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Infant feeding

Preparing formula-first timer-70 degree water?

8 replies

pandia · 08/03/2014 17:11

Interested how you prepare formula. Lots of my friends pre-boil water and just add the powder, but the new guidelines say it must be added to water at 70 degrees and then cooled as the powder itself is not sterile so needs very hot water to kill any potential bugs. Doesn't seem very easy or practical for eg nighttime feeds and I'm just wondering what most people do..

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monkeymadness1 · 08/03/2014 17:31

In confused too. When my eldest was a baby we boiled the kettle, let it cool then used the cooled water to make up bottles for the next 24 hrs.

Now I think it guidelines are that water must be boiled and used whist still more than 70 degrees and that each bottle must be made as it's needed, not stored for later. Confused

We are mix feeding so do boob in the night but baby is having 3 small bottles a day too but even only half bottle feeding it's getting silly having to boil water and make a bottle just before it's needed rather than in advance and at a time I'm not rushed by a hungry baby.

I'm hoping I'm interpreting the guidelines wrong?

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pandia · 08/03/2014 17:40

Monkey madness I'm sure you're interpreting right. I just read an old mn thread on this that isn't live anymore but it said just this. I can imagine it working during the day but worrying about how to do it out and about or at nighttime. Planning to mix feed ds after quite a lot of problems ebf dd1 and would like to work out how I'm going to manage it!

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TheScience · 08/03/2014 17:45

It is possible to make bottles in advance, though obviously it is safest to make each one for immediate use.

If you want you can make up several bottles with 70 degree water, and then flash cool them (under a cold tap or in a bowl of ice water) and then store in the back of the fridge. It's best to store for as little time as possible but no more than 24 hours - so you might want to make up all the day ones in one go or all the night ones in one go rather than 24 hours worth in one go for example. Then you just have to warm the bottle to serve - or give to the baby cold.

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TheScience · 08/03/2014 17:47
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MyNameIsKenAdams · 08/03/2014 17:47

Use the kettpe water within 30 mins of boiling, but you can still prep feeds in advance and refridgerate.

The powder must be mixed with hot water to kill any nasties as the powder isnt sterile.

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BertieBotts · 08/03/2014 17:48

It's true that the safest way is to make each bottle up as and when with hot water.

However as this isn't practical for most people, the next safest thing is to make them up in advance. Of course, the less "in advance" the better, if you know your baby is likely to be hungry in about an hour it would be a good time to make one, or you could just make a new bottle every time they have a feed and store in the fridge for the next feed.

The reason lots of people use cool boiled water is that a few years ago there was lots of advice saying you shouldn't make bottles up in advance. This is true for best practice, but actually in real life it's safer to make up a bottle in advance with hot water than to make it up with cold water.

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RalphRecklessCardew · 08/03/2014 18:06

How much do you save using powder rather than ready-made formula?

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stressbucket1 · 08/03/2014 18:16

Tommee tippee perfect prep machine makes the bottles up to drinking temp in 3 mins its expensive tho! I used to use ready made cartons of formula in the night

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