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?

Not as vile as the dairy free formulas. They may have done my DS the world of good but my god they smell.

I looked into donor milk, but I understand that it's generally reserved for small, sick babies. It is very inconvenient to source, as well - I think you would need to know and trust the other woman.

I wouldn't consider donor milk.

It seems very mixed feedback which again shows each baby is different. We might just start off with the SMA and take it from there.

Thanks everyone 😊

I went with cow and gate purely becasue it was the cheapest in asda. No problems so far.

I have a friend who donates milk and she has said that it's mainly used for prem babies becasue there isny enough donors to maintain enough supply for general usage.

I used hip, it smelled nicest

Choose something you can get locally with ease, including ready made and powder. I wanted to use hipp but it was a ball ache as had to be ordered in to boots.

I used aptimal with both mine only because it was what they were given in the hospital. DS ended up mildly lactose intolerant so after the first stage one I had to switch him to a lactofree (think sma) Planning on using aptimal again this time but only buying one tub in case it's not the right one for them. As other posters have said, try go for something that you can get at any time of day/night and be prepared to have to switch to different ones.

Pretty much all the brands are easy to get hold of round here. I always kept at least one tin spare so no midnight dashes necessary.

Inthink you're right that different babies prefer different brands ... See how you get on

I used sma with dd1 because I could get it in the local shop.

With dd2 I used cow and gate because I liked the box and the little bit of plastic to level the scoop instead of a knife.

Tried cow and gate and SMA Gold on both of mine, neither suited them they both really thrived well on Aptamil. I've never tried Hipp Organic so can't comment on that brand.

Agree it's just trial and error.

We ended up using cow and gate.

Aptamil made DD sick a lot.