Formula Feeding from birth

Just wondering how many women formula fed their babies from birth. I am due on the 21st December and decided right from the start that i didn't want to breastfeed. Also wondering which formulas other people found worked best. I have read that the Gold ones aren't that good. I was going to try Karicare and see how i went with that.

Also i was wondering about what brand bottles and equipment people used at first i was going to buy avent stuff but now my partner wants to try the tommee tippee stuff.. Wanting opinions

thanks

Hi,
I formula fed my two pretty much straight from birth. Alex was just over 24 hours old when he was put onto formula. I chose to formula fed to avoid a lack of sleep which may lead to PND. Lots of people have opinions on FF so early, but it's your choice and, as my midwife told me, you don't have to justify it to anyone.

We use Nurture gold and have always found it really good. Karicare added probiotics to their formulas and didn't tell anyone...so for that reason alone I'd stay away from that brand. We use the avent system, the bottles are light to hold and are shaped like a breast so your bub won't have a problem sucking. Also sterilisng them is simple.

All the best for you and your family.

I also ff from about 24 hrs onwards.. i ff the first and was trying to bf but had the same problems and one screaming baby and on e stressed mum were much better off feeding with the " dreaded " formula than starving the child.. she is happy and healthy and we use Karicare at present as it was recommended by the Doc.. never use Gold formulas as they have loads of iron in them which causes constipation!

i mostly use expressed breastmilk, but use formula before night bottle (not to make him sleep longer, i just cant express enough through the day!). we tried karicare gold (constipation), karicare (constipation) and have been fine on heinz gold. i used avent with DS1, but DS2 had trouble with the teat, so we use tommee tippee closer to nature. some people have had probs with the teats collapsing, DS2 had trouble with the teats when we went from 1 to the size 2 ones, but after a couple of feeds he worked it out and has been fine.
my friend ff from birth, and used nan ha, while another friend used s26 with no probs.
good luck!

I BF for the first week and just wasn't coping at all (had emergency c-section). We went to the pharmacy and they recommended Karicare Gold which is what we are still using now, bub is almost 4 weeks old. Our baby boy gets a lot of wind,but that was the case even before formula. We haven't had any problems with this one at all. I spoke to a CHN about formulas and she said most formulas are the same and this one was fine for him. It's only when you come across some problems bub has that you might need to use a certain type.
I also spoke to our doctor about it, and he said be careful not to change formulas if you can help it as it takes their body 2 weeks to get use to.

Sorry i can't be much more help on the different types. I just know that we haven't had any problems with this one.

But one tip i can give you, when buying formula, it's always cheaper at our local discount pharmacy than in coles/woolworths.

Just wanted to add about bottles. I started with the wide/short tommee tippee ones, as they came with our bench top steriliser, but didn't like them as the teets were too soft and collapse. We have the tall tommee tippee ones aswell which are "ok". The others are the avent ones - for some reason DS seems to take longer to drink from but they are good. My favourite is the cheaper "Amcal" chemist brand bottles. I just switched the teets to the medium flow orthodontic ones and they have been fantastic.

Xx
[Edited on 27/11/2008]

I have a 2 week old and formula fed from the start. People have lots of opinions, but the only one that matters is yours. I had a caesar and it meant my husband was feeding him before I was out of recovery.

We use NAN Gold and have had no problems with it. We use Advent bottles and had no trouble between the transition from hospital bottles to these. As mentioned, they are easy to sterilise, I use the microwave system.

Also these are a few dollars cheaper from BigW than Woolys etc, also the Pharmacys have specials on formula which are cheaper too.
Good Luck

hi there
we ff from 1 week. i did originally want to breastfeed but for many reasons it just did not work out.

we originally did use s26 gold, only because that was what they used in hospital when we had to top DS up with formula (as he was losing weight quite rapidly). we used it for about 2 weeks, then changed to s26 regular, mainly because we heard the gold ones could cause constipation, so we wanted to avoid that. also regular ones are cheaper.

as for the brand, you may just have to wait and see what agrees with your baby. some babies don't go well with s26, others do, the same with karicare etc...it just depends on their little tummies.

as for bottles, we spent a small fortune on them in the first month, in the end we found the best to be avent. we tried tommee tippee, but found the teats were too soft and kept collapsing and they were very difficult for DS to use. avent ones last a long time, and the teats are available everywhere. some brands i found it was difficult to get teats (eg MAM brand, i did try to get these as the bottles are bpa free, but gave up in the end as i could only find newborn sized teats).

good luck!

have any of you guys thought about the repercussions of giving your babies formula which includes soy, which has many long term effects. people need to read about issues with prolonged soy usage. we have been given such a beautiful gift so should we not know EXACTLY what we are exposing our children to. please inform yourselves. if you are struggling with bf'ing dont be lazy and give up get help and sort the problem out instead of going for the easier option.

have any of you guys thought about the repercussions of giving your babies formula which includes soy, which has many long term effects. people need to read about issues with prolonged soy usage. we have been given such a beautiful gift so should we not know EXACTLY what we are exposing our children to. please inform yourselves. if you are struggling with bf'ing dont be lazy and give up get help and sort the problem out instead of going for the easier option.

Some people just cannot bf, you don't know these people's circumstances!! And if formula was so bad for our children would they have it on the market?? Stop being so judgmental towards people and obviously things you have no idea about!! sad

Some people just cannot bf, you don't know these people's circumstances!! And if formula was so bad for our children would they have it on the market?? Stop being so judgmental towards people and obviously things you have no idea about!! sad

obviously you have no idea, why don't you inform yourself? and for those people who have REAL problems ff is an alternative. heres one for you.. if smoking is so bad why is that still on the market? hey if you want your baby to be unhealthy and have up and coming problems go for it, although there is alot of information out there that informs us as parents of the issues involved, i am just advising that people that are choosing infant formula over bf need to know the possible negative outcomes. and if you choose to ignore them then u are foolish be careful not to just read what pharmaceuticals and producers of the products want you to read. LOOK FURTHER

obviously you have no idea, why don't you inform yourself? and for those people who have REAL problems ff is an alternative. heres one for you.. if smoking is so bad why is that still on the market? hey if you want your baby to be unhealthy and have up and coming problems go for it, although there is alot of information out there that informs us as parents of the issues involved, i am just advising that people that are choosing infant formula over bf need to know the possible negative outcomes. and if you choose to ignore them then u are foolish be careful not to just read what pharmaceuticals and producers of the products want you to read. LOOK FURTHER

Ff mums cop enough of these lectures so besides the fact that your post is not really going to affect them, or change their minds. It's rather off topic considering it has NOTHING to do with what was originally asked.

On that note, back on topic...
My DS was ff from 5 weeks. We tried a few types of formula but he liked Heinz Nurture best. We used Tommy Tippee Closer to Nature bottles and never had a problem. We've bought the same bottles for this bub and 3 different brands of formula to try. I'll be bf for the first 3 or so days so bub gets colostrum, then switching to bottles. Which will obviously affect Skyyej in a very real way, as she has never met me or my children but will clearly know better.

obviously you have no idea, why don't you inform yourself? and for those people who have REAL problems ff is an alternative. heres one for you.. if smoking is so bad why is that still on the market? hey if you want your baby to be unhealthy and have up and coming problems go for it, although there is alot of information out there that informs us as parents of the issues involved, i am just advising that people that are choosing infant formula over bf need to know the possible negative outcomes. and if you choose to ignore them then u are foolish be careful not to just read what pharmaceuticals and producers of the products want you to read. LOOK FURTHER

It's the way you went about it that sounds rather judgmental it's just not right, as Luna said mums who ff cop enough flack we don't need to be judged when someone does not know our circumstances as I said some mothers just can't bf, I know of a lady that almost died just after giving birth to her son and then her milk didn't come in, she had the stress of almost dieing she didnt need to stress about bf if her milk wasn there too she needed to enjoy her first born, like I said you don't know people back story and circumstances so don't judge. On a good note, merry christmas