Argh! DS 1 is 11 days old & I'm sick of ff already - tips?

[u32ng]

Anyone got tips on how to make ff easier for night feeds & going out & about?
I am pretty much clueless on the whole thing & hate the faff of making up feeds during the night in particular.

Only 11 days in & the months are going to be loooong unless I find a slicker way of doing it!!

[cupcake78]

I had a tin of formula upstairs and used to put boiling water in bottles before bedtime, in a thermos holder and just add the formula as you need it.

We also tried the microwave in ds s room. We had a little feeding station going to avoid trips downstairs in the cold dark nights.

[TheExpatWife]

Cartons of formula (so room temperature, you may get away without warming it) and sterilised bottles in a cool bag by the bed. Our DD preferred warm milk so we had a bottle warmer in the bedroom too.

I always had a disposable sterile bottle (can't remember the name but you get them in Boots - I think the teat is for 3 months+ though) and a carton of formula in the car/changing bag for emergencies.

[StuntNun]

Cartons are good as they take less time to warm up and no faffing measuring out powder. Remember this is the most feeds your baby will require right now. By 6-12 weeks some babies only need one feed at night time. Viewing it as a temporary situation that will improve over time might help.

[Zara1984]

Are you making up your feeds in advance and keeping them in the back of the fridge? This is the key to sanity. Then you just have to warm up at night. I know it's not the way you're supposed to do it anymore but honestly everyone I know does it that way.

Not everyone likes them but I found a bottle warmer made night feeds particularly way easier. So much faster/less faff/less chance of it being too hot than heating in a jug of boiling water. What bottles are you using? I use Avent bottles and warmer, the digital bottle warmer can be used later to warm baby food in jars/from frozen etc. Some people I know heat their bottles in the microwave and shake well to remove hot spots, too.

Cartons are definitely the easy way when going out at that young age! If you are going out for less than 2 hours, you can warm up a bottle at home and put it in an insulated bag to keep warm. I also use powder dispenser + water in bottle.

DS is 15 weeks now and only takes 5-6 bottles a day now, as StuntNun says it honestly gets waaaay easier very quickly. He was on 6 feeds max by 6 weeks.

[spekulatius]

I don't ff but my friend did. She used to put the required amount of cold water into the sterilized bottles, have a flask with hot water by bedside and put powder in this dispensing measuring cup (tesco do them for £2 I think) so that u don't have to mess about with measuring the right amount of formula powder. I did look into it as first 6 weeks of breastfeeding were such agony.

[fishybits]

Cartons and a microwave upstairs.

[moonbells]

Advice from various bf organisations is to not use powdered infant formula until the child is 6 weeks old.
PIF is NOT sterile! If you make it up with cooled boiled water, you will still not have a sterile mix, as it's the powder that might have bugs in it!

For the first weeks, please use the sterile UHT cartons of formula. They are often cheaper if bought in bulk. (And handy to have if you're out and about.)

When your baby is >6 weeks, make up formula from powder by adding it to very hot (>70deg, which has previously boiled) water. This should kill any bacteria. We made up 3 or 6 bottles in one go, then cooled very rapidly in cold water (it's keeping the temp about 40-50C that makes bugs grow best!) and then put in the fridge. Ideally you should make up fresh and rapidly cool, but WHO do say you can keep for up to 24h in a very cold fridge.

Find out by trial and error how many seconds in a microwave it takes to heat it up to blood heat, remembering to shake the bottle well after each burst. Eventually you'll know how many seconds to do it for, shake well and feed. Makes things heaps easier. Good luck!

[Empross76]

We used the same technique for day time, night time and going out and about. Not too much of a faff and kept everything at safe temperatures...
In the morning, boiled kettle and left to cool for half an hour, filled thermos with it.
Had formula measured into pots ready.
When baby needed a feed, measured water from thermos into bottle, added formula and cooled feed for a minute or so in a jug of cold water (if out and about would just have to wait!).
Re-boiled the kettles before we went to bed ready for the night time and morning feeds.
Also tried cartons of ready made formula, but found it more of a faff to warm up.
I found formula feeding and sterilising a real trauma to start with, just couldn't get my head around it as my brain was still addled by traumatic labour and sleep deprivation. But once we got into a routine it was easy peasy.
Good luck, and congrats on your baby.

[Passmethecrisps]

Second and third everything above. It does get easier when your baby develops more routine so you know what's coming.

As mentioned above you should always add the powder to water not less than 70oC as the powder is not sterile. For night feeds get little powder dispensers and measure out before you go to bed. I use tommee tippee ones which sit inside the bottle. Then use a flask for the water so it can be added when needed. You will probably need to give it a cool.

Alternatively, if your baby gets to the stage you are only feeding once or twice using a thermobag will help.

For the first few weeks we used liquid - not for any reason other than the ease and I was scared of tackling powder. DD is 13 weeks now and I get a lot of satisfaction out of making up her day's bottles and having them in the fridge.

[Passmethecrisps]

Remember as well that there is no need to heat the milk. Room temperature is great but some babies will take straight from the fridge.

[LadyWidmerpool]

My newborn happily guzzled formula from cartons straight from the fridge! Don't know why on earth we stored them there. New parentitis. Anyway cartons are a great investment while you are settling into your new life.