cheap formula for ALL, not just those on benefits

jellyhead

i was really surprised today. baby needed weighing and i missed our usual clinic so we went to one a couple of miles away. they asked if we wanted to buy formula on the way in, i said no we're not entitled to cheap formula, thinking that you have to be on a low income. but i was told no, anybody can buy it cheap from a clinic, no questions asked! was i the only person who didn't know about this? i've been paying supermarket prices for aptamil when i could have been buying it for £4.42!!

Spendless

that was always the case when I had mine were babies.When my eldest was born in 2000 I lived near the town centre where the main health clinic was and I could go in and buy tins at a reduced price but only 2 at a time. It didn't matter to me cos I was only 10 minute walk away but a woman who'd travelled especially from 10 miles away wasn't happy that she needed to do the trip just under every fortnight. I was buying SMA then and it was £1 a tin cheaper so every so many tins I got one free than if I'd paid supermarket prices.

When youngest was born we'd moved house and was no longer walking distance to town centre. At the baby weighing clinic, at the GPs surgery they sold formula too 1 session a week. I didn't find that as convenient, partly cos I had a toddler too I had to take with me and also I used to go to the mums and babies session that my HV ran and weigh DD there, so I had to make a special trip purely for milk. The saving in the SMA then was only a few pence. This was in 2003.

There was a bigger saving in different brands though, the biggest saving being the price of Milumil which was about half of that in the supermarkets. We had had a problem with son with milk and SMA was the only that suited so I wasn't prepared to change daughters, even with the saving.

I saw a notice up in our doctors surgery some time ago saying that they were no longer selling formula from there. Not sure why. I guess it's still available in town centre but don't know anyone with a baby to ask.

hollydays

Thought i had read somewhere recently that clinics were going to stop selling it.

black-saturn

I used to buy formula milk for mine from the clinic but I used to go to 2 different clinics (depending on what other things I had to do that day) and one of them sold it, the other didnt. I found they only sold one variety too and it was the sort my DD2 didnt like :rolleyes:

jellyhead

maybe they will stop selling it, i think they are also going to stop giving it free as part of the benefits system, and give vouchers for fresh fruit etc. instead.

hopefully they will continue selling it for a while, because i only just found out i could get it cheap lol!

when spud was a baby (he's nearly ten now) i'm pretty certain that you could only buy the milk from the clinic if you were on family credit (a bit like working tax credit). that's what i was told anyway. i had no idea i could buy from the clinic without producing a letter saying i was on a low income, because that's what people had to do back when spud was little.

aptamil is £6.48 in asda, so i saved £2.06 today. but the clinic is a trek and today was a one-off because my sister was driving there to get her baby weighed. it's not worth bus fare over there every 2 weeks i don't suppose, and it's only open 2-4 which is a hot time of day so i wouldn't really want to walk there with the baby, not 4 miles of walking.

there is a clinic in town too, but i don't know if they sell it, i'll find out. i have been seeing the health visitor at my usual doctors surgery but this clinic today had a proper baby area with toys where you could chat to other mums etc. and the health visitor was lovely. she gave my sister a baby welcome pack and me a bookstart bag it seems they'll hand out freebies (somebody else got a doidy cup) to encourage mums to go and get advice, today they were warning everybody to use sun lotion.

black-saturn

jellyhead wrote:

maybe they will stop selling it, i think they are also going to stop giving it free as part of the benefits system, and give vouchers for fresh fruit etc. instead.

I think this is supposed to encourage mums to breastfeed if they are no longer getting the free formula milk. However, I couldnt eat fruit of any kind when I was breastfeeding because it gave the baby the cronic runs.

starlite_2

Our clinic doesn't sell it anymore.very annoying as i'm not on any benefits, but we live on just o.h's wage..

As for clinics encouraging breastfeeding..probably a one off, but I was horrified the other day, in the waiting area a lady was breastfeeding and this woman was sniggering, as was her o,h and then he said 'get your tits out for the lads ey!'

i was so shocked, and no one but me said anything to them..but i'm proud i gave them a good telling off! hehe

jellyhead

this was the waiting area of a clinic? that's awful. i'd have said something too, the clinic staff should have. my sister is breastfeeding and she does it very discreetly, it's hardly getting the breasts out and putting them on show.

starlite_2

indeed! and even if you do do it blatantly i personally would see no problem with it.

it's like restuarants that ask you to go to a toilet to breastfeed!(happened to me..)
!!!!!! would you have a meal in a toilet!?

black-saturn

We went for a meal in the training restaurant at the college once with DD1. I was told to stop breastfeeding because the students are marked on hygiene and they didnt regard breastfeeding to be a hygienic practise. I was also told to feed in the loo's at McDonalds and was told off in a cafe and told it wasnt a strip joint!! Why is it that people only see breasts as a sexual object and not for feeding babies which is apparantly what they are there for?

Spendless

jellyhead wrote:

aptamil is £6.48 in asda, so i saved £2.06 today. but the clinic is a trek and today was a one-off because my sister was driving there to get her baby weighed. it's not worth bus fare over there every 2 weeks i don't suppose, and it's only open 2-4 which is a hot time of day so i wouldn't really want to walk there with the baby, not 4 miles of walking.

Is your sister likely to go regularly and could either take you or pick up the milk for you? What happens when roo gets to 12 months, does he then go on to cows milk?