"new" guidelines for making up formula

[FannyFanakapan]

Im a bit long in the tooth, and last had a baby on formula 12 years ago....I may now be looking after a new baby for a couple of weeks, and I need to understand the new guidelines around making up formula.

WHat I used to do is sterilize bottles, fill will boiling water, seal and put in the fridge. Take out when needed (within 24h period), heat and then add formula powder.

Is this now not OK - I read on MN that I should be heating the water to 70 degrees before adding formula to kill bacteria - how then to cool it down to c. 35 degrees so hungry starving baby can drink it?

What do you do? What's your routine?

[ItMustBeBedtimeSurely]

You need to add the powder to v hot water to kill the bacteria, although plenty of people do still do it the way you describe.

We added the powder to v hot water and topped up with cool booked water. Important to measure the hit and cold water before adding and not use the side of the bottle (because the powder is already in iyswim). Worked for us.

I believe what they do on maternity wards is make up the bottles with v hot water and store at the back of the fridge for up to 12 hours.

[ItMustBeBedtimeSurely]

Boiled and hot, obviously. Stupid autocorrect.

[Nolim]

Boil, mix, refrigerate/cool. Yes that is what i was told.

[AuntieMaggie]

Yes the powder needs to be added to hot water and I put the bottle in a jug of cold water to cool it down - only takes about 5 mins so no longer than heating up a bottle imo. The water should only be boiled once though so don't reboil water that's been sitting in the kettle.

[PattiODoors]

It is ok to make up a batch of bottles - make as per instructions, flash cool under cold running water or a bowl of ice cubes and store in fridge. Discard any unused after 24 hours.

A more expensive way is to buy ready made infant formula - v convenient.

[FannyFanakapan]

thank you MN... I find it amazing how advice changes from one generation to the next!

[curlykale]

Or check out the Tommee Tippee perfect prep machine. Makes up a bottle in a couple of minutes.

[curlykale]

Sorry should have read more carefully...might be an expensive investment for a couple of weeks only!

[Yerwanoverthere]

Just to add that the water should not be boiling when adding the formula as that can "scald" and damage the nutrients in the formula. Current guidelines are to boil the water and leave it for 20-30 mins in kettle, so it has cooled down to 70degrees then add water to bottle, add formula to water, cool down in jug of cold water then either give to baby or put in back of fridge for up to 24 hours.

[Goldmandra]

You can mix the formula with a small amount of hot water then top up with refrigerated boiled water to cool it quickly but make sure you measure the total amount of water correctly.

It would take some trial and error to work out what proportions of hot and cold produced the right final temperature.