A bottle by any other name would smell as sour...
breastmilk substitute
industrially produced breastmilk substitute (as distinguished from home made
breastmilk substitute), and then add on as appropriate whether it is bovine
milk-based, soy-based, equine milk-based or whatever.
infant formula
artificial baby milk
modified cow's milk formula
liquid solution of many of the nutrients thought to be needed by human
infants who are not receiving normal milk
The Other Brand

For in-house use, I keep coming back to my son's term: breastmilk forgeries.
I realize this can be more inflammatory than amusing in many contexts so I
usually use the second term on the list above.  For me, part of the point is
the length of the term.  Do we want a quick, short name for this product or
do we want to call it what it is?  A lengthy, inconveniently pronounced name
for it is analogous to the difference between BF and artificial feeding.
Artifices: bottles, factories which produce them, the gyrations industry
goes through to render cow's milk less harmful to human infants...
artificial is the correct word.

Perhaps the body language of the mothers mentioned by Karyn-grace is telling
her, and THEM, what they don't feel comfortable expressing verbally, that
these products are substandard, should be used only as a last resort, and
society needs to be changed to allow human infants to receive their normal
food.  Why should we soften that message?  Women, and men, whether parents
or not, should all be interested in achieving that goal.  Whose interests
are served by upholding the myth that breast and bottle are interchangeable?
Mothers'?  Babies'?  Society's?  Industry's?  Making such changes isn't
something the lactating population can do on its own.  It isn't lactating
women in industrial societies who ought to feel guilty for existing at a
time when giving babies breastmilk is practically aberrant.

Look at the brand names of the i.p.bm.s.'s near you.  Say them out loud,
forgetting what they are.  Don't think for a minute they were just decided
on by chance.  Most sound cozy, familiar, cuddly, safe.  A baby could
pronounce many of them.  The exceptions sound scientific.  Maybe they are
trying for different slices of the market, I don't know.  Then think of the
words in many languages for mother, and for breast.  Also pronouncable by
babies, no?  Often very similar, no?  Labial consonants, like if you
vocalized while drinking breastmilk.  Also not a coincidence, but hardly
words that resulted from an ad agency brainstorm for a marketing campaign.

It matters what we call things.  Don't ever forget it.
Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway
where the sun is shining today

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