Infant formula for 3-month old ~ any recommendations?

B

bunx2

Registered User
my son has just turned 3 months, and has been exclusively on breastmilk. however, i would like to start introducing formula so that (1) he can slowly get accustomed to formula before i wean him from breastmilk and (2) hopefully he might be able to sleep longer during the night (currently max. 5 hrs from 11pm to 4am)

i have seen two pediatricians, and one of them recommends Enfamil A+ (which seems to be quite a popular brand), while the other has recommended Nestle Nan H.A. (since we have a history of eczema in the family) Does anyone have any advice/input on these two formulas?

how about Meiji formula from japan? i know it is available at supermarkets like CitySuper and Great. wondering if anyone can share what are the benefits to Meiji (as i can't read japanese/chinese!)

any other recommendations on formula would be much appreciated ~ thanks!
 
I'm not into the brands, as it can be quite a hassle and ends up being very expensive. My daughter started off on Wyeth S26 and has now moved on to Wyeth's Progress Gold (1-3 years old), it's worked wonders. She's now 15-months old, healthy, tall and 24 pounds - I'm a happy mother.

You can buy Wyeth at any Parkn Shop/Wellcome/Mannings/Watsons and it makes life so much easier, especially because I'm a working mum, and time is the most crucial factor (my husband is also a baby, so I have two babies to manage, work, coordinate the maids - my husband can't even pack his own suitcase!). I can't imagine running to CitySuper every other month and lagging the milk around, or running off to Bumps to Babes!
 
Hi bunx2

My baby girl (also 3mths) was introduced to one feed of formula a day several weeks ago. She is on Aptamil (by Milupa) which you can get from Wellcome or Mannings. So far so good, no constipation issues and no taste preference from her side. It doesn't seem too thick (like some of the formulas I've seen) and seems to have improved her sleeping (to a stretch of 6 or 7 hours) although it may be because she is able to take quite a big feed at her 11pm/12midnight dreamfeed.

HTH
 
I can understand your desire to get more unbroken sleep at night. But one of the great benefits of breastfeeding is that it decreases the chances of the baby developing allergies. The maximum benefits, especially for allergies are when exclusive breastfeeding is continued for at least the first six months.

?The best way to avoid allergies, especially in babies with a family history of food allergies, is to breastfeed exclusively for the first six months of life, and then introduce solid foods very gradually. The immune components of human milk probably help babies tolerate new foods, so it is important to keep breastfeeding while baby learns to enjoy solids. A recent study found that children who continued to breastfeed for several months after wheat was introduced into their diet were less likely to develop celiac disease than those who weaned soon after beginning to eat wheat produce.?
Womanly Art of Breastfeeding page 360

A number of studies have linked lack of breastfeeding to asthma. According to one study, (Oddy W.H., et al BMJ 1999;319:815-819), six year old children were more likely to have asthma if they had not been exclusively breastfed for six months.
 
My daughter has been on Nestle Nan HA 1 and 2 since around 8-9 mths. I have mild allergies so to be on the safe side, her paed put her on that. She's healthy and happy BUT is on the low side of the chart, nothing wrong with that my paed keeps telling me. i'm very tiny too so that must have something to do with it as well. BUT Nan HA have been linked to hmm.. how should i put it, let's say babies who won't be as fat. and i've heard Wyeth S26 is known to be linked to babies on the other side of the chart.

some of the above is hearsay but i do know a few Nan HA moms and their babies are all on the lighter side, but you have to balance that out with the fact that you have allergies in your families. Before switching to Nan HA 2, i actually asked the nurse if i can switch to a 'fatter' brand :p (who doesnt' like chubby babies :p) but the nurse said it'd be even worse if the baby couldn't adapt and get all constipated and stuff. She's right, as long as baby is healthy and thriving, all is fine.
 
bunx2,
When my LO was 2 months, I also starts to want a unbroken sleep, so I listen to my friends to feed her formula at the last fed. I tried for more than 2 weeks and it doesn't seems to work and I was worry that she won't like my BF anymore so I switch her back to BF for all fed.

At around 3.5 months, she gave up the midnight fed first and after few days she gave up the 4-5 am fed also.Since then she could sleep through the night from 7pm to 7am.

Compare to all my friends tried different methods to wean the baby off the midnight/early morning feds, she is a much better sleeper. So I actually believe that when the babies ready to quit the night feds, they will do it themself.
 
I couldn't breastfeed at all. Devastated by the thought but then there was NO pressure from the midwives. In fact, they told me that it's all ok. It's only societal pressure - different times pressured women to do different things.

Anyway, bub was put on Karicare immediately by midwife. In HK, the equivalent is Cow and Gate. We tried S26 and it didn't work for our bub, he continued to get reflux and didn't sleep through the night.

Bub has always slept through the night on Cow and Gate (Karicare) and not any other. And had minimal reflux.
But I understand that each bubba is an individual.
Good Luck with your choice.
 
my boy was on Friso until he's a little more than 2 months and started having eczema. Our pd (actually 2 pds) recommended us to switch to Nestle Nan H.A. I haven't had experience with other formula but just by comparing to Friso, I find the Nan HA has color and consistency much closer to breastmilk (even his poo-poo color changed from yellow to green!). My boy is now 5 months, still has minor but manageable case of eczema when weather changes (don't know if the formula helped). Never had constipation and his weigh is 55 percentile. The only thing I don't like about Nan HA is the unbelievably smelly poo.
 
Hi,

I had to start giving my daughter Nestle Nan HA 1 at 6 weeks since I was not making enough milk and she was losing weight. As my first, this was a very scary two weeks and with the lack of sleep I was just overwhelmed. I actually bought several brands at the suggestion of my midwife and tried the Nan first because I have a history of allergies in my family. I did then go on to try the other brands but she threw them all up.

Unfortunately, as I feared, once she got 1 bottle a day she started to reject me in preference of the bottle and my milk became less and less over the next 3 weeks until I had nothing left at 9 weeks.

Although my situation was different to yours, one of my girlfriends here also introduced 1 bottle at 12 weeks in hopes of getting more sleep and within a few weeks her daughter had also rejected her. Consequently, she solely BF her second daughter until 6 months.

As Sarah stated above, you should take into consideration the family history of eczema. What I did not know is that the genetics of eczema is really a tendency for your body to over react to an irritant and it presents itself in the form of eczema, hay fever, or asthma. For my family this is true as my grandfather died of an asthma attack, my father has very bad hay fever, and I have eczema (was only BF for 3 months as my Mom had to have a minor operation and her milk stopped after it .... my sister who was BF for 6 months + has no form of allergies).

At 6 months, when I started feeding my daughter food, she did have a horrific eczema attach all over her body and was miserable for a week (this is when a baby usually first presents). Then at 14 months she had a respiratory infection that would just not go away and server wheezing. We ended up in the hospital for 5 days and I was only allowed to bring her home once I learned how to medicate her with a nebulizer breathing medicine through a mask. Now, no doctor is going to diagnose a child with asthma until they are at least 3 ... they simply watch them closely and see if a pattern forms. Thankfully, we have not had a repeat incidence, but as you can imagine I am fearful she will become asthmatic.

OK, so all this rambling is to basically say you do need to look into the cons of not BF exclusively for the first 6 months as there are medical studies to suggest that your child will have a much higher chance of not getting eczema, hay fever, or becoming asthmatic if you do. It is obviously a very personal decision, but I will tell you that if I had to do it all over again I would try everything to maintain BF for at least the first 6 months if it meant my daughter could be eczema free and possibly not become asthmatic.

Really hope this helps!
 
I had the same case - I was breastfeeding my daughter through 2.5 months but had some issues so needed to introduce formula for the night feed. I was told to use Enfamil A+ but after a few weeks, noticed she was rather constipated. She seemed to be colicky too - not sure if it was the milk or colic? Anyway, since we have allergies in the family, we were advised to switch her on to NAN HA1 - she is 6 months now and is fine with NAN for her night feed. I have started introducing it for 2 out of her 5 feeds now that I am starting to wean. In my opinion, go for the NAN. Better for ur baby as its hypoallergenic and also easily available.

:flower:
 
Sarah said:
one of the great benefits of breastfeeding is that it decreases the chances of the baby developing allergies. The maximum benefits, especially for allergies are when exclusive breastfeeding is continued for at least the first six months.

A number of studies have linked lack of breastfeeding to asthma. According to one study, (Oddy W.H., et al BMJ 1999;319:815-819), six year old children were more likely to have asthma if they had not been exclusively breastfed for six months.
Click to expand...

With respect...

My husband has all kind of allergies, so I stood firm on breastfeeding my first child EXCLUSIVELY for 6 months. From 6 to 12 months, he ate solid foods and MY milk, no other dairy products (cow's/soy milk, yoghurt, cheese, etc.) until he was 1.

Sad to say, but at 4 he is allergic to all most everything. And he has asthma.

With my 2nd child, I nursed exclusively for 5 days, then supplementing with NAN HA 1. I continued with partially nursing until he was 4 months old, then gave it all up. He continued on NAN.

This one turned out to be a very healthy and strong little boy, with no allergies, no asthma. So... What do you want me to say really...

I'm not against breastfeeding, but in my case, missing it is not the end of the world. Quite a contrary.

By the way, my boy on NAN has always been big and on the top size of the charts in both weight and height.
 
Babynat

Hello,

My son is now 4 months old and has been on Babynat for a while and it's great! In the first month the doctor put him on Nanha 1 and he got ecezma, it got pretty bad so my doctor told me to try Babynat which is available at bumps to babes and Citysuper. His skin got much better after that, also his poo is more yellowish while when taking Nanha his poo is green and sticky. I also like to add that after taking babynat he has less gas so he was able to sleep better.

Babynat is Organic Infant Formula, every baby is different so u just have to try and see..
 
nan ha

i use nan ha1 for my 3 mths old son which i started since birth. it was highly recommended by the hospital where is was born in melbourne. its the best in the market to reduce allergies.

so far so good, no complaints. you can buy it in hk only in the local pharmacies at about HK$149. not all pharmacy stock the product and supermarkets don't stock it either.

good luck. michelle
 
Like Sophia experienced first hand, it's something I've been researching and it seems that babies who are exclusively breast fed for first six months are more likely to develop allergies.
 
My baby is on Japanese milk powder, and it was great, no constipation, no phlegm and healthy poo-poo. He also likes the milk so has been taking in quite a lot. He had a mild case of ezcema on his face when he was 4 weeks' old, but I think it's more because of weather change. I took him to the pd and his face looks much better now after applying the creme the pd prescribed for him.

Many people say Japanese milk powder is less sugary than the western brands, and my 2 pds said it's also better for Asian babies. So depends on your nationality, you may want to give it a try. Plus it's actually quite easy and cheap, unlike many people believe. You don't have to go to City super or Jusco. Go to the cosmetic shop Bonjourn at ~HK$180 for a big tin (8-900g), or order online at www.re-on.com or birth.hk, they both do delivery for purchase above $1000. My advice is to go to Bonjourn to get one tin to try, if it meets your need, than order in bulk online.

Hope this helps.
 
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