SMA Gold (ready mixed)

When it comes to deciding what formula to give your baby (if you decide not to breastfeed or indeed opt for a combination of breast and bottle) there are various brands on the market. We started Lily on SMA Gold in the hospital and as we were using ready mixed formula there figured we would give it a go at home. She has steadily increased from the small cartons (250ml), which would last her a fair few feeds, to the litre sized cartons!

 Ready mixed formula, as its name suggests, is literally ready to give to baby. An unopened carton from the cupboard can be opened and served at room temperature. This is ideal when you are out and about as you can just snip the carton, pour into a sterilised bottle and commence feeding - although I have to say that it is not that simple for our little lady who likes her milk just so and so we have to ask for some hot water to warm the bottle up for her!! An opened carton from the fridge (small cartons can be kept for 24 hours once opened; 48 hours for the litre cartons) needs to be warmed up to take the chill off the milk. We pop the bottle in a bowl of hot water for a few minutes and then test the temperature on our wrists to check it meets madam's exacting requirements!! Lily then has an hour to drink her milk - the allotted time it can be kept out. She guzzles hers in minutes!!

Using ready mixed has obvious advantages over dry formula, the main one obviously being that there is no faffing around with waiting for boiled water to cool, before mixing to dry formula! This sounds like a very lazy statement but when you have a baby screaming for her feed (and in the early days it's hard to get a handle on when baby will next be hungry even with all the will of sticking to a routine!) then every second counts. Knowing I could get Lily's feed ready quickly in those first few weeks was a godsend. It meant she got less worked up; I stressed less. Ditto for today. Although we now have her feeds in a routine, she will still surprise us by sometimes being hungrier earlier than anticipated and anything I can do to lessen a crying bout is worth it!!

When out and about, there's no need for powder dispensers or cool boiled water. We just pack a small carton, a sterilised bottle and something to open the carton with (Lily's nail scissors work a treat!). The only downside here is that there will inevitably be some milk that has to be thrown away as it obviously can't be kept out in ambient temperature. 

Ready mixed is obviously more expensive than dry formula but for us it is worth the added expense. Especially as Lily suffers with reflux, sometimes quite badly. One of the health visitors suggested that ready mixed may be better for babies that suffer from reflux because it is less thick and therefore digests easier. As I have never tried the dry formula (despite having a tin in the cupboard!) I can't say whether her reflux would be worse on this as opposed to the ready made. 

SMA Gold might not suit every baby and sometimes it is a case of trying your baby on different formulas to see what suits him. Some may not fulfil his appetite which is why there are hungrier baby options; others may make him more sickly. I can only tell you that SMA Gold continues to be a good choice for our little lady and as it is designed for use up to 12 months we will continue to use it until then.