Formula feeding costs?

[NewMum2021x]

Hey everyone. I'm hoping to breastfeed my first born in July when I'm due. If all else fails I will obviously bottle feed with formula. I'm new to this obviously and just wondered the average monthly cost of formula? (As a new born and as they get older!) any help would be massively appreciated as I just want to factor this into my costs just in case :) thank you all!

(Just in average as I know all formula is different!)

I combi feed - my 3 month old has 2-3 bottles a day, the rest is breast. I use approx 1 tub of powder at a cost of £8 (cow and gate) per week. Nappies and milk are expensive!

@NewMum2021x

Hey everyone. I'm hoping to breastfeed my first born in July when I'm due. If all else fails I will obviously bottle feed with formula. I'm new to this obviously and just wondered the average monthly cost of formula? (As a new born and as they get older!) any help would be massively appreciated as I just want to factor this into my costs just in case :) thank you all!

(Just in average as I know all formula is different!)

I used about 1-1.5 tubs of formula a week with my wee boy from birth up to around 6 months. It did vary though obviously depending the amount he drank daily, sometimes more sometimes less but that was an average. After 6 months once weaning and bottles were cut down a tub of formula lasted a lot longer around 2 weeks sometimes 3. Formula price was around £10-13 depending on what shop bought from

Avoid the premade stuff if you can because it's a fortune and doesn't last long, it's okay for the odd day out or whatever but so much cheaper using your own water and powder

My dd is 5.5 months and she goes through a tub and a half of Hipp every week, so approximately £15 per week. Bottles cost around £50 for the 9 we have (MAM) and we are now on the third lot of teats, £20 for 8, the size X now as we have to thicken her milk due to reflux. We buy Cow and Gate carobel thickener at around £5 per week.

Formula is pretty expensive. I also wanted to breastfeed but it didn't work out. I wish it had of as it would have saved me a lot of money!

I use Aptamil which is about £10 a tub. I think it's one of the more expensive ones but I just started using it as it was easy for my partner to get the premade bottle and teat packs to bring into hospital. I can't remember exactly how much we used at the beginning, maybe half a tub a week, so £20 a month. She's now 6 months and we're up to about a tub and a half a week, so £60 a month.

You also have to take into account any premade bottles of formula you may use when out on trips etc which are about £1 for a 200ml feed. We used these in the beginning for night feeds too which added up to another £10 per week.

You'll be looking at a minimum of £10 a week. If baby needs more specialist formula it could be 50%+ on top of that.
We used a mixture of the tubs and ready made formula for ours. When our girls got ill they couldn't handle normal formula and had to be swapped to soya based ones which are a lot more expensive.

I used Aldi then had to move onto cow and gate hungry baby, £8 a tub and lasted 5 days, i did have a hungry baby he drank loads, which is £48 a month (ive never really added it up and i cant believe it is that much!!)
Hes 9 months now and it probably lasts a week, and its £7.45 a tub.

I got tommee tippee bottles from aldis baby event, cheapest place you'll find them!

I just checked my order history on Amazon, I spent £25 on MAM bottles. We used Aldi formula because it was cheap and I did my shopping there anyway. I had a big hungry baby and when he was coming up to being weaned I used 2 tins a week. That would be around £50 a month. I also wanted to breastfeed but it didn't work out for us either.

@PrincessesRUs @alexio @wanderlnst @Pandemicpregnancy @Chelyanne @BeautyAndTheBump1 @Mylittlesandwich thanks for your replies guys! So expensive isn't it, you wouldn't think it would be!😂and this may sound stupid but I assumed the bigger they got the more they'd consume?! Am I wrong?😂🙈

Yes until we started weaning so just before 6 months was peak formula consumption. Then it tailed off and they don't need it at all come 1.

@Mylittlesandwich ah I get you! Thank you for your reply. So once they're around 6 months how much do you think they'll get through?😂and is that when you start weaning into hard food them? I'm new to all this I feel so stupid asking these questions!!!😂🙈

Yes and no. Most babies can wean on to blended foods by 6mth or finger foods around 8-10mth. Having a mixture means they can drop some formula feeds.

@Chelyanne that makes sense! Thank you for your reply also! I have so much research to do!!

Initially not much change as he wasn't actually eating much. DS chose baby lead weaning which meant he had finger foods exclusively from 6 months. He hated being spoon fed. It was a gradual progression from there. By about 9/10 months I think his milk intake had around halved? Just let baby take the lead. We offered milk after a meal and if he was full he didn't drink it. By 1 you can switch to other forms of dairy such as yoghurt and cheese. DS is 15 months now and only has milk before bedtime and on his weetabix in the morning.

We had 6 bottles and a steriliser, probably went through 4 sets of teats in the year so I'm guessing about £75 on equipment then 4/6 tubs of formula a month until 12 months - I guess about £50 p/month depending on which kind you use. Making it approx £675 for the year if I've worked that out properly

My FF #1 was a greedy bugger though - think we were about 2-3oz 4 hourly building to 7-8oz 3-4 x a day from 6 months plus food.

Thankfully managed to BF #2 and saved a fortune!

@NewMum2021x after 6 months formula costs go down because they are starting to eat food.

I was more shocked at the price of teats for bottles. We use dr browns and for 6 teats it's cost around £40 each time and they need replaced every 2-3 months for increased flow rate

We're in the UK and we formula fed all 5 of ours. It costed us around £12 every 5 days or so. I've written an article about formula feeding aids also.
approvedbydad.co.uk/recommended-by-dad/formula-feeding-best-buy/

They have approx the same amount of formula from 3-6months - roughly one tub a week. So c.£10 a week. Some have more, some a little less. You'll also need bottles, teats and some way of sterilising them. I got a microwave steriliser - by far the easiest I found. All done in 5 minutes and doesn't take up counter space but there are several different options. I'm guessing you already have a kettle but you could consider a prep machine (controversial to some but so much easier).

You shouldn't wean before 6 months as baby isn't ready - their digestive system isn't developed and it's been linked to digestive disorders in adulthood. From 6 months you can either start with puree or finger foods - you don't have to wait. My LOs first meal was a roast. Some babies eat loads straightaway and some are slower. Either way a lot of it will end up on the floor, in their hair, in your hair... Milk will be a main source of nutrients until they are 12 months. Then you can switch to full fat cow's milk.

It can be expensive. My dd was ff from 3 mo after combi feeding and one hell of a battle even doing that! I'd also planned to bf, but had a lot of serious problems.

Anyway, £50 per month is what we paid until about 7-8mo.

People do say about the cost of formula being a reason to bf, and it's true that it is expensive. But there isn't any other option if bf doesn't work out and since kids have to be fed till circa 18yo, in the grand scheme of things, formula for the first months of life isn't an enormous deal unless things are very very tight. I exclusively pumped for my second baby, who was a very hungry baby, and the amount I spent on the pump, storage bottles and also to feed the dairy cow (me) probably wasn't miles off the cost of formula!

Don't let it be the deciding factor basically, unless things are extremely tight for you financially