Follow on formula

mothere

My baby is 6 mths & has started weaning. He is bottle fed from birth & I am wondering if I need to switch his formula from the first infant to follow on or is it ok to stick with the first infant until he is one?:)

Das Kitty

mothere wrote: »

My baby is 6 mths & has started weaning. He is bottle fed from birth & I am wondering if I need to switch his formula from the first infant to follow on or is it ok to stick with the first infant until he is one?:)

The only reason the follow on milks were brought out was because the EU has a ban on advertising breastmilk substitute (or first milk as they call it). If your son is happy on the milk he's on I'd stick with it personally.

He'll be reducing the amount of bottles he needs as he's weaned anyway so it will be less expensive and then at a year you can change over to cow's milk.

Hope that helps

Cat Melodeon

mothere wrote: »

My baby is 6 mths & has started weaning. He is bottle fed from birth & I am wondering if I need to switch his formula from the first infant to follow on or is it ok to stick with the first infant until he is one?:)

Stick with the first formula. Follow-on's are not suitable until after 12 months and are made of inferior stuff to the first formula milks. If your baby has no issues with what he's getting, don't make changes. There's really no need for follow on formulas at all, they're really just a gimmick designed by formula companies to get around the ban on advertising formula to newborns (you'll notice that all the ads feature older babies). At 12 months babies can be weaned from first formula on to cow's milk as by then they'll be getting most of their nutrients from solid food anyway.

Edit - sorry Das Kitty, cross-posted!

January

I think the OP means the 6 month plus formula's which are advertised as follow on (or stage 3 formula). Some have added iron etc because the babies iron stores start to diminish after 6 months.

I changed my now 11 month old to the 6 month plus formula when she was 7 months, but I had her on the infasoy formula until then as any others I tried gave her tummy ache and colic. She grew out of it though thankfully.

Das Kitty

Cat Melodeon wrote: »

Stick with the first formula. Follow-on's are not suitable until after 12 months and are made of inferior stuff to the first formula milks. If your baby has no issues with what he's getting, don't make changes. There's really no need for follow on formulas at all, they're really just a gimmick designed by formula companies to get around the ban on advertising formula to newborns (you'll notice that all the ads feature older babies). At 12 months babies can be weaned from first formula on to cow's milk as by then they'll be getting most of their nutrients from solid food anyway.

Heh heh, let's not even get started on the sickly sweet "Growing Up Milk"!

Cat Melodeon

January wrote: »

I think the OP means the 6 month plus formula's which are advertised as follow on (or stage 3 formula). Some have added iron etc because the babies iron stores start to diminish after 6 months.

At 6 months most babies are starting on solids. Can they not get their iron that way?

crazy cat lady

Yes they can! Lots of healthy broccoli and spinach and other lovely foods will given weaning babies all the nutrients they need.

Don't just focus on 'iron' either, just because the advertising campaign has. Your growing baby will need a varied and nutritious diet just like you, rich in protein and carbs and dairy etc..

Anything other than infant formula is a gimmick. Growing up milks and follow on milks etc... No need for them! A balanced diet and cows milk from 1yr!

Its a wonder the human race has survived so long without all these gimmicky milks and baby foods really...

metrovelvet

Also those iron supplemented ones constipate them....just to alert you that.

implausible

On a related rant, that ad with the humongous cup of milk drives me mental! Iron is useless if not taken with foods that allow it to be absorbed.

January

That ad always gets to me... the one thing they don't advertise about that 1+ growing up milk is it has buckets of sugar in the thing...