to point out that formula feeding doesn't necessarily require you to be sterilising bottles and scooping out powder in the middle of the night...

[itsakindarabbit]

Keep seeing this on threads which mention ff...how people couldnt be doing with getting up in the night andstsrilising bottles/making up feeds.

I bf and ff but found ff no problem at night - i would take up a carton of ready made formula and a pre sterilised bottle and i could feed without getting out of bed.

And yes, i know ready made formula is expensive and not everyone uses it. But some of us do/did.

[PeazlyPops]

I've never used powder, only ready made formula, and DS is 10mo now, still having 4 x 9oz bottles a day.

Yes it costs more, but there's no way I'm faffing around measuring powder out! Life is too short.

[Moominsarescary]

boo yes, or keep the boiled water in a flask so you don't need to wait for the kettle to boil.

Some people put boiling water in the bottle then add formula then top it up with cooled boiled water to the required amount so they don't have to wait for it to cool but I've never done that.

It seems lots of people ignore the advice if my fb is anything to go by. Also some people think it's fine as long as the water is boiled, which is not the case. It's the formula that has bacteria in it and therefore needs adding to boiling water.

[WinterWinds]

does anyone know, is it ok to make up a bottle before you go to bed and bring it up with you. jsut let it cool on the bedside table and give to baby when they wake?

I did this with all three of mine, My last one was bottle fed 10 years ago and haven't got a scooby what the guidlines were back then but it did them no harm.
TBH if i were to have another (hypothetically!!) then would continue to do the same. My aim was to get up get baby fed, winded and back to sleep as quickly as possible in the dark with my eyes half closed, so as not to wake myself up properly.
So couldn't be doing with faffing around making bottles up and scooping milk into freshly boiled water one at a time. Bugger That!!!

[MummytoMog]

Getting DH to feed the baby? When I'm on mat leave? And he's got work in the morning? Er, no. Besides, can and did BF in my sleep.

I never sterilised, but then I never FF before five months, and frankly once they're shoving whole kittens into their mouths, it seems a bit prissy to sterilise baby bottles that have been washed thoroughly.

[Booyhoo]

this has really annoyed me actually on hearing what you're supposed to do.

i was a teen when i had ds1 and clueless. after convincing me i didn't have enough milk so i had to switch to formula my mum then convinced me i was feeding him wrong, using the wrong bottle, holding him wrong, making the feeds up wrong and i listened to her. she advised me to do this: boil the kettle in the morning, fill up all the bottles for the day, put them in the fridge then when he was ready for a feed add the powder and warm the bottle in the microwave. ds would bring up after every feed and she made me feel so guilty that i was still doing it wrong, wasn't cleaning things properly, wasn't sterilising things, wasn't putting the lid on the tin properly. i remember sitting in my friend's house faffing about with a pot of pre measured powder, my hands were shaking and i was getting so frustrated trying to get it in the bottle without touching it or spilling any and my friend was furious with my mum for getting my into such a tizz about it. turns out my mum was giving me the wrong advice after all!

[Moominsarescary]

I did the same with ds1&2, although I did reheat with a bottle warmer as guidelines were different back then and they advised you to make bottles in advance and keep them in the fridge, the same as weaning advice was different when they were born.

However advice on both things have changed so with ds3 I made when needed and didn't wean until 6 months.

[Moominsarescary]

It depends how old your ds1 is, mine has just turned 18 and ds2 is 10. I don't know when they changed it to making feeds up as you need them. Your mum sounds like she wasn't very supportive though

[IneedAsockamnesty]

Booyhoo

As far as I recall about 20 years ago they did say make up the days bottles in one hit and bung them in the fridge but they also were quite negative about warming them up in the microwave, something to do with hotspots.

It used to be warm them up in a jug of hot water.

But my understanding is these days they advise making up each bottle as you need it with cooled boiled water.and discarding any not used after an hour.

It sounds like your mum really knocked your confidence,I hope it hasn't caused lasting problems

[RatPants]

YANBU.

[Booyhoo]

he is 7. i think she thought she was helping/being supportive and making sure i was doing right by ds but she definitely didn't like me BFing. still angry about that tbh. she had the formula in the cupboard waiting for when i would 'fail' and took great pleasure in giving him his first bottle.

[midastouch]

WIth my DD I did exactly the same as you OP with a carton, pre sterelised bottle and bottle warmer (if i had time). With my first DS i did the whole steralising and making it up with a screaming baby in the middle of the night what a nob! i think people are a bit paranoid, you have it drummed into you that you have to steralise and use within so many hours when actuallly its about hygiene and being sensible! Its not too expensive if you only use the cartons at night.

[Moominsarescary]

She sounds awful. I know by the time my friend had her dd who is 5 or 6 now the advice had changed to make up as you need them.

that your mum bought in formula when you were trying to bf. I was 16 when ds1 was born, I can't imagen how much harder it would have been if my mum hadn't been so supportive.

[LadyBeagleEyes]

You do know there's a designated Bf/Ff topic don't you?
All for you, and so you then don't clutter up the other topics with your repetitive arguments.
I'd link you to it but I CBA.

[Booyhoo]

yes i was really upset when she casually said "i have some formula in the kitchen if you want to try him on it. at least you'll know he's getting enough" sounds silly to be so upset but the fact that she was so smug about it really got to me. i've slowly created alot of distance between us over the years tbh. and i basically tell her i wont discuss certain subjects if she brings them up. i have to in order to avoid being dragged into her issues.

[wiltingfast]

Another here who made the bottles up in the morning and stuck them in the fridge. Two babies have survived my madness!

As for the night feed (just 1) we just brought a bottle up and by the time baby wanted it, it was room temp anyway.

On dd I had one of those bedside cots, brilliant! Pick up bottle, roll baby in, give her the feed, roll her back out, it was the biz :)

[SirBoobAlot]

Some of these replies are concerning.

Formula is not sterile. If made incorrectly, it can make babies very very ill.

[midastouch]

Agree sirboobalot the guidelines were obviously changed for a reason, my mother made mine and put them in the fridge and was amazed they tell you not to now. It is your babies health and thats not a chance im willing to take just for convenience. Formula in a carton is sterile though its the powder thats not

[AudrinaAdare]

Booyhoo my mum was like that. Totally undermining. And then gave me crap and outdated advice about FF. I was in my late twenties, was pre-internet and I was a lone parent going back to full-time work after three months so I didn't know what else to do.

I am also cross and totally understand where you are coming from.

It was completely different when I had DS seven years later thanks to MN

[Booyhoo]

same audrina. i had no internet at home and was also a lone parent with no-one else who could tell me different. best friend was good support but i was nowhere near able to stand up to my mum even with her support. we were both silly teens as far as my mum was concerned.

[Tortington]

oh for bottle warmers and microwaves, in'th olden days (1990s) i made up 16 bottles at the beginning of the day, (twins) stuck them in fridge and warmed up in a jug of hot water.

so i did have to get out of bed

[Tortington]

now, i'd pay someone else to do that shit if i was unlucky enough to ever be in that horrible situation :)

[detoxlatte]

Totally agree with you, OP.

It's like the whole "I'd much rather be reading to my children than wiping the kitchen counters down/ hoovering/ whatever" to justify a filthy home.

Not, of course, that bf is like keeping a filthy home , it's the hiding behind own purported or - worse - actual failings/deficiencies. It's so insulting, and just lame.

[GingerDoodle]

I think it depends what you are used to but people's opinions really don't need to be voiced forcefully either way.

For me, bf and indeed mix feeding using top ups was very time consuming. I now seralise 6 bottles in the morning and use them as needed with the 1lt bottles of formula or cartons if I'm out.

At night I take a bottle up in a cold bag with ice packs.

Dd prefers it slightly warm or room temp so I stick it in a pot if hot tap water to take the chill off.

[echt]

DD always had cold bottles. Dh would make a batch for the day, they'd be kept cool in the fridge.

Oddly, when the bottle fairy eventually came to visit, she never touched milk as a drink again.

[wigglesrock]

Yes, guidelines are to make each bottle up fresh, but there are guidelines on how to best make up premade bottles if it is simply not practical/possible to make each feed from fresh. Theres loads of advice on bottle/breast feeding section and on NHS guidelines.

I formula fed and didn't really get the whole its such a faff making up bottles, sterilising, washing etc. It was how I fed by kids so it was just what I did. I didn't think it was faffier than changing a nappy, getting the pram out, trying to "persuade" the baby that socks were a good idea.