Baby milk advice

[ExcitedA3]

Hi, still have 15 weeks to go but I'm thinking about milk already! I want to be prepared. I'm going to use the cartoned milk for various reasons but just wondered which brand people use and which one they would recommend? Thanks in advance!

Apple I must confess that I'm not pg, just came on here to say that all formulas were pretty much the same and to go for the easiest to get hold of to the OP.

Can totally understand you feeling pressurised and I'm so glad I didn't have that with my first. If you do want to try, I can understand you not wanting to speak to your me or hv, it's unlikely that they've had any bfing training anyway. Do have a look at the Bfing Spoort Helplines though. If you do want to give bfing a go, and it doesn't work out, at least you will know that you've tried

Bfing support groups aren't a communal bfing sesh either . Yes, some will feed, but only when their baby needs it, it's very hard to force feed a baby and you probably wouldn't even notice.

I went to our local NCT group which was a nice mix of Ffers, Mix-feeders and Bfers. Met lots of local Mums too

Oh and yes I was wrong about discarding formula after an hour, it is 2 hours. Sorry.

appleblossom and others planning to bf first, if you plan on keeping formula as a backup at first then cartons are probably better as a tub of powder has to be used within a month of opening.

OP I'd suggest the mini bottles rather than cartons as your baby will be drinking so little that you'll have some left over, and popping the lid back on the bottle is easier than decanting the rest of the carton and saves on washing up. It'll be a long while before baby is up to 200ml, that's around 7 ounces. The back of my tin of formula says that babies should be drinking that much in a feed at 7 months old. Newborns have tiny tummies and need feeding little and often, so if you bought bottles you can pop an ounce or so in a bottle at a time and store the rest safely in the fridge (my dd drank expressed milk straight from the fridge from birth btw and took it fine, but not all babies do.)

Also just be aware that it really might not take that long for 200ml cartons to be the right size, it depends on the size of your baby. My 7 week whopper has been on 180ml for a couple of weeks now, and sometimes (not that infrequently!) takes the whole 200ml. He was born at 9lb 2 so obviously takes more than a small baby would. I use a mix of hipp made in the perfect prep (best buy ever), premade and the little ready to go bottles but we do need 2 of them per feed so I mostly use them when I'm out and desperate to quell a huger meltdown. sma made him constipated.

I hope you manage to get through this without too much hassle from the bf evangelists. I have never been able to bf despite help from all these places, private midwives etc and there is nothing more soul destroying than your baby screaming for food and some patronising bitch telling you to get more support to bf. I have a much easier life than my friends who ebf, ff comes with its own breed of hassle (sterilising, higher propensity for constipation etc) but the ebf babies seem to be constantly hungry, permanently attached to a boob and have explosive poos. Not to mention the fact that there's all the pressure to do all feeds yourself, I delegate night feeds at weekends so I can catch up with sleep. good luck with it all!!

Tbh I found cartons a total pain the arse. So much waste too. . I got a perfect prep machine and its fab.

For the record, a bottle lasts two hours before you need to discard and so does a carton of pre made formula so it would be the same for going out and about but cost you a lot more.

I would also recommend perfect prep and if you are willing to spend extra on wasting cartons then 2 pp machines one upstairs and one downstairs may be cheaper in the long run. Unsure how accurate it is as well but my 2 found pre made harder to digest, upset their stomachs and was advised to give it if they ever became constipated as it would clear them out, which it did the pacer was much gentler on their tums it is thinner and less smelly! Saying that I fed pp milk at home and the occasional pre made whilst out (more colicky though after pre made)

Thanks annatha thats v helpful as was defo planning on getting powder, so thats a top tip

Another perfect prep fan. Cartons are good and useful when on the go - I often took an unopened carton and clean bottle with me when out and about in case DD wanted feeding, I took a bottle made up with powder in the perfect prep if I KNEW she would want a feed though.

At 8 months DD is far more predictable now with only three bottles feeds as predictable times but in the early weeks I can't say I could have waited for bottles to warm up from cold regularly. When newborns are hungry they go from not hungry to starving in seconds, it's quite hard to plan IME so agree with some others there.

Personally, I'd recommend perfect prep for home and easy to predict feeds on the go and cartons for trips when you're not sure if baby will get hungry. Might be useful for nightfeeds too, I never tried that.

Apple if you do get powder, try Hipp Organic. Don't know if it's still the same but it used to come with 2 sachets inside the carton so lasts longer

Another thumbs up for hipp organic here.

Aptamil as it comes in little bottles so you can put lids back on. Having knocked over the tetrapak cartons Aptamil used to come in this is a good thing!

DD had her milk straight from the fridge or at room temp if out and about. There's no evidence about it being harder to digest right back at you coastingit. If you want to take the chill off then holding a bottle under hot running water or standing it in boiling water will do the job in a few minutes.

The litre bottles last 48 hours from opening and are very handy with mini bottles for nighttime.

I am just about to have DC no 2. I struggled to bf last time due to emcs and tongue tie . Essentially I did combination feeding, mostly bf but some top ups or bottles particularly later on . Bf til 9 months in the end. Aptamil until 12 months then cows milk.
My lessons for this time having read up and based in the experience of my group of friends with babies are:

Go with the flow. Bf or FF or CF all fine.
This time I will definitely have some tiny bottles ready to give while I wait for milk to come in. They will also allow family members to help out and give me some rest in the early days.

I will just clean bottles in hot soapy water and air dry. Many microbiologists say sterilising is not necessary if you wash well.

Have a few ready made cartons or bottles for out and about but powder much cheaper as they use larger amounts when older
I will leave a carton open in fridge for 24 hours...We also made bottles 2 at a time refrigerated and then warmed up in microwave as needed. No tummy bugs ever doing this last time.

Try them on cold milk first if they get used to always having warm then you make a rod for your own back.

If I need to warm I will do the microwave trick or have a carton and flask upstairs at night.

I don't mean to be pernickety or critical but it's really dangerous to microwave the bottles as it can cause hot spots in the milk that will burn baby's mouth. My friend did this and her little boy got a scalding spot and blistered tongue.

Ps it's totally up to you what you choose to do but if giving that as advice to someone else I think it's important for OP to know the dangers of doing that and that it's not advised.

At the end of the day its absolutely your decision how you feed your baby. But "don't like the idea" isn't necessarily a good reason not to breastfeed. Maybe you should read up on the benefits of breastfeeding and the risks of formula feeding and keep an open mind. Many women find breastfeed a lot easier and more convenient than formula feeding and you won't know unless you try it out for a few weeks.

Compared to breastfed babies, formula fed babies are statistically more likely to experience diarrhoea and vomiting as babies, more chest and ear infections, more chance of eczema, as well as more at risk for obesity and related illnesses later in life. And those are just a few of a potentially much longer list. I think all parents should ideally take these things into serious consideration when deciding how to feed their baby.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/why-breastfeed.aspx

I think its pretty much impossible to escape the advice on the benefits of bf! Its ranmed down your throat at every turn.

I think it must be over hyped personally. My bro and i were ff and have always been strong and healthy as are many others i know.

I don't really think this is the thread to be putting pressure on to BF. If op doesn't want to then that's her decision.
I really wanted to but it didn't work out so seeing things like 'the risks of formula feeding' really doesn't help my feelings of failure!

Yes, completely agree on the 'helpful' advice about bf - not the thread for this, please respect other people's decisions. I too wanted to bf and did successfully for 2-3 months but then had problems and ended up switching. I am happy with my choice. Its bloody rude to keep shoving bf advice down people's throats who didn't ask for it, and in fact specifically asked for ff advice.

The op was asking for advice on formula milk not a lecture on the benefits of breastfeeding

I used Cow & Gate as it's a little bit cheaper and I think they are all roughly the same. I used the ready made milk to begin with for a week or so and then switched over to powdered milk.

I made up the bottles following the guidelines, then rapidly cooled them and stored them in the fridge. I warned them as required which only takes a couple of minutes in hot water.

Enjoy your new baby

I'm not ramming down anyones throat ot putting pressure on. One post about breastfeeding on a whole thread about formula shouldnt be offending anyone!

I have respect for good, well informed decisions, and that's why I've provided OP on some food for thought about breastfeeding. It just sounded like she hadn't really considered it in a very well-informed way.

From my experience BF is very hard and you have to be absolutely committed to the idea to be able to et through the first few weeks.

Ps I don't think the op needs 'a good reason' not to BF. That implies she needs to justify her decision to someone.

Yes, you are. You are giving the OP unsolicited advice because you don't seem her reason for choosing not to bf 'good' enough. Please just stop so this thread doesn't derail into a bf vs ff debate, there's enough of this already.

Mamushka, the OP doesn't have to explain or justify her choices to anyone! You have no idea about the reasons for her choices and it's really rude and patronising to say that her reasons are not well thought out.

The OP asked for advice about formula, so to offer unwanted advice I a different topic is not helpful.

We used Hipp Organic and it was great- i liked that it was derived from organically sourced products. It's not as widely available as other brands such as Aptamil, but this didnt agree with my LB at all- made him so windy and cranky. The paed recommended Hipp as it was gentle- made a huge difference to us. I kept him on it until recently, he's 13 mths now.