AIBU to not follow new guidelines?

[LittleSugaPlum]

Im pregnant with first baby and im almost 33 weeks.
I plan to bottle feed and have brought all the equipment already.

When i was a nursery nurse, around 5 years ago, it was common to "bulk make bottles" and store them in the fridge for upto 24hours.

When i mentioned to my midwife that i was bottlefeeding, she mentioned that the new guidelines were to make up a feed when needed and its not recommended to "bulk make feeds"

Have people honestly stopped doing this? Do people actually only make one feed at a time?

Im seriously considering bulk making, if it was fine for years, whats the difference now?

AIBU to not follow the new guidelines?

I am desperately trying NOT to get into a breast or bottle debate, BUT I would urge you to look beyond posts on internet forums for a true insight into breastfeeding. It's easy enough to start out breastfeeding and change your mind to bottle feeding if you hate it, not so much the other way round.

Chat to some RL breastfeeding mums and see how you feel then. I can pretty much guarantee that your baby will see you as the "milk supply" regardless of the method by which you deliver that milk!

I made each individual bottle up for my first child but it was a nightmare frankly. I make up 6 at a time for second child and it has made thkngs much easier frankly. Boiled water, cooled fast and stored in back of fridge - job done.

Oh and I have just read your last post - good luck with that

Australian guidelines advise making bottles up with cooled boiled water, as they feel that the risk of babies being burned by incorrectly cooled formula is greater than the risk of bacteria in the formula causing stomach problems.

UK guidelines advise making up bottles in bulk when it is impractical to make each one from scratch (ie, ever).

I didn't bf because I didn't want to.

What about using the ready made cartons in the early weeks? Expensive but significantly less risky than making up bottles in bulk.

I bulk made bottles and put them straight in the fridge. Recent food guidance is to put hot food in fridge right away, no cool down, so I assumed the same principle.

I was in the US recently and the instructions are to simply add warm water. No bottle sterilisation either there.

Or you could follow the instructions on the packet and make it with water at 40 degrees... Keep some boiled water in the fridge, boil some, mix it almost 50:50 (check what ratio you need to make it 40 degrees) then add the powder. If you measure out th powder into a dispenser each morning, it takes very little time to make a bottle up.

I really don't understand all the "you must use boiling water" when it clearly says on the side of th packet that you shouldn't.

And that's totally fine OP, BF just isn't for some people.

These are the latest (I think) WHO guidelines - basically, if you are making them in advance then as lots of people have said, make them up "properly" with water >70 degrees, cool them fast, keep in fridge.

Unfortunately, IME our local health visitors and midwives knew bog all about formula feeding in general - different info every time, telling me an "artificially fed" baby shouldn't lose weight after birth, telling me I shouldn't be demand feeding a 3 day old...you get the drift!

Link would help

www.who.int/foodsafety/publications/micro/pif_guidelines.pdf

I made a few bottles at a time with my three children, I think it's a very good idea to buy some ready made cartons for the first few weeks to make life easier.

Sounds to me like there wont be any harm to bulk make bottles, so i ll do that and see how i get on

OP I'm a medical professional and bottle fed my PFB, she has never been ill and is thriving.
I used to boil freshly drawn water, put it into freshly sterilised bottles, cool it on the work surface (admittedly January - June in centrally heated home) then store in the salad drawer of the fridge with a days worth prepared in one go.
I would then heat the water in the microwave for 30 seconds on high for 6 oz bottles, add the milk powder and swirl very thoroughly to mix the heat and powder. I did check the milk temperature on the inside of my wrist every time and it was always the right temperature.
Wishing you the absolute best and do what you are comfortable with in combination with your common sense x

I made 8 bottles at a time and kept them in the fridge. Any that were unused within the day went out. (Generally all mine drank the 8 in a day though, it was rare to have one left over)
I had a system set up to make it as simple as possible, big cauldron wiuth a lid that went on to boil early morning, and was kept covered after that, for rinsing. Rinsed everything as soon as it was finished with, then washed up once they were all there, and popped all the bottles, teats, discs, lids etc in the steriliser tank, put the kettle on at the same time, then made the batch of bottles up about an hour later. With my pfb it was a bit horrific, but that was because I had zero support, and no real idea what I was doing, and didn't think to get the big pan for rinsing. With no2 son I got it sorted, and then with my youngest three it was like a little production line and fitted in with everything else we needed to do.
I never so much as attempted to breast feed, not once, not ever, with any of my children, and don't care whether anyone else does or not. What matters is that they are fed when they are hungry, with suitable food. Do what works for you OP. The guidelines change all the bloody time anyway, I have 16 years between my first and last children, and some of the things I had to do with my pfb, I was told would be downright wrong to do with my youngest, and vice versa.

That sounds like I rinsed dirty ones in the cooled boiled water - I rinsed them in the sink and when they came out of the steriliser they needed to be rinsed in cooled boiled water as it was one of those Milton tank sterilisers.

I used to fill bottles up with the boiled water and just added powder. Tried the whole make it up fresh thing but coupled with the fact the sterilizer only remainEd sterile unopened for 6 hours I was forever having to get up sort out bottle cool that as quickly as I could then bloody put the sterilizer back on and hope she didn't need another feed before I had a chance to do it all again in four hours time Was An absolute nightmare and by time I'd done all that she was to hysterical to eat. And given that she was on comfort formula then prescription milk which did not come in cartons. I also never saw how water kept hot was any safer than unsterile powder. Heat speeds ip bacteria cold slows it down. And once open u would still have to go downstairs re boil kettle re fil thermoys etc and flasks of hot water by tired mums bed are an accident waiting to happen.

Do what u see fit op :)

Cartons are not all that great, once or twice we got one that was off.
Guidelines are totally unrealistic IMO and to do a batch in advance seems fine to me.

Seriously? Do what you want I do think we over sterilise our kids a bit these days (and this comes from someone who was very obsessive and sterilised and made each bottle when I needed the feed) couldn't breast feed as DS was tongue tied.

Unless you're extremely unlucky baby will be fine. However they mouth so many different people, fingers, clothing etc that however hard you try (and trust me I tried) you can't avoid.

Probably way more bacteria on my brothers stinky t shirt when DS routed on him when he was newborn unless you're the only one who ever holds the baby, and are totally washed and sterilised daily (which with a newborn is pretty much impossible) then they're going to pick up bacteria.

We made bottles up in bulk and never had a problem. You could always use the ready-made cartons of milk.

What changed was that a couple of newborns died from entero something or other I think it happened in France

I did the bulk making up of bottles and my mum was horrified. She looked after dd when I worked and slways made individual bottles up. I began to do this too and actually it was loads easier.

Another one here (3 kids) and never had a problem bulk making bottles

All bacteria are not equal. I don't wash my hands religiously before eating but I do always wash them after handling raw chicken.

The guidelines are there so that certain types of bacteria that can be present in formula are killed during the preparation process.

OP YANBU to make in bulk, I believe there are guidelines on this being acceptable if not 'best practice'. Better to make according to manufactures instructions and store safely in advance than to cut corners in the preparation and make every time imo.

I'd agree with those saying that the ready made cartons are great for the early weeks. I was bf but dd wasn't getting enough so I topped up with formula. After first few weeks we would make up 3-4 bottles with just the water and keep them in the fridge to add powder to when needed. Much easier than one at a time.

Re: midwife, if you get one like mine then just be prepared to ignore whatever they say. They may seem scary but they have no power. If you're feeding your child then they have no right to comment on how you do so. Also, I noticed recently that all the literature they give you now is totally centred on bf and bottle feeding is now called 'Artificial feeding'. Don't feel guilty - it's your choice, not theirs!

My DS is now 4. When he was a bubba I tried BF but failed after a week as he had a tongue tie.

I started him on cow & gate (and expressed what I could) and was instructed it was OK to make those bottles up for 4 hours in advance.

To be honest I don't think I would have made them in bulk anyway. It's not the much hassle and I ALWAYS had plenty of cartons ready.

Many thanks for all your advice, afew of you have mentioned "tongue tie"

What is this?

See to be honest I formula fed 3 children from birth through choice and received nothing but support and information (in leaflet form ) from both midwives and health visitors.