AIBU about making up formula at night?

[Chocolateorangegoblin]

A friend of mine told me she boils the kettle, waits 30 minutes for it to cool etc before making a bottle all while her Dd is screaming to be fed during the night.
AIBU to think that's madness?! Surely most people don't do that?!
Obviously a lot of people have perfect prep machines now but that still involves getting out of bed etc.
I make up bottles in advance, cool them and keep them in the fridge and then at bedtime I take one to bed in a cool bag and DS drinks it whenever he wakes up. I am obviously a lazy sod but there's no way I would be standing about waiting for water to cool down at 2am!

Why wait 30 minutes for the water to cool? Pour in bottle, stand in cold water or run under tap until it's still hot to touch but not boiling. Add powder, put back into (new) cold water or again, run under tap until drinking temp.

With my pfb I took a sterilised bottle to bed with me and a carton of readymade aptimil tucked in along side me. I had a little pair of scissors under my pillow and could just snip open the carton and give DD1 body temp milk instantly. DD2 had perfect prep milk except when we went out. She wasn't big on night feeds - I think just one a night.

Apparently not washing bottles adequately is a big issue as the ridges in the teats etc trap milk.

It's worth remembering that WHO guidelines are international and are aimed not just at highly developed countries with safe drinking water and as PPs have said - aimed at the lowest common denominator.

waterrat because it is new advice. I followed the instructions given at the time & it was only a few years ago.

Waterat - that was the way to make them up 11 years ago so followed it. No issues.

It's all to make people BF I think. You can't tell me powdered milk in tins is more
Dangerous than it was 11 years ago!

talking I think that is the aim of the WHO - to put people off!

I think some people could do well to remember that all babies feed different and like their bottles a different way your not doing anything wrong your just doing what will keep your screaming baby happy and stopping them from waking up the whole house at 3 o'clock in the morning. What's enough good for the goose isn't always good enough for the gander.

Mine are well past bottle stage now but I used to use ready made formula. Much easier!

Breast feeding through the night (constantly) seems like it was a walk in the park compared to all this.

No baby liked their bottle containing potentially lethal bacteria Peanut. Your comment is plain stupid.

You at least need to understand why each guideline exists before you break it.

Powder isn't sterile. It can't be sterile. Even if it was sterile when you opened the tin (impossible unfortunately) it stops being sterile at that moment.

You can be reasonably sure that powder bought in the UK is uncontaminated but this is not the same thing as sterile. In fact we're in contact with potential contaminants every day, particularly for e coli which is one of the most common, it's a bacteria which lives normally and healthily in the gut. You probably have some on your hands, in your clothing fibres, along with viruses like flu or the cold virus. In normal contact, this is no problem. Our immune systems can easily handle small amounts of bacteria and so can babies'. Not as much as ours but they can handle miniscule amounts.

The problem comes when something gets into contact with the milk. The dry powder isn't much of an issue because bacteria can't really use it but they can lay dormant. If the powder gets wet, or damp, then you've an issue because given moisture and protein, bacteria can multiply very well.

So your first port of call against bacteria is to wash your hands and use clean utensils when dealing with formula. The next is to prevent any moisture from getting into the tin.

When you make up formula, you can use hot, cold or warn water. Hot is best, because if there are any bacteria present, it should kill them. This isn't 100%, but it will definitely reduce them to safe levels. So it's a good idea to feed your baby immediately or at least put the bottle into the fridge to keep it at under 5C which will cool the bacteria to a point where they multiply only extremely slowly. Therefore you're okay - but not forever. After 24 hours things get a bit iffy.

If you use cold or warm water, you're taking potential bacteria from an unfriendly environment to a great one for them. Moisture and protein. And the closer that environment is to 37C, the happier they'll be and the faster they'll breed. So if you do this and there was a low level of bacteria in the bottle, you'll be fine if you feed immediately. But if you leave it for longer or there was a dangerous amount of bacteria in the milk then you have a problem.

cantuse but the joy of bottle feeding is that sometimes I can get DH to do it while I have a full nights sleep
Breastfed DD and nightfeeds were easier but as my boobs weren't detachable I was stuck doing them all. With DS I'm guaranteed at least one full nights sleep a week. Bliss.

Was about 15 years ago or more they used to recommend to make all bottles in one go and store in fridge for the day.

Then they changed some time early 00s to say make up fresh every time. Probably because this is best practice. However, it's not practical. So people interpreted this advice, fairly but wrongly, to mean making up fresh was the most important and making up with hot water less important. Suddenly everyone had those little formula pots and would carry cooled boiled water to make up feeds.

Seems the advice is clearer now, first choice make up fresh with hot. Second choice make in advance with hot and keep in fridge. But still myths abound with the cooled boiled water thing which had never been officially recommended in the first place.

I followed the advice at the time, always washed and sterilised scrupulously, washed my hands so frequently they got sore, and kept the tin stored with its lid on properly in a clean modern kitchen.

In terms of risk reduction, we do what we can. Baby screaming while waiting for a bottle has its own risks.

Having done both, for me breast was easier.

We had lots of time in hospital and nurse told me cooled boiling water lasts up to 12 hours.
I could have hugged her as with twins I was doing lots of feeds
Mine didn't like it warm so I bought those little formula storage jars, did the measurements and poured them in when needed.
Fab

"YABVU for judging a mother who has made an informed choice to follow health advice based on scientific evidence. Very unreasonable indeed."

Health advice based on scientific evidence? I assume you've looked for and read this evidence? Or are you just calling someone very unreasonable on the basis of a presumption?

Seriously though, where is the hard scientific evidence that making them up fresh is safer than storing them in the fridge? How much better? Enough for it to be worth the faff?

I have a strong suspicion that making bottle feeding easy isn't seen as a good thing, hence suggesting such a complicated and time consuming regime. Then again, if anyone has any hard evidence to the contrary, please let me know.

This is all news to me, I last made up a bottle 14 ish years ago and no one ever mentioned sterilising the powder. We were told to boil a full kettle, wash hands and work surfaces (last wipe always with kitchen roll), make up all the bottles for the next 24 hours and leave them in the back of the fridge and then warm in a jug of hot water when needed. Obviously this meant I was making up the bottles with very hot water but I always thought that was so the powder mixed properly or something, it never occurred to me to question it.

All the focus then was the best way to sterilise the bottles. Lots of people still used Milton tablets, lots had on the counter sterilisers but they were pretty expensive for the likes of me, microwave sterilisers were all the rage but some had their doubts about their safety for a whole host of reasons. Christ, I'm glad we weren't worried about sterilising the powder too, my head would have exploded!

But nreastmilk isn't sterile.

I think not having made up bottles hanging round at room temperature is dangerous, as is having jugs of milk hanging around.
Both can go off if they're not refrigerated.

No problem if you're just making up a bottle there and then to use chilled boiled water, or volvic. Even tap water here is potable.

I think we are too fussy, breastmilk has all kinds of bugs in it, and they're good for the baby. So long as formula isn't made up hours and hours beforehand and left out to stew, all is well. Bottles and teats can be washed in the dishwasher.
I don't see anyone washing their nipples / hands/ with antibacterial wipes, and we are holding and touching our babies all day long. Babies stick their hands in their mouths all the time.

So long as formula isn't left out for hours I think everything else goes, unless the baby is tiny and compromised.

1/3 boiling water. Add powder. 2/3 cold water. In fridge, job done.

Make up 3/4l and put in a jug with lid and decant as needed.

ispymincepie the point I'm trying to make is that everyone was taught a different way to make a bottle and it doesn't matter if your baby likes a cooled bottle from the fridge or a cooler bag at the side of the bed or freshly made bottle so long as it is made up properly then there will be no bacteria in it and you won't have an ill baby. We all have different ways of doing things and no one is wrong.

I never bottle fed so I'm clueless, but those that make every bottle up from a freshly boiled kettle then wait for it to cool down - what do you do when you go out for a day to somewhere where there isn't a kettle? Genuine question, just curious how you make a bottle up when on a picnic for instance, or on the beach.

Blueskyrain

www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/847-1-1550_B13008__FINAL_REPORT_PDF

For instance...

I used to take up a bottle filled to six oz that had already cooled and took a flask of hot boiled water. When baby woke filled it to 8oz and was a lovely temp. When topping the bottle up in the day I put 6oz in the next one ready to top up at next feed. Do whatever works for you.

breastmilk isn't sterile

Breastmilk contains live cells that have antibacterial and antimicrobial properties.

I always made them up in advance with slightly cool boiled water. Put in the fridge and microwaved when needed.

If I was to have more I'm sure I would do the same again. Thankfully, I'm not having any more children.

Mine are all 20+ now but I always made 24hours worth.
its the powder that isn't sterile, as long as you use boiling water to sterilise the powder then I can't see any problem.

I work in nicu and the ladies who stand and prepare all the feeds for the babies certainly don't sit and wait for each baby to wake, then put the kettle on
There are 33 babies ffs and some of them are fed 2 hourly.
They make up all the feeds for 24hours. (Usually takes them 4 hours!!) And store them in the fridge. If it's okay in a hospital surely it's okay at home?