers might like us to believe none is any more like breastmilk than the rest. You can combi feed with any brand that your baby likes.
I think there's a lot to be said with starting with a brand that you know is available in your local shops in case you run out at an inconvenient time and seeing how your baby gets on with that. You might find your first choice is fine or you could need to try a few different brands before you settle on one, so don't buy too much to begin with in case you end up with a cupboard full of a type that your baby just doesn't take to.

I don't know how the ready made formulas work but the issue I had with the formula in hospital was not the measurement but that in hospital it had to be made with all recently boiled water and it took forever to cook it from 80+ oC to a drinkable temperature. At home we did mostly recently boiled water and topped up with cooled boiled water so it was close to a drinkable temperature.

I understand the importance of sleep. I am at high risk of post partum psychosis without sleep. I'm a night owl and my partner is a lark so I tried to express and she went to dad at 6 am on his nonworking days. She had a bottle aversion on and off caused by reflux so during those times dad took her away until she needed a feed the brought her back just for the feed and took her away again. One of the most important feeds to breastfeed for in the early days is the one at 2-3 am as this helps to boost your supply. It is a pain having a split night but dad doing the last feed before bed and you going up earlier or taking the first feed like my partner did is best from a maintaining supply point of view.

Make sure you have support in place for the first 6-8 weeks. My daughter slept like a dream. 3h chunks having to be woken up for a feed through the night. She reaches 3 weeks and develops reflux and now takes 60-90minutes to go from asleep in my arms to being able to put her down and for my sanity we coslept. At 4 weeks my in-laws visited for 5 days and it was so helpful to have the extra pair of hands much more than if they came in week 2.

@Superscientist the ready made formula is ready to drink from the bottle it's sold in at room temp. And then when you take it out of the fridge you can just decant the correct amount and then put the bottle in a cup of hot water too heat up a bit.

Thank you ready made wants an option for us as only one formula was available for my daughter