Fucked up preparing my 2 week olds formula WWYD

[Sectionprep]

Used my perfect prep machine for the first time and realised after my child had had a few ml of the feed that it clearly hadn't dispensed the hot shot. I'm absolutely terrified and I don't know what to do, has this happened to anyone else before?

The risk of bacteria in formula powder is really, really low to start with.

Loads of people make up formula with cold water. Lots of countries don't even bother recommending hot water. The chance of your baby having any ill effects from this is so incredibly tiny you can't worry about it - you're probably more likely to be struck by lightning tomorrow.

I always used cooled boiled water to make my baby's bottles. Have always been told from health visitors etc that it's fine.

She's a year old now and has never once been ill, despite being exposed to winter flu and COVID (accidentally).

Don't worry OP

Kindly, OP, you need to seek help for your level of anxiety. Its not healthy for you or your baby.

I never used boiling water once with formula, always used cooled boiled water as did my friends, kids are teenagers now and extremely healthy, easy to say but chill out, don't listen to all the new advice, listen to your mum's generation, I had a great 60 year old health visitor that actually gave me useful advice not just the official don't sue us NHS advice.

OP please listen to the collective wisdom of a LOT of mums on this thread! We aren't all wrong 😊

The risk or anything happening your baby because you made the bottle with filtered tap water instead of boiling is honestly slim to none, please be kind to yourself. 111 will say nothing other than to watch for signs of illness...they aren't going to advise you get your baby's stomach pumped of a few ml of formula.

Please speak to your health visitor or GP, it does sound like you may have a little post natal anxiety.

God don't call 111! They don't exist for panicking mothers (said kindly)

Just make up bottles like people have done for many many years. Feed when baby cries. Sterilise bottles. And that's it

The instructions to boil the water aren’t because the water has bacteria in it. It’s because the powder isn’t sterile and could potentially have bacteria in, so the hot water is to kill any bacteria in the powder itself.

That being said - the risk is tiny. Especially after only a few mls of a feed. You haven’t hurt your baby, OP, really you haven’t. She is fine and you are keeping her safe. But you yourself sound a bit fragile. I can relate as I was like this when my first baby was born, worrying about everything to a massive degree. In hindsight I had PND and I wish I’d reached out for help. Would you feel able to share your anxiety with your GP or HV? They can help you and you’ll feel so much better.

You sound really anxious OP, your baby will be fine, no need to call 111, so many people have given you good advice on here and reassurance. Please look after yourself.

I understand what everyone is saying about the formula itself being the issue not the water, but I’m not sure that’s helping calm the OP!

@Sectionprep here in the US there wasn’t any guidance on adding practically boiling water to formula. Our sons are 7 and 9 and had gazillions of bottles made with room temp or heated tap water and formula straight from the can. Sometimes we’d find formula clumps that never dissolved. Sometimes we probably accidentally added too much formula. Never did we ever add boiling water to a bottle. Our sons are strong, healthy, vibrantly energetic young men who were happy babies. I’m currently very pregnant and while I’ll admit I’m leaning strongly towards being a bit more careful with this one due to recent issues in the formula supply chains here, I’ll be the umpteenth mother on here to say please stop feeling guilty - a normal, healthy baby and a tiny bit of formula that wasn’t made up to formal advice should not have any lasting consequences. I’d suggest making yourself a lovely cup of relaxing tea and snuggling up with your precious baby! Everything will look better after a good rest!

Thank you all so much, this really reassured me.

I am a fairly anxious person but I definitely don't have PND - promise! 111 were actually really helpful and thanked us for letting them know, they too were really reassuring and helpful.

Baby seems fine so I know that I was being overly cautious and that these things happen. Thank you all.

Echoing @MabelQ , I don't live in the U.K. (but am British) so started off following good ol' NHS guidance but never actually had it explained to me why you needed the to boil a kettle and then use it at 70 degrees etc. The instructions on my formula packets didn't require hot water so I didn't understand why the NHS had me fiddling around with hot water... I thought it was perhaps something to do with tap water not being safe for babies and needing to be a certain temp.

Anyway after a few weeks of following the English guidance I eventually switched to the more relaxed US way, using bottled water (we can't drink tap water here anyway). It was only recently that I realised the purpose of the water having to be hot when it hits the formula (ie it's to do with the formula, not the water!)... it felt like a bit of a whoops moment but our baby was fine.

So don't worry. With hindsight, with a little baby I think I'd do the hot shot as a matter of course in the first few weeks (now I know what the purpose is), but a few mls will be fine.

The US guidance only suggests hot water for premature or vulnerable babies.