How to switch HiPP formula stages

Bottle by bottle, and HiPP publishes the schedule rather than leaving you to invent one. One bottle of the new formula on the first day, two on the second, and onwards until the change is done.1

The reason HiPP gives is the stomach rather than the taste: changing gradually lets a baby get used to the new food in steps. It assumes you still have powder left in the old pack, which is worth planning for before you run it empty.1

No, and HiPP is unusually plain about it. The instruction appears twice on the same page, once as a heading and once inside the method: the powders of two different formulas should not be combined in one bottle.1

That is the point of the bottle-by-bottle schedule. The mixing happens across the day, not inside the bottle, so every bottle your baby drinks is one formula made at its own printed dilution.1

The new pack's, and HiPP says so directly: follow the preparation recommendation on the new pack and use the scoop enclosed with it, because the stated amounts of powder and water are what the label's nutrition describes.15

Our own records show why that is not pedantry. Across the German infant stages the water per scoop never changes, at one level scoop per 30 ml, but the scoop itself gets heavier: 4.3 g on PRE, 4.4 g on stage 1 and 4.5 g on stage 2.25

The toddler milk is the one that changes the arithmetic as well. It asks for a 5.7 g scoop per 45 ml of water, so an old habit of one scoop per 30 ml makes the wrong bottle.4

As long as your baby takes, which HiPP describes as a range rather than a schedule. Some babies hardly notice the change and drink as before. Others need a few days. Sometimes it takes up to two weeks for the stomach to settle into the new formula.1

Acceptance is a separate clock from digestion. HiPP notes that the new formula is a new taste, and sometimes a new consistency, so a baby may refuse the first attempts and need several before taking it.1

For most babies, HiPP says, nothing much. For a particularly sensitive stomach it names three things: more spitting up, wind, or a different stool consistency, over the days the change takes.1

One of those has an explanation printed on the box. Changing to HiPP PRE from another formula can lead to softer stools, and HiPP attributes that to the galacto-oligosaccharides in the recipe.2

The NHS gives the trigger, and it is about your baby rather than about the calendar: if you think a particular formula disagrees with your baby, talk to a midwife or health visitor, who can help you decide whether to try a different type.3

That is a different situation from a baby who is objecting to a new taste, which HiPP's page treats as ordinary and answers with patience. A baby who seems unwell is not a changeover problem to be waited out.31