About us

Our aim is to provide Healthcare Professionals with the resources and support they need, when they need it, and to effectively assist their work with parents, through registration to a unique programme designed for and with Healthcare Professionals.

In Practice offers a friendly, educational resource to support those Healthcare Professionals who work with parents and babies. Registration is free. Members have their own registration number that gives them eclusive privileges. They receive a newsletter, offers on educational items, and priority invitations to events. New and relevant services are added regularly to ensure that In Practice is tailored to meet the needs of registered HCPs. Since its launch at the RCM in 1999, In Practice has attracted over 30,000 members, who take advantage of many exciting initiatives in positive parenting.

In 2008 the programme was re-launched to bring it right up to date and offer more resources to Healthcare Professionals that ever before.

In Practice is an educational initiative supported by Cow & Gate.

Cow & Gate
Cow & Gate is the number 1 baby feeding brand in the UK. Dedicated to providing tailored nutrition that babies love, Cow & Gate produces milks for the healthy growth and development of bottlefed babies and tasty, nutritionally balanced foods for babies and toddlers. To help guarantee the best quality, Cow & Gate have all their milk, fruit, vegetables, cereals and meat ingredients grown especially for them. They then test and check at every stage to make sure all products meet the highest standards. Cow & Gate actively encourages breastfeeding as the best start to life. Their infant milks are a safe and nutritious alternative for babies and toddlers who are not breastfed, for whatever reason.

Meeting baby`s nutritional needs
Cow & Gate’s expert team of scientists, dietitians and nutritionists ensure their baby milks and foods always have the right balance of nutrients and ingredients for every stage of infant growth. Through close links with the medical community, Cow & Gate’s highly skilled team is always at the forefront of research and development into infant nutrition.

Protecting babies and the environment
Cow & Gate control the way their ingredients are grown and produced. That means they meet legal requirements on pesticides and herbicides and all their suppliers conform to strict environmental guidelines.Cow & Gate no longer package their milks in tin cans and wherever they can they always use recycled materials. All factories meet all national environmental regulations on waste emissions and the use of energy and water.

Breast is best
Cow & Gate encourages breastfeeding to help give baby the very best start in life. But if, for any reason, a baby is not breastfed, Cow & Gate infant milks are a safe and nutritious alternative.Cow & Gate make sure that their infant milks are marketed sensitively and in line with all legal requirements. Cow & Gate also believe that they have a role to play in education so they work to support the educational needs of healthcare professionals

Company history
1711: Cow & Gate started out as a small grocery shop in Guildford at Number 20 High Street, owned by the Gates family.

1887: The two brothers Charles and Leonard Gates decided to expand into the dairy trade. They opened up a new business called The West Surrey Central Dairy. To ensure best quality milk supplies they built their own creameries in the West of England, and also in Ireland. Their best-selling product was fresh cream, sold in distinctive little brown jugs with a label showing a cow looking through a gate. Among their customers were Queen Victoria, the Prince of Wales, and the Duke of York. Their label became famous, and it soon became known as `Cow & Gate` cream.

1900: The success of their cream business gave the Gates brothers a problem - huge quantities of leftover skimmed milk. At this time there was no public demand for low fat milks, so they bought the latest drying equipment from America and began to sell milk powder to the bakery and catering trade. They continued to use the same ‘cow looking through the gate’ label.

1904: The company received a bulk order for milk powder from Dr. Killick Millard the Medical Officer of Health in Leicester to use as a baby food. Dr. Millard had read reports from America that the health and survival rates of poorer children in New York were greatly improved when powdered milk was added to their diets. 15% of infants in Leicester were failing to reach their first birthday and Dr. Millard hoped to improve their chances. After conducting trials Dr. Millard reported similar improvements and published the results in medical journals. Soon, demand for the new baby food came from doctors and hospitals all over the country. This first link with the medical profession would eventually turn the West Surrey Central Dairy into Cow & Gate the babyfeeding company.

1908: The first advert for Cow & Gate baby milk appeared.

1920: The Cow & Gate brand had by now become so strongly associated with baby feeding that it was adopted as the company name. That same year the first Cow & Gate Baby Book was published to help doctors and midwives pass on the latest information and advice on feeding babies to new mothers.

1959: Cow & Gate joined up with United Dairies to form Unigate, one of the leading UK dairy companies.

1976: The company moved its headquarters from Guildford to Trowbridge, in Wiltshire.

Present day: Today, Cow & Gate is part of Group Danone, a leading global company specialising in health through food and beverages.

See www.danone.com for more details.