Formula in the UK

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I have 10 weeks left until my little boy is due and I’m wanting to combi feed (hopefully breast feeding goes smoothly)

I have bought 1 tub of first infant milk and some of the ready to use bottles for hospital.

I’m now worried about starting my baby on Kendamil if there is a shortage😖 I don’t know whether to stick with it and hope stock comes along or use a completely different brand?!!

What is the best formula brand under Kendamil? I need help.

I’m just going with Cow & Gate. The newborn formula industry is so regulated the differences between the brands are so tiny. It’s the brand most readily available so starting there. If there’s any issues I’ll change then but I know loads of people who use Cow & Gate with success

They're all pretty much the same, Kendamil just seems to be the 'hype' at the moment. It's all I see on TikTok 🤣

I looked at Cow & Gate but seen it has fish oil in it

I used sma for my first child because it was the only formula our local shop stocked. When I had more kids I stuck with sma.

I use Kendamil for my twins and won’t be changing it. I agree with pp’s though that formulas are all pretty much the same.

There is no "best" they are nutritionally all virtually identical, differences are branding and non-proven minor ingredient differences. If any ingredient was proven to be of benefit to babies, it would be mandated for all of them.

I think the only other one without might be SMA? That’s only based on a google search.

Thank you. Just wondered as seen online it says fish oil isn’t great in formula and that is in some

Yes it’s everywhere! But I have looked at the ingredients and it does seem the ‘cleanest’

Unless you are vegetarian and want your child to have vegetarian formula the main objection to fish oil is sustainability. DHA has been mandated in formula in the EU for several years as it is so important for development. If you would consider sustainable fish oil then you could try HIPP organic.

If your intention is to combo feed it is highly recommended to establish breastfeeding first. No need to take bottles to the hospital because if you really can't (remember 90%+ can breast feed) then they have bottles in emergency.

Palm oil is one of the big differences too

"Cleanest" is just effective advertising. The ingredients are tightly controlled and by the time they have been processed and refined to add to the mix, they all are much of a muchness regardless of the specific source.

I'm impressed by Kendamil's launch into the formula market and how quickly they have managed to position themselves as a stand out brand. It must be making them a ton of cash.

As a PP has said, the decision not to use fish oil is so they can lean on the "sustainability" and "green" idea. It's not to do with nutrition or safety.

Yes I have been told about establishing breastfeeding first! I wasn’t gonna introduce formula straight away, thank you that’s good to know about emergency bottles at the hospital!

I breastfed my son for over 3 years but decided on formula feeding my daughter.

I have to say, I’d always use Kendamil - it’s just better. Maybe not nutritionally, I really do accept that! But it’s creamier and just seems so much nicer

I will admit to tasting them and the others just seem very chemically tasting whereas Kendamil doesn’t

Oh I see!! Thank you! Just online it said fish oil can make babies constipated but that could just be formula in general? So much conflicting stuff online.

I have seen a lot of people say this about Kendamil which is one of the reasons I wanted to use it😂
Did you ever have any experience with Aptamil?

Where have you seen it? I'd make sure you're using reputable sources, there's a whole world of bullshit out there about everything in relation to nutrition.

Indeed. I'd start by ignoring anyone who describes any food, including formula, as 'clean' or 'dirty'.

The best formula is generally the one that it's easiest for you to purchase if you ever need to do so in the middle of the night or in a panic (although may be less of an issue in combi feeding). Some babies want have specific allergies which need a different type of formula but on the whole, they're all nutritionally the same especially for the newborn formula (which I assume is not what they're advertising but some kind of 'follow on' milk).

Quite. Or talks about "chemicals".

When Lockdown happened and formula was scarce, I had to frequently switch brands due to availability. DS suffered no side effects at all.

I'm biased! But I love kendamil. When my Daughter was newborn we were very happy with Hipp Organic, kendamil didn't do pre made bottles then. Unfortunately they changed the Hipp and it went very fishy and grey coloured!

We changed to kendamil with no problems. It does smell lovely compared to other formulas. I work on a maternity unit and we offer SMA, cow and gate and Aptamil. All the Mum's bring in little bottles of kendamil.

I don't know about the supply problems with kendamil, I used to order 6 tins online from their website.

I started my son on kendamil when he was first born and it was an absolute nightmare to get hold of. We couldn't get it in any of the supermarkets in our town and had to drive 10 miles each time we wanted a tub. On top of that it didn't agree with our son so we ended up having to switch him to SMA. I found a lot of the mums I was talking to had the same issue with it just being too rich for their wee ones tummies

Some useful info on the Which? website. It also says that the most popular formula is Cow & Gate with 41% of survey respondents using it compared to 8% for Kendamil.

Are any baby formula milk brands better than others?
In addition to the core ingredients, all formulas contain extra ingredients, a lot of which are the same across all the brands. These include LCPs (long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids), nucleotides and prebiotics.
Many formulas include an additional prebiotic ingredient: oligosaccharides. These are often referred to as FOS or GOS, which are produced commercially from lactose and sucrose, or 2’-FL or LNnT, which are artificially made to mimic oligosaccharides found in breast milk. However, although they are safe to add to formula milk, there is no strong evidence to support the efficacy of these additional ingredients.
Other than the addition of DHA, an LCP which the EFSA has accepted contributes to the normal visual development of infants up to 12 months, the other extra ingredients are not of proven benefit; therefore, having these additional ingredients doesn't make one formula milk more superior than another. If they were, then the formula milk compositional criteria would be amended to include it.