Anyone know what is the actual difference between follow-on milk and growing-up milk?

[comet3]

Hi,

I'm asking because I've been desperately trying to get my 9 1/2 month old to drink formula for the last couple of weeks as I want to stop breastfeeding.

He seems to loathe the taste of all of them and won't drink it in any form - and then last night I thought I'd had a breakthrough as he happily took lots of it, until i realised I'd accidentally bought growing-up milk (hipp organic). THe packet says from 10 months onwards, so I'm very close to being in the right age group, but does anyone know what the actual difference is?

Unless there's a very good reason not to, I'm very tempted just to carry on with it since it's such a relief to know he will now drink some formula-type drink and I can start taking him off the breast. He's big for his age, happily eats pretty much everything I give him, eats quite a lot of yoghurt etc throughout the day, and seems to digest everything fine.

Thankyou...

from what I've read, it seems to be more calorific than follow-on milk and that's why it should be used for more active toddlers. apparently it has glucose syrup as it's 4th ingredient. Basically it's very sweet, which is why your ds likes it so much.

It's a marketing ploy - that's the difference .

Carry on wit it, should be fine. 'follow on' and 'growing up' are branded slogan type things. The formular is slighty gear towards older babies look on website Comparing it to follow on milk it looks mega similar in composition but with a little more'whey' compounds.... Hmmm... does this digest slower perhaps.

Funnily enough the milk your sone likes was the only one [post breastfeeding and while mix feeding] I could stand the smell of...
Could you mix feed for a bit do you think and get the best of both worlds?

Ah, thank you all so much, and I think I'll carry on with it - he's pretty active, crawls all over the shop and tries to climb anything he can, so I think he should be able to take those extra calories a couple of weeks early.

I agree with you about the sweetness - it smells a little like a 99-style vanilla icecream, but I can see why he prefers it to the other formulas which as you say smell and taste totally vile in my opinion.

Actually, what I may do is try to sneakily get him used to the formula concept on this and then give him some aptamil or something...

I think if he is nearly 10 months I wouldn't worry about it He can have cow's milk from 12 months anyway, so pointless to spend time/effort getting him onto follow on milk now.