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.

[wiltingfast]

We were actually worried about the damp spoon + formula thingy so dh came up with a way of batch making the formula with a big measuring cup and a sterilised jug...

Made them up quickly and cleanly as poss and popped them in the fridge.

Worked for us.

[CheshireChat]

For the half and half method- just buy some really cheap bottles (

[LavenderRains]

We also make Neocate up for 24 hours too.
(Vile stuff it is too)
Total respect to any baby who happily polishes off a bottle of that

[minifingerz]

"This needing to put 70 degree plus water on milk is something I never ever did. Totally impractical."

It's because the powder is not sterile and has been found to sometimes contain salmonella and cronobacter. Some babies have died or been severely ill because of this.

I suppose it depends how highly you value convenience.

Obviously the manufacturers of the product think it's enough of a risk in the UK to advise against making up feeds with cold water. I tend not to ignore safety advice given by manufacturers on car seats, medicine, cots etc. Why would you make an exception for a newborns food?

[DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen]

Even 15 years ago you were told to put 70 degree water on formula- it's nothing new.

[goose1964]

Used to do a days worth at once and put in the fridge,DS1 would only have them cold, and my other two wanted theirs around room temperature, think I had impatient kids

[maninawomansworld01]

3 words..

Fuck. The. Midwife!

She's not the one who has to deal with a screaming baby because making a bottle takes so long. My parents made up 24 hours supply in advance and kept them in the fridge. DW had trouble feeding DD so we went in to bottles pretty quickly and after 3 or 4 days of hell trying to follow their ridiculous guidelines that's exactly what we started doing.

DD IS NOW 5 months, no adverse facts, very happy healthy girl!

.... And peace reigns in our house.

Fuck them and their stupid guidelines... They don't have a clue.

[Summerholsdoingmyheadin]

Fuck them and their stupid guidelines... They don't have a clue.

It's easy to say that when your baby has never suffered any ill effects from milk made without following recommended guidelines. I doubt anybody whose baby has ever been ill from incorrectly made milk would think the same.
For people who think following guidelines are too much faff the ready made cartons are a very good alternative - no faff whatsoever.
The only people who can't use cartons are those whose babies have prescription milk and kudos to those people because getting a baby to drink that stuff is bloody difficult.

I really don't see how it can be midwife /HV agenda to advise faffy ways of making bottles in order to encourage breastfeeding when we all know that ready made cartons exist and are ultra convenient and have no safety concerns

[wiltingfast]

But as you can see from the thread they are largely ignored. Which is counter productive as no one then really knows where the good balance is. Plus pushing such unrealistic ott advice undermines all guidelines as your faith in them generally is undermined.

They really should review them.

And why the hell is there bacteria in the baby food anyway?

[Summerholsdoingmyheadin]

And why the hell is there bacteria in the baby food anyway?

Apparently there is a risk of bacteria in all dried foods including baby milk. I don't think it is something that can be totally eradicated.

[gabsdot]

I knew a girl who used to make up her babies bottles with cold water straight from the tap.

[BarryTheKestrel]

I produced no milk so had no choice but to formula feed, the perfect prep machine was a god send for us. I thought it was just another baby gadget we didn't need to start with, 5 days out of the hospital and I sent DH and MIL to babies r us to buy one. We used it for a year and honestly it was the best thing we ever bought.

I weighed up the pros and cons and risks and realised that having a highly stressed, hungry, screaming baby for half an hour every few hours was worse than the tiny tiny risk of the hot shot not killing the bacteria. Both for DD and my PND.

[notinagreatplace]

I'm trying to figure out this whole formula thing as I'm 33 weeks pregnant and won't be able to breastfeed for medical reasons. I don't have a clue about this stuff as my family all breastfeed and I assumed I would too.

It sounds like, for feeds away from home, the simplest option is the ready made formula - but I am slightly struggling to figure out how that works exactly. Do you take an empty sterilised bottle with you, open it and pour in the formula? Or do you fill it from home? Or does it not matter?

Fate keeps saying that the NHS still says that you can prep feeds in advance but, unless I'm just being stupid, that is not what it says here:

www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/making-up-infant-formula.aspx

It specifically says, "To reduce the risk of infection, it's best to make up feeds one at a time, as your baby needs them."

[toomuchtooold]

The last time there was a thread about formula prep and the whole "70 degrees because salmonella" thing I pointed out that when Hipp Combiotic formula came on the market they recommended it was made up with water no hotter than 50 deg C. Then someone came on and told me they later changed the advice to 70 degrees to be in line with UK recommendations.

I live in Germany so I went and had a look at a Combiotic pack in the supermarket. Guess what? They recommend 40 to 50 degrees. Then I checked milupa (aptimil). Guess what? They recommend 40 degrees too. The 70 degrees water is just not a thing in Germany.

There's people come on these threads and go "well, I suppose if you're willing to risk your baby getting a serious illness for convenience's sake that's up to you" and it annoys fuck out of me because actually, certain shortcuts are an acceptable balance of risk and convenience, and using water that isn't above 70 degrees is one such - there's an entire bloody neighbouring country where they don't do it and it's fine.

[Motheroffourdragons]

I made a full day's worth of bottles in one go, and didn't even flash chill them, just waited till they were cool enough to go in the fridge. I am surprised my children survived.

[JustHappy3]

We did the cooled boiled water in the fridge thing and took the warnings seriously.
But i BF my first and no matter how fast we went it still seemed an age to get them ready. Couldn't BF our second tho.
We're v fortunate as we can afford the little bottles of ready made milk for every feed (20 quid a week) so our response time is super fast. Obviously that's no help whatsoever if you can't afford it but if you have the funds i would recommend it.

[liquidrevolution]

I made up bottles every evening. Poured boiled water into the the bottles. Measured the powder and poped into the little pots provided (used tommee tippee bottles). Put the pot inside the bottle and screwed the lid on. I never bothered storing in fridge as we had a cool spot in the utility room where we stored them.

When needed I just removed the lid, tipped in the powder and shook. Bottle done.

I examined the risks and decided that 12 cases in salmonella in under 10s in 15 years of which none were related to milk powder was a small risk to take. Its the way bottles were made for my baby brother so I just automatically did it this way. All my friends and family also used this method. Didn't stop MIL from accusing me of poisoning her 'poor precious graddaughter' though .

[Ilikegin]

This could have been written by me two weeks ago! 😂 Using the Pprep machine also had its pitfalls though as my newborn would only drink 1oz at a time so 3oz were being wasted so DH would run downstairs while I tried to console screaming baby for 15 mins! Nightmare! The midwives weren't even keen on me using prep machine as not all the water has been heated up! Makes life very difficult! Congrats on your new baby OP

[FATEdestiny]

Fate keeps saying that the NHS still says that you can prep feeds in advance

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/Pages/infant-formula-questions.aspx

Direct quote from NHS page above: "If made-up formula is stored in a fridge, use within 24 hours."

In terms of advice giving, this is a similar problem to breastVbottle feeding. The NHS are required to give the impractical 'best practice' advice regarding making bottles (just as they are required to advocate breast over bottle regardless). But they also offer advice on a 'real world' sense. It's just the IRL advice to make bottles in advance has to be secondary to the 'ideally' advice to make up bottles as they are needed.

Pre-made bottles stored in the fridge for 24 hours is still NHS advice. It has been for over 10 years and has not changed. Best practice advice in that time has changed.

[UmbongoUnchained]

That's ONLY if you can't make a fresh bottle...

[FATEdestiny]

When you've got four children, that's all the time

No health visitor will advise against it, because it is within NHS advice

[UmbongoUnchained]

Well not really. I'm perfectly able to make 5 bottles of formula fresh in about 3 minutes.

[MrsGosling71]

I used the little cartons of SMA formula 13 years ago and as a pp said if you can afford them they are worth their weight in gold. Very handy for trips out and holidays.

[UmbongoUnchained]

Yes the little bottles are great for days out. Although they still have to be kept cool which can be hard. My daughter was really sick when she had the bottled stuff that had gotten warm in the car as we were on a long journey.