is follow on milk necessary?

jellyhead

hi karnam - breastmilk contains as much lactose as ordinary formula, so if your baby is lactose intolerant i think you'd have noticed by now - my baby was screaming constantly, drawing up his knees in agony until i got 'colief' when he was nearly 6 weeks old. it's a colic treatment that's based on a theory that some babies are lactose intolerant for a few months and it causes colic. the lactase enzyme breaks down the lactose in the milk. it can be added to some expressed breastmilk.

i'm tired so might be getting this wrong, but from looking at the milk in my fridge and the cartons of formula the cows milk has 5g of lactose per 100ml whereas breastmilk typically has 7.2g, aptamil first formula has 7g and aptamil extra has 8g. omneo comfort (a low-lactose stay-down milk for colicky babies) has around 3g from what i remember and there are lactose free formulas available to buy too. some of those might be available in follow on form, omneo comfort is. but if your baby can tolerate breastmilk then he/she will probably tolerate cows milk. from reading this thread it looks like some mums have given cows milk to babies less than a year old with no ill effects but i suppose formula has a better nutritional value if the child has a poor diet. it doesn't have to be a whole pint of milk, some of it can be part of the diet eg. yoghurt, fromage frais, custard, cheese.

Spendless

jellyhead wrote:

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the thing is i'm not sure whther i should use it or not, and would welcome opinions from mums on here :-) my health visitor says it's just a gimmick to allow the milk companies to advertise and put you on their 'advice' mailing lists.

My HV told me the same thing. It was a way to target people to buy the milk cos you're not allowed to promote formula (eg no points, bogof deals etc). I never used it and kept mine on the formula until they were 1 year old when I switched to cows milk.
I've thrown out all my baby info now, but IIRC there's something about a baby is born with 6 months worth of iron stored (not worded very well I know) and after 6 months the baby needs to start having iron hence the marketing gimmick the follow on milks give. I had a booklet which gave meal suggestions for babies and said which vitamins/minerals different types of foods had. My HV gave me the book.

jellyhead

i've got a baby book on the way, maybe that will have more info. he eats a little pureed meat in with his veg and he has vitamin C to help absorption so i doubt he'll be iron deficient.

across

i just kept them on farleys first milk until 9months old and then cows milk, the health visitor told me first milk was good enough until 12months old then cows milk fine but i still went ahead with the cows milk at 9 months full fat as advised (it is easier once you do that) and everything has been fine with both girls!
good luck in whatever you choose to do!
ps, i agree with buying it at health centre and if your on wftc you get more discount so tell them

Karnam

jellyhead wrote:

i've got a baby book on the way, maybe that will have more info. he eats a little pureed meat in with his veg and he has vitamin C to help absorption so i doubt he'll be iron deficient.

what did your baby book say then jellyhead? i just got a confusing pamplet from the HV made by cow and gate saying breast feeding mums should give BM with iron supplements as extra after 6 months, or give follow on milk.... propeganda? im not sure....

cheekymole

I NEVER gave follow on milk but the I NEVER follow rules (esp those of midwives who hardly ever have children of their own)
My DD is now a very healthy 7 year old, just goes to show...

A lot of you would cringe if I told you the things I had done (or not done)!!!!!

Lillibet_2

It's a bit of a mystery to me why, if you aren't BF, you WOULDN'T use follow-on milk? It is cheaper than first milk, you can get points on it & if you buy it on special offer (Boots always has one of them on a 2 for £x deal) pint for pint it works out chaper than fresh milk???? (Yes, I have actually done a comparisan). And the additional vitamins & iron don't actaully do a baby any harm, even if they are constipated for a while (I just increased fruit to compensate). Given the recent relevation that organic ready made baby food (I know most of us don't use it as the main source of food but...) is deficent in iron & it is really hard to get enough iron into a babys diet in the first place it may be necessary to top up your babys iron from somewhere anyway.

jellyhead

hi lillibet, it's because the follow on milk contains more of everything - calories, sugar, protein etc. so it's more like food. some 6 month old babies have dropped some milk feeds and are only having 2 or 3 milk feeds, the rest are water or juice but my baby has only just started weaning and still has mostly milk so i'd be concerned that more nutrients in the milk might put him off eating food, and i've already been told off by the health visitor for him not eating enough food therefore not getting the practise at using the mouth muscles he'll need for talking. sometimes you can't win - all of the literature says to never feed food to a baby under 26 weeks old but health visitors seem to get annoyed if they haven't started eating puree by the time they're 3 or months old.

Spendless

jellyhead wrote:

and i've already been told off by the health visitor for him not eating enough food therefore not getting the practise at using the mouth muscles he'll need for talking. sometimes you can't win - all of the literature says to never feed food to a baby under 26 weeks old but health visitors seem to get annoyed if they haven't started eating puree by the time they're 3 or months old.

I must admit I've wondered about that. My HV also told me that the chewing action helped with speech by developing muscles but then you weaned at 4 months and could go onto lumpier food at 7 months. What's happened to the lumpier food jars that were marked 7months +? Do they say a later age now weaning happens at 6 months and if they don't does that mean there's only a month between trying weaning and moving onto lumpier texture .

The follow on milk used to say from 6 months to 2 years, mine have always had cows milk from a year (15 months for son cos he was a nightmare when changing milk).

jellyhead

hi karnam - the baby book didn't turn up - everything that was supposed to turn up got lost in the post somehow. so i still don't know but i spoke to the health visitor last week and she said my baby has a good enough diet, that only babies on bad diets would need extra iron. i don't know what she classes as a bad diet though. at 5 bottles of milk a day she said follow on milk would be far too rich for him and would dull his appetite.

i read somewhere that breastmilk contains absorbable iron, and formula contains the non-absorbable type that need vitamin C. that's why some babies get constipated on follow on milk.

my baby has his 7 month check next week so i'll ask then what they think about follow on milk. my baby doesn't talk, so that's why the health visitor wanted me to feed him and get him used to using his tongue and mouth. he's 7 months old and only makes 3 different noises, and then only rarely. he doesn't babble. so i was essentially told off for following the 'wait until 26 weeks before weaning' advice and advised to try and hurry him into eating lumpier more textured foods. ho hum.

lillibet i was suprised at how much cheaper the follow on milk is and i have bought a tin to be used for his bedtime feed, but will give him first milk during the day. i've noticed a difference in appetite for food just by using first milk instead of hungry milk, so we're now just using hungry milk at bedtime, and once that's run out will use follow on at bedtime.