Practicalities of feeding and settling a FF baby at night

[fazool]

I currently mix-feed my 5-month old but am planning to move to fully FF for various reasons. He currently wakes up around 4 times at night, and 2-3 of those times I bf him to feed/resettle.

How do people make up feeds for the night? During the day, I make them up on demand, by adding powder to boiled water, and then adding cooled boiled water to get the right temperature. I can't imagine doing this at night though, as it would involve taking DS downstairs with me which would fully wake him up. I can't really make up bottles in advance and then warm them either, as the MaM bottles are so thick they seem to take about 10 minutes to warm up from the fridge if I put them in a bowl of hot water.

The only option I can think of is using the little cartons of ready-made formula, but this would be expensive...

Also, I'm guessing that a couple of DS's night feeds are just for comfort - so should I try to wean him off them and just resettle with a dummy/rocking? I'm not sure what the norm is for number of night feeds in FF babies.

[QueenB14]

My DD (12W) has always been FF. I used to take up a thermos of boiling water and measured out formula in milk dispenser for the night feed

Now she sleeps through but any night feeds she wants in the future I will just make as needed

[thatstoast]

We used the perfect prep but it might not represent good value at this stage. I doubt there's a norm. My DS didn't feed during the night at five months. If you're weaning him off the breast maybe he'll wake less as a result? If you think it's a comfort thing.

[NeedaDiscoNap]

I used the ready made bottles, which was v expensive, until we got the perfect prep. We used to take it upstairs and make up the bottles as we needed them. If you get it on offer I reckon it pays for itself quickly - and it's really convenient for during the day.

[fazool]

Ah that's a good idea QueenB14, I just need to figure out the ratio of hot to room temperature water that will make the perfect bottle! Tommee Tippee perfect prep looks good too. Is it small enough to be transportable?

[Heatherbell1978]

I prepare in advance and warm in the microwave. You're advised not to because of hot spots but a vigorous shake and tasting it yourself should be fine.

[Tangoandcreditcards]

Perfect prep is a little bigger (taller) than a toaster. Easy to move into the room you need it in.

DS was always quite happy having fridge cold milk, even at night. Have you tried?

We probably dropped night feeds and replaced with water around 6-7 months so might not be worth buying the perfect prep for a few weeks worth of night feeds (I do know some babies will continue to feed at night after this, DS took about 4 weeks but dropped the night bottles eventually).

[Redling]

I make a bottle up and take it to bed at 11pm as his first night feed is about midnight - 1am and a made up bottle lasts 2 hours (WHO guidelines). he is happy with room temp milk. I also take a sterilised bote and a ready made bottle of formula for his around 4am feed. Sometimes he just has the one feed.

[FATEdestiny]

Also, I'm guessing that a couple of DS's night feeds are just for comfort - so should I try to wean him off them and just resettle with a dummy/rocking? I'm not sure what the norm is for number of night feeds in FF babies.

At 5 months old your baby should not need 5 formula feeds per night. The SMA tin recommends 5 feeds per 24 hours. While 6 or 7 smaller feeds in 24 hours would be fine, more than that suggests the night feeds are more about waking and being unable to get back to sleep, rather than hunger.

Dummies are absolute saviours as a way to sooth and settle babies back to sleep. 5 months is quite late to be introducing a dummy though so your baby may not accept it. You may need to persevere quite a lot with it.

Rocking can easily become a rod for your own back at this age. But then so does feeding to sleep, which is where you are now. So I guess it is a case of which is the lesser of two evils.

[Septbaby]

Think I'm going to rock the boat here... We make up feeds in advance early in the evening, cool them right down in the fridge then keep the 4am bottle in a Tupperware box with an ice pack and warm in the bottle warmer when needed. The ice pack/Tupperware combo serves as a fab little mini fridge and keeps the bottle really cool, equally you could try a small cool bag? We attempted making bottles on demand, this lasted 1 night! Whatever makes the grind less grindy

[SoonToBeSix]

Prepare in advance remove from fridge and microwave just shake well.
Is there a reason why you can't breast feed night times only wouldn't it be easier?

[Retromama008]

I got a thermos 1.5 litre flask from Argos. Boil kettle let it cool for 10 mins and fill flask I do this 2/3 times a day and use it to make up feeds with powder. 15 mins before bed time I fill it and take the milk tub and bottles/flask to the room and fill a jug with cold water. When lo wakes I make up bottle stick it in the jug to cool by the time I do a nappy change and quick cuddle it's cooled and made as fresh as possible without losing your sanity with boil kettles all day! :) it works well, first bottle in morning and bed time bottle are fresh as water has just been boiled and the rest during the day the water still bed very hot so almost like making it fresh. HV and midwife said this was the next best thing to constantly boiling a kettle and it was safe

[Retromama008]

I forgot to say that the leftover warm water in the flask is good to use for doing dishes/bottles :) no wastage