bottle feeding advice

[junosmum]

Hello. Pregnant with DC2. Wanting to bottle feed this one. How many bottles am I likely to need? How many do they have a day? Pace feeding or schedule? warm or cold? Any advice welcome.

I only had a packet of six large ones and the small one's too.
I fed when she was hungry depends on the baby.
My friends premade bottles and stored them in the fridge and heated them up as an when.

We used tommee tippee but I think there is a huge variety of them even sterelizing bottles.

We bought twelve bottles as they get left around the house for night feeds, etc, plus helpful when you can’t be bothered to wash up and sterilise. DD usually has around six bottles a day but we feed on demand as she gets v hungry during growth spurts - suggested number is usually on side of the pack.

One tip we didn’t know at first is to change the size of teat if your baby is falling asleep during bottles or takes ages to drink them. If you’re using Tommee Tippee I find the variflow ones best.

Also, would definitely recommend the Perfect Prep machine if you don’t have one already- lifesaver!

I don’t think it matters whether milk is warm or cold - perfect prep does them warm but DD will happily drink travel milk cold if we’re out and about, plus sometimes she messes around and they just get cold anyway.

Get loads of bottles. You won't be able to find them when you're half asleep. And discovering that you have to wash one to feed a screaming baby will make you cry.

We fed on demand too.

You’ll need at least 6 bottles - I started off with 3 but could keep up with the sterilising!

I have 8 for my DTs. They ate 8 times a day when they were newborn, every 3 hours, then gradually moved to 5 times a day but larger amounts which was glorious. They’re on 4 a day now, and I make up the entire days worth the night before, then warm up before the feed in hot water to either room temp or warm on my wrist - ny the time I’ve changed their nappies the bottles are ready to go.

We had four when she was tiny. It's not the number of bottles that's a pain, it's waiting for it to cool down! But I don't remember ever warming them once she was out of special care (she wasn't well when she was born), and I'd definitely recommend that - I know people who had 5 and 6 month old babies who still wouldn't tolerate fridge-cold milk or even room temperature! You do not want to get into that situation.

Great advice thanks. And yes, don't really want to have to extra warm bottles if I don't need to!

At LEAST six- DD fed every 4 hours on the button for the first few weeks, and any less than six would have meant we were constantly running the dishwasher instead of just once a day.

Have a look at the MAM bottles- they have a really handy starter set of about eight bottles from Boots for £30ish. You can sterilise them in the microwave, which will save £££ on buying a sterilising kit as well.

I didn’t think much of the Tommy Tippee bottles- the neck was really wide which meant that towards the end of the bottle it hand to be held vertically to avoid baby sucking in loads of air as they finished the feed.

As a PP said- Perfect Prep. Amazing. Makes a fresh bottle in about 45 seconds which is perfect for when the baby goes from perfectly content to furious with hunger in the space of a nano second.

You don't need special sterilising kit. You just need a tupperware and sachets of Milton. Pop the Milton into water first thing in the morning and it's good for 24 hours. Wash each bottle and shove it in when you're done feeding; fish them out in turn and rinse as you make the next bottle. It is honestly easier and quicker than faffing around with a microwave, IMO, and safer than perfect prep.

We already have a steriliser. Never really used it though.

I don't know whether we'll get a perfect prep. I'm certainly not waiting for bottles to cool with a ravenous baby though.

Don’t forget that if using powdered milk over ready made that it must come into contact with near boiling water to be decontaminated.

I think perfect prep is basically fine, sorry - I wasn't trying to scaremonger - it's just there's a small concern they don't actually get hot enough to sterilise very well, and don't always work perfectly. I was hyper conscious of it because DD had been ill and tube fed, so we were told be be really cautious. And unlike you I had no prior knowledge of a baby and so was a paranoid newbie!

Same as LDR we had a big tupperware tub with milton tablets in and changed water every 24hrs - or perhaps 12 - then as each bottle was finished used to wash straight away and chuck in steriliser. Used to make up bottles of water perhaps 3 at a time and then mix & feed at room temp.

Used to make up bottles of water perhaps 3 at a time and then mix & feed at room temp.

But you can't mix after the water's cooled?

The formula powder is what isn't sterile. It has to be sterilised by mixing with hot water - over 70 degrees, so nearly boiling. Once it's been mixed, you have to cool it fast (run it under a cold tap) and then put it in the main bit of the fridge to keep it cold, if you want to store it.

I got the perfect prep and an electric steriliser used on eBay. Makes life soooo much easier. Didn’t have them for DS and we’d often be frantically trying to cool a bottle while he screamed! The electric steriliser does six bottles and only takes a few minutes.

We had 6 Mam anti-colic ones which self sterilise in the microwave. Used the perfect prep machine at home, ready made formula cartons on the go. Could not have been easier.