Gastro-enteritis: is official advice on bottle-making to blame?

[emkana]

First of all I would like to stress that I don't mean to upset anyone! This is just something I've been wondering about. Every baby/child I know here in England who is bottle-fed has had one or several bouts of gastro-enteritis, some so badly that they had to go into hospital. In Germany, where I come from, they say that you should never make bottles in advance, but always make them fresh. I don't know that many babies there, so I can't comment on the gastro-enteritis, but I seem to have heard about it a lot less. So, what's your experience?

[tabitha]

Both my dd1 & dd2 were bottle fed from birth and I made up feeds in advance, ie full days feeds made at once. Can't comment for anyone else but I never had any problems, neither of them had gastro-enteritis and they very rarely had other illnesses either. I think that as long as you are scrupulously careful with hygeine and your fridge is cool enough, ie don't keep them in the inside of the fridge door, but in the cooler shelves, there shouldn't be a problem.

[bundle]

only use the odd bottle, but I never make them up in advance - I do put water in bottle in advance, and add the formula when needed later.

[nutcracker]

All of my kids were bottle fed and none of them ever had gastro.
My ds has recently had it, but he's now on cows milk so not made up in advance.

[MrsGrump]

Not a baby, but my breastfed toddler (16 months) had gastro-enteritus. I imagine he caught it from another child at nursery, not his food.

[bobsmum]

Ds breastfed till 17 mths, had gastro-enteritis at 6 mths and then mildly again about 6 weeks later. But that was pretty much when he started solids so maybe dodgy hygeine was to blame afterall? no idea really.

[Hulababy]

DD was bottle fed from 6 weeks (odd bottle top up before that). She is now 23 months old. So far she has not had any sign of anything like gastro-enteritis or similar; no real bugs at all to be hionest - just colds (from nursery). She stopped having formula completely aged about 16-17 months.

Her bottles were made up in advance for up to 24 hours and stored in fridge. But we did take them out with us in a bottle bag - so technically against advice.

Friend's DS was bottle fed too and he hasn't had gastro-enteritis either. He is now 2.5 years.

[prettycandles]

DS was mix-fed, his day's bottles were always prepared in advance (at first we made them all up and kept them in the door of the fridge, after a couple of months we prepared 6-7 bottles of boiled water and kept them outside the fridge and added the powder as necessary). DD was almost exclusively breastfed, with just the occasional bottle if I had to miss a feed. DS has never had gastro, and DD had a bout at 9m.

I doubt whether gastroenteritis is entirely connected with the way in which bottles are prepared, far more likely to be related to parents slipping up on washing hands after the loo/nappy-changing/handling cash etc. Of course, later on it's probably directly connected to what the baby picks up and puts in his or her mouth!

IIRC, in Scandinavia parents are advised not to sterilise at all (except for very vulnerable babies) and they have one of the lowest rates of gastroenteritis.

[hmb]

I ended up botle feeding mine, and never had any probelms with them. I was fairly manic about sterilisation, correct storage etc

[alibubbles]

My DS was botle fed from 8 weeks and I never sterilised the bottles or teats ever!

He was never ill, and has been to the doctors twice in 17 years.

[CountessDracula]

My dd never had gastro ent and she was bottle fed, I made them up in advance

[frogs]

FWIW, when my older two were in the neonatal unit of a major London teaching hospital, we were sent home with a leaflet that explained how to clean bottles. Their system involved washing with detergent in very hot clean water, putting to drain on a clean tea towel, covering with another clean tea towel and leaving to dry. As an afterthought it added; "It you wish to use any of the conventional means of sterilisation, you can."

As far as I could see, if this was the recommended system for vulnerable babies, I couldn't see why it wouldn't be good enough for my full-term nine-pounders.

In the event, I breastfed them all, but never sterilised bottles for EBM, just put them in the dishwasher. Never had any problems.

[Angeliz]

My dd was bottle fed and has never had it!

Her bottles were made up in advance,(24 hours max)

[Grommit]

both of mine were bottle fed and have never had it - I always make up bottles 12 hrs in advance. I have never known any of my friends bottle fed babys to get this either - must be something in the water where you live Emkana!

[Bozza]

DS was exclusively breastfed for 3 months and then we moved to mixed feeding when I went back to work. We used to make up the bottles for nursery the night before and keep them on the fridge shelf. After 2 days at nursery DS started projectile vomiting (not sure if it was gastro) and NHS Direct advised taking him to A&E where he didn't require a drip but was given diarolyte and I was able to resume daytime breastfeeds for a couple of days. Not sure if this was the bottles or the introduction to a new environment with lots of kids and other germs.

[hercules]

All 3 of dhs cousins children were in hospital several times but I must say her cleanliness wasnt the best. This is a woman whose ds ended up in a&e after weaning him using McDonalds!