To think the recommended forumla prep is impractical?!

[sleepwhatsleep]

So it's 3am and DS who is newborn starts to stir, waking me up. I go downstairs and pick up the leaflet on bottle feeding so follow the instructions of the current recommended advice which say a bottle should only be made up when the baby asks for it. So, no second guessing. Wait until you see the signs. So.

First I have to pray to all that is holy that DS is only at the early stiring stage so that I have enough time to make this bottle.

Because it takes more than 45 minutes to prepare a bottle following the guidelines.

First you boil the kettle and then leave it for 30 minutes. In the meantime patiently explain to the baby that there isn't any evidence behind using the perfect prep machine and premaking bottles in the fridge is also only if "absolutely necessary".

Then make up the feed in the sterile bottle.

Obviously it is too hot still. So you have to hold the still pretty hot bottle under a cold water tap. That's what the leaflet says. My top record for cooling it down this way is 15 minutes, minor burns and 37 swear words on how long this is taking while DS becomes impatient.

Then feed the baby.

We did this for 24 hours. At the end of the night I had spent £70 for a tommee tippee perfect prep machine and I cackled with hysterical glee and tears of joy as the delivery man handed it to me.

I get that it's based on evidence but AIBU for not blaming myself and others for buying the perfect prep machine? Midwife was not impressed.

I did a mixture of what CalmerLlama did, and storing the bottles in the fridge. Really not worth all that faffing at 3am!

I know it's a pain but is there for safety reason although as others have said there are other methods that are just fine.

Can I just say to people though please please please don't add boiling water to milk to soon. I had a friend who did it after a few minutes of the kettle clicking and the water made the bottle explode, it burned her chest and boiling milk sticks. She came away with some nasty scars

For DD I just used to make the day's bottles up first thing using boiling water and then cool rapidly in a pan of cold water and store at the back of the fridge then used bottle warmer to reheat. Never had any problems.

This time I would LOVE one of those Perfect Prep machines but still have all the Dr Browns bottles so can't justify getting all new Tommee Tippee so will do the same as last time.

Betty you can use mostly any bottle brand with the Tommy Tippee machine. I use MAM with mine.

Don't think has been mentioned but there's a method where you can make bottles up quickly like a human perfect prep, my FF friend does it.

Boil loads of water and leave to cool, add to a large sterilised container that you can seal and store in the fridge.

Put formula powder into a sterilised flask, then heat the kettle. Leave to cool for a few mins and add to the flask, then add a bit of the sterilised water from the fridge (don't know what exact % measurements are sorry maybe have an experiment) and then add to the flask, shake and stick it all in a bottle, et voila instant(ish) bottle.

I've never done this though so happy to be corrected on this method!

Betty I'm due in October and my sister bought us the Perfect Prep machine and a kit with Tommee Tippee bottles however I had searched beforehand and it seems they take any brand of bottles. I was worried incase I didn't like the Tommee Tippee bottles or whatever but after doing some searching people have used all all sorts of brands, I've seen people saying they've used Avent, MAM and Dr Brown.

Yep, utterly ridiculous faff. Pre boil and add fresh boiled water to bring it up to temp. Don't sit there waiting for a whole kettle to cool down

The advice is extraordinary in its risk aversion and lack of basic common sense.

ridiculous.

TBH, i used to make it in 'advance'

Whenever he was hungey i would make one with freshly boiled water there and then, and stick it in the fridge. Then i would take out the one i'd made 3hrs earlier before the previous feed, which, after 3hrs in the fridge, was the perfect temperature, or if a bit cold, i'd just warm it in what was left of the boiled water in the kettle for 30 seconds.

No need for machines, worked perfectly.

Although, tbh, for the first 6 weeks i used the ready mixed.

My dd was ff from four weeks and she was never sick, we started with making up enough bottles for 24 hours then in the fridge then I decided the older ones looked a bit bitty. We then moved on to just boiling the water and putting it into 24 hours worth of sterile bottles then measuring the required scoops into powder holders and adding to the cooled boiled water when needed. My dd would only take a room temperature or cold bottle oddly so I would have been stranded there a long time cooling a bottle made to guidelines.

I bf my ds, honestly I do find it more convenient and have had to resist smashing the steriliser to bits and melting the bottles on a bonfire. I don't believe breast is truly best rubbish, I think I just hate washing up

Here is a link to the safety concerns about PP machines:

lifib.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Statement-on-Perfect-Prep-Machines.pdf

As I said in my previous post, I add the powder straight away when the water is still very hot. I imagine most people do the same. I know far more people who just use cooled boiled water full stop, especially when out and about, so it's got to be safer than that.

This is why I persisted with BF, despite the pain of the first 6 weeks ( I know it's not the same for everyone, but it was agony), not cos I think I am some perfect mummy, but because I am too sodding lazy for bottle feeding, fwiw the subsequent 2 babies caused me no BFing pain at all.

In reference to the proper utter bollocks way of making a bottle outlined in your first post, ain't nobody got time for that!
I am surprised that my son survived as I used to make up all of his bottles in the morning, cool them down as quickly as possible and then just re-heated them by placing them into a jug of boiling water.

What I don't understand is that if you are making up bottles one at a time now, do you also sterilise the bottles immediately before you make them up or do you still sterilise a whole batch of them together.

I may be getting a bit cynical in my old age but does anybody else think that things like making up bottles one at a time are simply tactics to either encourage women towards BF or so that someone can make a fortune by selling machines like this one?

In the US, boiling the water is no longer recommended.

In the UK, I've still never seen a story about how contaminated formula killed a bunch of babies. Not once! I think this preparation recommendation is designed to make people waste more formula and buy more gizmos and formula.

or get a thermal bag, throw tearfully hot bottle in when you go to bed, by time babys due a feed it should be just right
I think I might be misunderstanding what you are saying but if a bottle is left to cool down on its own accord for a few hours then surely that is going to be a breeding ground for germs and more dangerous than any other method.

But I may be misunderstanding what you are saying.

thought you could leave made up bottles out for about 2 hours? i said to mw id do the separate thermos thing and she said no need if baby would have it within 2 hours its ok to make up without cooling and stick in a thermal bag to get through the first night feed, suppose its only ok if baby wakes up every fucking 2 hours!

oops, mind you ds is nearly 8 now so phew!!

I ff my eldest from 6 weeks and I now know I did it wrong. Sterilised bottles filled with chilled boiled water that I added formula to and then microwaved to warm. I did experiment with exactly how long I needed to nuke it for to get the right temp and I always shook them well. I fed straight away.
He's fine.
Still, could be worse. Was sat chatting to a friend of mine at a toddler group a while ago, she looks after her grandchildren regularly. Her method was to make up two or three days worth of milk in bottles and store it in her airing cupboard to keep it warm!
She said herself she has no idea how both her children got though babyhood unscathed, but there seemed to be just as little advice about formula 30 years ago as there is today.

FATEdestiny
Mum is that you??

Sorry but the way you described your process is exactly the way that my Mum taught me.

(After I had been given a brief demonstration of the same process by a nurse before I was discharged from the hospital)

In the US, boiling the water is no longer recommended
According to the article below in the US, the formula boxes say to add cold water to the baby formula – but to use it straight away, not store it in the fridge for later.

www.lindageddes.com/133/pouring-cold-water-on-baby-formula

*FATEdestiny

When DS (16yo) and DD (14yo) were babies the standard was to make 24 hours worth in one go. The rules changed by the time I had DS (5yo)

It's been within NHS advise to make up 24h worth of bottles and store in the fridge for over a decade.

This aspect of NHS advise has not changed.*

That's not what I was told when I had my 5yo DS or when my neice was born 8 years ago.

Persianlady, that article you linked to supports the practice of making up powdered formula with 70 degree water and using immediately, where possible. It suggests using cold water in an emergency.

The risk of a baby dying from contaminated formula is small - only a handful of babies have died over the past few years. It's just that it's pretty much totally preventable.

Another bulk make and shove in fridge. It's been fine

"but there seemed to be just as little advice about formula 30 years ago as there is today."

There's plenty of information on NHS Choices. People just don't seek it out, and then if they do they ignore it because it's inconvenient to do things in the safest way.

I'm surprised that people ignore manufacturers instructions when it comes to feeding a tiny, vulnerable newborn with immature immunity.

"It's been fine"

Deaths and severe illness from contaminated formula are rare.

A friend of mine works in a neonatal icu ward in a hospital and has told me that they don't have the facilities to warm bottles (microwave) or boil water, so make it up cold. I would imagine that if it's okay to do this for babies in intensive care, any associated risk is teeny tiny.

We did the boil the kettle thing on the first night home from the hospital after massive failure with breastfeeding and being clueless first time parents with no idea about making formula. PIL were dispatched at 9am the next morning to get us a perfect prep!