Preparing bottles for day

[Fluxboxuk]

Wondering what everyone's thought are on preparing bottles for the day using powder mix...

Seems the days of just mixing up 6 bottles in the morning and throwing them in the fridge are gone, every packet I look at now seems to say 'prepare as needed' and follow our handy '30 Min' prep guide, which seems insane to me...

Scenario : baby balling his eyes out in hunger at 3am, me sitting watching seconds tick by on the clock waiting for magic water to cool...

Of course tommee and others have jumped on this problem with their prefect prep machines, with a lovely £100+ price tag for a glorified filtered kettle...

My plan when buying the powder was to boil water and add to sterile bottles in the fridge, when have pre measured powder ready for feeding time, when the time comes, add powder to one of by water ready bottles and shake and shove in the bottle warmer for a few mins... sterile bottle, sterile water, only thing that seems to be the gamble is if it's sterile powder ;)

Most the brands seem to say you only have a 2 hour window to use once mixed as well, so how do you do day trips or long journeys ?

[Anotherdayanotherdollar]

Its safer to add the powder to the boiled water (after 30 mins as it should be 70°) than to add it to cold sterile water as the risk is with bacteria in the powder. The heat of the water should kill the bacteria.

[ifoundthebread]

I do it as you stated in your post. Sterilise bottles, add boiling water, once cooled put on lid. When ds wants a bottle add powder, shake and serve. I don't put bottles in the fridge as he prefers room temp. Did exactly the same with now 3 year old dd

[TheDisillusionedAnarchist]

It’s absolutely fine to make up bottles in advance, the second safest (and in my view the only practical) way however not the way you plan to do it. Instead
Boil 1 litre of water
Leave to cool for no longer than 30 minutes
Assemble the days feeds including powder
Flash cool in sink of cold water
Store in back of fridge for up to 24 hours.
serve cold or warmed as needed.

[LutherRalph1]

I have a perfect prep but when out and about I just mimic it. I have a flask of boiling water, and a bottle of cooler boiled water - then mix it up in a separate baby bottle. This works for us

[MrsL2016]

I do what @LutherRalph1 does. Works great.

[Jellybean100]

Either what @thedisullusioned said or @lutherralph1

If you add powder to water that isn’t above 70 degrees you’re not killing any bacteria that’s in the powder. Formula powder isn’t sterile.

[Thesearmsofmine]

The way to make it bottle in advance safely is to make them up as advised on the packet and then quickly cool them and store in the fridge for no more than 24 hours. Formula powder needs to be added to hot water.

This is the way advised by the world health organisation so that’s what I went with.

[FATEdestiny]

You can make in advance and store at the back of the fridge. This is deemed safe by the NHS as long as:

• used within 24 hours
  
• cooled quickly
  

I would make up enough bottles for about 12 hours worth of feeds (4 bottles?). Do this twice a day - once in morning and once in evening.

Easy peasy.

[Topseyt]

I always made up enough feeds for a whole day and stored them in the fridge.

I would boil the kettle and steam sterilise the bottles simultaneously. The kettle would have cooled only for about 10 - 15 minutes by the time I poured the correct amount of the water into each sterile bottle. Then just add the correct amount of powder immediately, shake well, cool quickly under running cold water or by standing them in cold water for a few minutes. Then store in the fridge.

When a feed was required I would just pick one and microwave it for about 30 - 40 seconds and shake. Mine all survived and were virtually never ill.

[kikibo]

It's interesting that in the UK there seems to be this insane fear about killing bacteria in formula, yet over the Channel, Hipp tells me to boil kettle, let water cool down to 40°C, add powder, shake and let cool to 37 before feeding. None of this 70° stuff.
Instead they tell you not to store the spoon in the bag of formula, not to transfer the powder to any other containers, to always close the bag after use and not to keep open bags beyond 3 weeks.

Much more sensible.

[Topseyt]

I never bothered with the 70° stuff. As in, I would never have measured how hot it actually was. I just found that when it had cooled for about 15 minutes was when my hands could bear to pick up and shake the bottle after adding the powder. Never a problem.

I would make up 8 feeds at a time, and that did usually last about 24 hours.

[LittleMG]

I brought my perfect prep machine second hand and it has been a god send,I thoroughly recommend them. I cleaned and replaced the filter and run the clesning program and it’s been fine for my baby.

[CanSurvive]

It’s not the water that needs to be sterile, it’s the water that needs to be over 70 to kill the bacteria. You don’t need to wait 30mins for the water to cool, if you read it it’s wait NO MORE than 30mins as it’s too cold then.
Do your own version of perfect prep with a small amount of boiled water to kill the bugs and top with cold pre booles water from the fridge.

[Mumshappy]

Could you keep some of the little pre prepared bottles in your cupboard for the night feed. I know they are more expensive but i do use them when out and about. I would rather do this in a cafe etc than my DS cry while the bottle cools. I got a second hand perfect prep machine barely used by grandparents for twenty quid best purchase i made for baby.

[AssassinatedBeauty]

As others have said, there is no need to wait 30 minutes after boiling the kettle! The instructions are to wait no more than 30 minutes. You can add the hot water to the bottles as soon as you like after it's boiled.

The chances of the formula powder containing unpleasant bacteria is small, but it is also totally avoidable by using water hotter than 70 degrees. It's better to make up bottles in advance using hot water, cool rapidly and then store in the fridge than it is to make them up on demand with cold water.

[Toddlerteaplease]

I'm a paediatric nurse and it drives me nuts when babies come back form theatre, absolutely screaming with huger and parents faff around making fresh bottles then waiting for them to cool for ages. Just give it at room temperature. They won't care.
Rant over!

[CanSurvive]

You can cool a bottle by running it under a tap. Still better than giving it at room temperature with the potential of not killing all the bugs in milk which as a paediatric nurse will have seen the devastating consequences of. Yes it’s rare, but why take the risk? The same with eating unpasteurised cheese in pregnancy, Rare but why take the risk?