Which formula?

[BuzzzyBeee]

Pregnant with DC2 and pondering over which formula to use?

With DC1 I was completely inexperienced and hadn't really thought about it before birth and ended up with SMA on the advice of the midwife.

Is there any particular brand that is better/worse?

I prefer cow & gate.
SMA often causes constipation (sheep dottle poo's)

There are none that are better or worse and it just depends what suits your baby. Cow and gate and aptamil have the same manufacturer but one is cheaper than the other. Hipp has an organic formula if you want to go down that route.

I Combi fed with both mine and thought HiPP organic was good, it dissolves well too. I used aptamil with first but kept finding lumps of undissolved milk powder 'balls' the size of small marbles in her poopy nappies

Sometimes the first formula you try isn't always the one that agrees with your little one. My daughter whent from SMA which make her keep being sick, to cow and gate which make constipated but finally found that aptamil finally agreed with her.

You'll find most things with babys are trail and error untill something works.

One of my friends has been reccomending a new one Kendamil which is made locally to her in the Lake District. Not tried it personally and not sure how wide it's distribution is yet but there's a write up in the grocer trader about it

grocerytrader.co.uk/kendamil-the-cream-of-infant-formulas/

SMA caused bad constipation in DD. We had no issues on Cow & Gate - apparently C&G and Aptamil are exactly the same but C&G is cheaper so we went with C&G!

That doesn't sound good flumpy!

I think I'm going with Hipp Organic.

We had no issues with SMA with DD but I guess like has been said each baby is different.

I was planning on stocking up but I think I'll just get the one box of powder and see who was it goes.

How it goes*

Is there any particular reason you don't want to use SMA again?

We ended up on prescription formula for CMPA but tried most of the big names and didn't find much difference. We never tried Hipp Organic though.

I used Hipp with both DC.

Was it good, Crumpetty?

Yes I thought so. Started with Aptamil but much preferred Hipp as I thought they were more settled on it. It's cheaper too.

No particular reason just didn't do any research with DD so thought I would this time.

With ds, started with Hipp but he was very windy on it. Switched to Aptamil.

With DD, tried Aptamil first but she wasn't keen. Then tried C&G, all good.

A key question to start off is...which brand is most easily available in your area at midnight?

I used/am using hipp with mine. The packaging is a p.i.t.a but it's always been good for us. No wind or constipation issues at all. It has the bonus of being less expensive too.

What about trying donor milk?

Why would she want to do that? The OP hasn't said anything about breastfeeding and asked about formula

I didn't say anything about breastfeeding either? donor milk is a thing that's available (sometimes, somewhere) I'd have used it for sure! OP doesn't even have to express. Just think of donor milk as a product like formula!

Yes but it's not easily available or convenient to source

Very true. Maybe it's a demand and supply thing. More demand might lead to more supply! No harm in suggesting it. I think there's groups that help organise it. It be a poke in the eye for profit making companies eh?

I mix fed DS for a few weeks and then he had one bottle of formula a day when I restarted breastfeeding. Aptamil was the first one I saw on the shelf, so he had that one

We started on Aptamil, but it smelt pretty vile (think it's got fish oil in it) so switched to Hipp. It had the benefit of being a bit cheaper, dissolving better, and was the most similar in taste to breastmilk. The packaging is a ball ache though.

It does smell vile. I just assumed all formula smelt that way!