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.

[User24689]

I live in Australia and my formula says it should be made with cooled boiled water. I do not know anyone who makes it with hot water. I have always filled the bottle with preboiled water, microwaved the water to temperature and then added the powder. Everyone I know does the same. Then I went to the UK for a month and got completely confused that the instructions were different - on the same brand of formula!!

[tabulahrasa]

Why does it take 15 minutes to cool down a bottle?

What are you cooking it down with?

[Stevefromstevenage]

I totally agree with the OP that the current guidelines are virtually unmanageable and I think formula manufacturers should be made address the issue that their formula is not sterile.

Tbh I didn't find FF much of a faff because DHs job was to make up the bottles. We did the days worth of bottles thing and left them in the fridge.

Where formula became a complete and utter pita was whenever you left home for holidays or visits. Holidays involved a lot of excess stuff and trips away needed to be planned around feeds especially planes or overnight ferries. BF was significantly easier for leaving the house I found.

[UmbongoUnchained]

Formula is sterile when it leaves the shop. But once the lid is opened and a wet scoop has been in and out of it for a week, it's breeding bacteria.

[BertieBotts]

To be fair, if you want to stick to guidelines but be ready immediately, you could use this method to make a bottle immediately after the baby has had one. It won't be 24 hours until the next feed so it's fine to keep it in the fridge until then.

"Formula is sterile when it leaves the shop. But once the lid is opened and a wet scoop has been in and out of it for a week, it's breeding bacteria."

This is not true. Firstly powders can't be sterilised. So it's not sterile when it leaves the shop, and in rare cases the powder can contain contaminants. This happens more often in countries with less regulation, such as China, but it has happened in France.

You should not be putting a wet scoop into the formula, but even though the formula will be contaminated anyway by being in contact with the air (fibres from your clothes can fall into the box, particles you're breathing, microscopic flakes of skin which might contain any bacteria you've been in contact with, dust from the house in general, moisture from the environment, bacteria from the worktop touching the inside of the lid) dry powder is not a great environment for bacteria to breed. They might be present but in tiny quantities and not able to multiply much. If indeed you have little clumps of damp formula powder in the box it might be a problem.

But generally, this is not the problem so much as the fact that as soon as you add water to the powder and rehydrate it, you're then creating a perfect environment for bacteria to grow, because milk is high-protein, especially if it's being left between 6C and 60C for any length of time which includes letting it cool down before placing it in a fridge or similar.

In reality, the step of using hot water to reduce (you can never 100% eliminate) bacteria present in the formula or on the inside of the bottle is just an extra precaution, which probably doesn't make that much difference especially if you're planning to feed the formula immediately. But if you're going to store it at all, even just for a couple of hours until the next feed, it does make sense to try and reduce the number of possible bacteria present in the milk in the first place. A small number of bacteria is OK and absolutely zero is impossible to achieve. You're aiming to keep the overall bacteria count low enough that the infant's undeveloped system can cope with it easily.

[Stevefromstevenage]

Umbongo formula is not sterile leaving the formula factory.

www.cdc.gov/features/cronobacter/

[Stevefromstevenage]

Sorry I posted too soon from the link above

'Manufacturers report that, using current methods, it is not possible to get rid of all germs from powdered infant formula in the factory.'

Maybe they should revise their manufacturing techniques then.

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

Maybe they should revise their manufacturing techniques then.

Thatd be pretty pointless, because as soon as you opened the tub it wouldn't be sterile anyway...

[UmbongoUnchained]

I mean it's as sterile as its gonna be. Obviously once it's opened it goes down hill.

[StarlingMurmuration]

We used to do two batches, one at morning, and one before bed, flash cooled and stored at the back of the fridge. Then we used a bottle-warmer, which took about 4-5 minutes. If we have another child, I'm going to either buy a perfect prep machine or use the hot shot of boiled water plus cooled boiled water method described above.

It might not be the best way to do it, but I had a screamy baby and PND, so I wasn't waiting 30-45 minutes for just boiled water to cool enough to drink. Anecdata but he never had a tummy bug while he was on formula. I was utterly hysterical about hygiene and sterilising though.

[ineedwine99]

I have the prep machine, it's a godsend! When she has small feeds say 2oz I use the hot shot, add the formula and shake, then add filtered water from the fridge to top up to where I need it. So far so good, she's 3 weeks old and happy and healthy. I do use ready made sometimes too as the midwives said it's easier to digest so helps her poo (sorry if TMI)

[glueandstick]

Who has an open tin for a week?! It lasts 2.5 days here!

And I've found that slightly cooler than stated water actually makes a better bottle (less cloggy).

But hey, I want my baby to die as I've read and digested the 'suggestions' but decided to do it my way. Remember the guidelines accommodate for the lowest common denominator (like all NHS procedure leaflets are aimed at a reading age of 7) so think unhygienic kitchens, poor food handling practice and a lot of other things that most people do as standard and take for granted. You'll never eradicate risk, you can minimise it. But there are extents to go to. Just remember how diverse the community is that a midwife will serve. They can't look at someone and give advice for one and not for another. It's a bit like the 'average' person- this person will rarely fit anyone in society but so much will be geared towards 'average' to cover all bases.

[UmbongoUnchained]

Mine lasted 10 days haha!

[5minutestobed]

I've always made up a days worth of bottles in advance and kept them in the fridge. My boys are were/are on Nutramigen and then Neocate and I did the same with that formula too.
Out and about take one bottle that's just been heated up out plus one in a cool bag for later when they are really little.
For bedtime I took a bottle up to bed with me in a cool bag. Once baby has been fed and back to sleep go and replace bottle in cool bag if necessary and that will keep for another four hours.
FF is not really a faff once you get the hang of it

[ineedwine99]

Should add to my post the water I put in my PP machine is filtered too so the bottle has been filtered twice.

[jellycat1]

My dh threw out a whole tin of very expensive nutramagen because he was eating a peanut and talking whilst making the bottle and thought he might have spat a molecule of peanut into the tin! Told him never to attempt to multi-task ever again