Cow and Gate comfort milk, would this work.

[alfiemama]

I have just switched lo to comfort milk, which she is doing really well on. My question is about making it up.

I usually use a tt flask (she was on aptamil normal) but lo has now started sleeping through and the water isnt hot enough, read somewhere that for it to activate it should be boiling.

Am I ok to say add 2oz of boiling water to bottle, add 4oz of feed and shake well, then top up with cooled boiled water to make up to 4oz.

I realise that when formula is made up, it is usually more than you make as increases, so would need to play around with my water measurements.

Anyone done anything similar or any ideas on best way to make this up.

My main prob is fridge is outside in utility
and if I make it up fresh it takes ages to cool down.

[loftylorrie]

Afaik, it says on the packet to let boiled water cool for 30 mins before making up a feed. Haven't used comfort for a couple of weeks though.

Don't know what a tt flask is, but if it's a type of bottle then if you stick it in a bowl of cold water it should cool pretty quickly even from boiling hot. And as far as amount of water goes I think you're meant to put the water in first, then the appropriate amount of powder. This ends up in slightly more total liquid, but you'll get the right ratio of water to powder. So adding extra water would dilute it and then maybe make your baby more hungry, if you see what I mean.

If it makes you feel any better, I've made up feeds with stone-cold water and boiling hot, and as long as it doesn't scald him my son doesn't even notice the difference

[ThisIsYourSong]

OK, we did something similar. Apparently you shouldn't use just boiled water as it scalds the powder, hence needing to leave it to cool for 30 mins.

So what we would do in this situation is use (say) 2oz boiled water then add a splash of cooled boiled water, add powder and shake then add the rest of the cooled boiled water. Slight faff but much quicker than waiting 30 minutes for it to cool.

If you are worried about getting the water level exactly right, make a bottle the normal way (i.e. 4oz of boiled water, 4oz of powder) then shake to mix, let it settle and then mark on the bottle with a marker the level you need to add the water up to, if this makes sense!

[alfiemama]

thanks loftylorrie, tt flask is the Tommee Tippee flask, it was really useful when she was on normal feed, as I would put boiling water in at night and take box of formula to bed, so by the time she woke up it was cool enough but hot enough for guidelines.

I just find with the Cow and Gate comfort that if I make it up with anything other than boiling hot it doesn't thicken.

Im wondering if I make up a bottle of say 4oz and see where it goes up to and make a note to always add the extra water. So say it went to 5oz made up, I would add an extra oz of water.

[MoonUnitAlpha]

It's supposed to be hot (70 degrees) but not boiling.

Could you make up the bottles for the night and keep them in the fridge, and then just microwave them as needed? Obviously make the bottles up with hot water then cool them down before putting them in the fridge.

I know they say not to microwave them because of hot spots, but I always microwave for 30 secs then swish the bottle around to get rid of the hot spots.

[ThisIsYourSong]

ha, crossed post!

[alfiemama]

Thanks ThisIsYourSong, that sounds a good idea. Didn't know about it scalding the formula, would this take the nutrients out of it?

I was reading the official guidelines for milk and it said leave for no more than 30 mins.

[MoonUnitAlpha]

How about using 2 bottles - put 4oz of cold water in one, then you can put 2oz of boiling in the other with 6 scoops of powder and then pour the 4oz of cold in. That way you definitely get the right amount of water.

[alfiemama]

Would this be allowed then Moonunit? Two bottles of course, if it was pre measured it would work

Or I could cool down and put in fridge and then put in thermos bag in kitchen, when going to bed and heat in microwave.

I know they have to have guidelines, but its making lo hate cold milk as always has it warm.

[StarlightWonderStarlightBright]

The powder needs to be mixed with very hot water to kill the bacteria. The water isn't what needs to be sterlised, it's fine. The powder is not.

[alfiemama]

So if I mix the formula with the 2oz of boiling, I would be ok Starlight?

This is what I'm thinking, during the day I use the flask and cool down, so now with this feed I may aswell boil kettle but keep cooled boiled water in flask and add, so no waiting for it to cool down.

[StarlightWonderStarlightBright]

Well, it has to be off the boil as too hot kills some of the nutrients, but 2 oz would cool down enough in just a few minutes.

And the cold water you mix it with doesn't therefore need to have been boiled at all. It can be straight out of the tap (in the UK).

As I said, the boiling the water thing isn't about killing bugs in the water, it is about heating it enough to kill the bugs in the powder.

[alfiemama]

Really? Ha ha can't see hubby liking that one, he doesnt think its right we now put them in the fridge, even though we did this with ds1.

[ThisIsYourSong]

I thought they couldn't have tap water until after six months in the UK?

[StarlightWonderStarlightBright]

It's nothing to do with the tap water. They should not be consuming anything other than milk until 6 months.

[alfiemama]

lo is only 7 weeks, wouldnt feel comfortable doing that.

[StarlightWonderStarlightBright]

That's fine alphie. But FF companies have emphasised the water thing in an attempt to embed a general perception that we are killing water bugs rather than formula bugs.

So many threads in this section show that people are genuinely shocked that formula isn't sterile. They bang on about the boiling water thing as a smokescreen and to ensure that the formula does in fact hit hot water. I would probably use boiled water myself for such a young baby, getting more slap-dash as they got older etc. As it happens I only ever used the carton stuff because although twice the price of the powder I knew (then) that the whole scenario confused the hell out of me and I never knew whether I was getting it right, nor did I have the time to find out.

[ThisIsYourSong]

I don't know about that. I think the formula companies are pretty honest that formula needs to be made up in a particular way and used within a certain period of time to ensure there are no bugs. People commonly ignore the advice not to pre-make bottles and put them in the fridge.

It is routine to offer constipated babies cooled boiled water. The Food Standards Agency states that boiled tap water should be used for babies under six months.

[MoonUnitAlpha]

It's acceptable to pre-make bottles and keep them in the fridge, so long as they are made hot in the first place. The Food Standards Agency has guidelines stating this for situations where it isn't practical to make each bottle fresh (if you send bottles with your baby to childcare for instance).