Which formula??

[DueInFebruary]

I'm sure you will all be sick of hearing from me by the time baby is here! Due date is still a few weeks away but I'm trying to get our hospital bags packed and organised. After many discussions with midwife and gp it's been decided due to medication I'm going to FF instead of BF. Looking at buying the formula how do I pick which brand to go with? Do I order a couple of different ones? Or a few of the same? Don't really want to be continuously changing her milk if she gets on with it. Is it common for babies to have a natural preference for one or will she just go with whichever I buy asking as there's no lactose intolerance?

I used SMA for both my DS' and they absolutely loved it.

I didn't breastfeed DS1 but I did DS2 and I had no problem putting either of them on formula, no stomach upsets and they had it until they were 1.

I read the tin and chose that way I liked the information that was on SMA.

There's just soooo many options! The one I'm looking at at the moment is the aptimal premixed cartons for the hospital as they come with a teat that just connects to the carton rather than having to pack bottles to take with us. Does this sound ok? Or would the hospital prefer we took in bottles and unmixed formula?

I went for sma and haven't had to change formula. The hospital has the small bottles of per prepared formula so I didn't need to take any with me, they had the option of sma or cow and gate.

Is used aptimil once I switched form breast feeding. My hospital didn't supply formula and you had to take the ready made stuff rather than powder

sma and cow and gate also do the bottles with teats as a starter set

cow and gate is made by the manufacturer of aptamil but is cheaper

Ok so far looks like I should try sma. Will see if I can get premixed cartons with the attachable teat like the aptimil ones.

My hospital had formula there. I didn't know this and took our own in too. Also they already had the little sterilised bottles too. So we didn't need anything for feeding really. Maybe ask about the bottles. I don't think you'll need to take your own in.
We also went with sma. No problems
My son now six had cow and gate.
Again fine.

my dd had sma and then ds had aptamil before switching to cow and gate as it was cheaper.

if you look online supermarkets, boots, etc do the sma starter pack as well as cow and gate and aptamil.

not all hospitals will provide formula so best to check with them first

Our hospital doesn't supply formula I know that much

They are all much of a muchness - legally need to pretty much the same nutritionally.

Aptimal and Cow & Gate are actually completely identical - made by the same parent company, in the same factory, with the same ingredients and formulation. They are then packaged under two different brands, one being most expensive on the market and one the cheapest on the market to get a larger market share for the parent company.

Generally you shouldnt swap which formula you use unless there's a problem, to ensure no tummy upsets. So pick a brand and stick to it.

C&G/aptimal and sma come in the little 6packs of premade with the sterilised teats to attach.

Thank you all for your help! Think we are going to try cow and gate as there is obviously no point paying more for the exact same product (aptimil). Will send DH out now to buy :) there's so many decisions to make about stuff that I've never had to worry about before

go with what is available at your local shop for those last min run out of formula panics.

Luckily for us we have a large supermarket literally a 2 minute walk away :)

I planned to use SMA as that was the one I knew others had used but DS started on nutriprem which is made by cow and gate so when he was ready for normal formula we stayed with cow and gate to avoid any tummy issues. No issues with it, you can buy ready made and it's quite a bit cheaper than Aptamil despite being the same

When my DS was a baby we used Hipp Organic don't know if it's still manufactured now. He was a very small baby and SMA seemed to make him constipated. Used Aptamil with DD and had the pre-made up cartons for days out

Don't overthink it. They're much of a muchness & the only difference is in the marketing. Just pick one & see how you get on. Only swap if problems occur. Don't go looking for complex stuff unless advised to.

Last time I chose Aptamil (although I'm very well aware Cow & Gate is the same thing in a different colour box!) nothing happened that op aide me think of swapping.

DS is on SMA. I took the ready made glass bottles with the screw on teats to the hospital as mine wouldn't provide milk if you chose to FF

I chose to ff from birth and hadn't given brands a thought, when the midwife asked what I wanted I said SMA as it was the first one I thought of.
She thrived on it, gained weight every week, never sick and had no allergies, dd2 is due in 6 weeks and have packed some ready made SMA as the hospital have since stopped providing it, I don't know if they do the bottles with the screw on teat so have packed a couple of dd1's feeding bottles.

sma do have the starter packs with bottles/teats

Start with the cheapest and go from there!!! They're all so similar, good luck

Also, how do I know how much formula to decant into one of her bottles if I buy the larger premixed cartons?

The midwife will tell you, she told us to give 2oz for the first time but the premade bottle had more in and she ended up drinking 4.
They will give you advice on how many oz and how often, dd was on 2oz every 4 hours but within a couple of days moved up to 4oz, once you're out of hospital you will see your health visitor regularly and they'll tell you when to increase it.

I made my own decisions a lot of the time though, dd loved the formula and would drain the bottles so I adjusted the frequency and the amount to suit her. I'm probably a health visitors nightmare as I also used dummies but as long as dd was happy and content so was I

they only take 2-3 ounces at a time to start with and then the rest of the carton can be stored in the fridge for 24 hours (small carton) or 48 hours for the larger ones. If they finish what you have poured in then add some more to the bottle