To use a Perfect Prep??

[FarmerYumi]

Health visitor has the arse about me using it to feed my baby. Used one with DC1 with no issues, bought a new one for DC2.

I asked what the issue was exactly and she couldnt really give me an answer. She said she had heard of a baby getting sick and they thought it could be the perfect prep. I asked for more details. She said they can grow mouldy. I said I was aware of the mould issue, this is why I replaced it for DC2, and clean it out every couple of days. I check the pipes regularly.

She just said I should try doing it "the old fashioned way" to see if DC liked the milk better she has no issues with her feeding at all. I'm stumped.

Having a baby with gastroenteritis is no fun whatsoever. Formula fed babies are more prone to this anyway never mind if you incorrectly use pp which doesn't kill bacteria. Not worth the risk for a few minutes saved.

Are HVs really not allowed to promote FF? Ours was all over it. She tried to suggest we 'top up' breastfed newborn DD, weighing all of 7.5lbs, with 120mls of formula every two hours.

Since DD is now six months old I can see how ridiculous that was.

But I digress.

I am nervy about PP because I did read the studies about it not getting very hot and introducing bacteria. But then, as others say, we've a baby bjorn and I think the risk is acceptable for us because she's not in it for long. It's always going to be about deciding which minor risks you're actually worried about and which you're not.

I used it for twins and neither ever had a stomach upset.

First child made bottles with room temp water and powder as well as expressing. Never had stomach problems either.

Most of the studies seem to come from the pro-breast feeding lobby who are determined to make formula feeding as difficult as possibly and actively seek out obscure and unlikely risks to add layers and layers of oppressive advice to formula feeding.

haveacupoftea you bet, I have twins!

I used one with my first baby after I was unable to BF. It was an absolute life saver. I felt bad enough already about being unable to BF after trying for 14 weeks. I would have found it really hard making up bottles the traditional way and probably would have ended up buying the ready made stuff instead of it wasn't for the PP. Having said that I decided when I was struggling to BF my second baby that if BF didn't work out again I wouldn't use the PP again because of the reason highlighted in Tammy's post. My first child got a really bad tummy bug when they were about 7 months old - in hindsight it may have been the PP. I guess I will never know. This time round I decided to add formula to boiled water and add pre-cooled boiled water like someone above has mentioned. Luckily I didn't need to this time around as BF worked out.

I use one with DS who is 4 months and he has never been ill or spat up formula (touch wood).

The entire thing is thoroughly cleaned once a month using their instructiona and milton sterilising fluid and every 3 months the filter is changed. We don't use tap water in it at all, but cooled boiled water.

As far as I was aware the mould issue was incorrect cleaning/filters and water that had been ledt sitting too long. Ideally you should discard left over water each 24 hours and fill the hopper each day.

I bought a PP machine, used it once but DS didn't like the taste of the bottle and wouldn't drink it. I switched to ready made formula, gave away a big tub of formula powder, sold the PP and never looked back. I realise ready made isn't for everyone, due to cost etc. but for us it was an ideal solution.

Yes, FeministDragon, they can't even advise which is best (mine buckled eventually when she realised I quite honestly didn't have enough milk due to birth trauma and PND and my dd's weight continued to decrease inspite of constant feeding).

I regularly made up bottles using boiled cooled water and that's what my friend was shown to do in picu (her ds was in for a while). That's also what I was taught to do by a friend with an older (by 2 yrs) child. My ds is 4. Never had an issue.

If that's the criticism with pp it sounds a bit unlikely.

Also used to warm up bottles in the microwave

I really wouldn't have needed one with my eldest.
Made the bottles exactly as they advised (boiled kettle, let cool for no longer than 30 mins etc etc)
But pretty much from word go younould judge when she was hungry and get it ready in time. And it was rare for her to be screaming in hunger.
And overnight - a baby doesn't wake up overnight does it.
And then my boy came along. Let's just say I had dismissed it out of hand initially but soon changed my mind lol.
He had bad reflux so was particularly grumpy at times and had many small bottles.

I knew HV wasn't keen but it was before they were really against them.
But he survived and I survived thanks to the PP.

I will never ever use one again - but that's only because I'm never having another baby 😂

yer - we should have swapped with you! Ours would have banged on about the wonders of formula for hours (not that formula isn't great when you need it, but it was irritating at the time).

Definitely not unreasonable to use it!!!!

It's a godsend! Had it 7months and lo is fine

I didn't even use hot water when mixing the formula (in 2006 the advice was to sterilise bottles, add hot water and then leave to cool and only adding formula when need to use and feed. Used to give to DS at room temperature. Bottles lasted up to 24 hours on the kitchen side.

Not sure why they changed that advice.

The perfect prep machine afaik didn't exist then

The concern over the perfect prep and water temp is not that it might give your baby a bit of an upset tummy. Powdered milk can harbour very serious bacteria, some of which can cause illnesses like meningitis.

That's why water temp - linked to the hot shot volume I believe - is such a key issue and why your HV has been told to discourage the machine's use...even if she can't remember it.

I considered one but after reading the independent report testing the perfect prep that has been linked to quite a few times on these threads I changed my mind. Had Tommee Tippee released their data I would have considered that too. But last time I checked they were refusing.

They cant make there mind up on how bottles should be made up as it is... with my first you just filled sterile bottles with water and added formula when required- the water lasted 24 hours, my sister couldnt work out why i wasn't adding powder and putting them in the fridge and now this bloody pantomime they've come up with is crazy!

Pp all the way for me ensuring i adhere to cleaning guidelines. After all... at 6 months he was trying to lick the dog!

Pippa12 my mum was horrified. Until I explained no wastage and easy when going out for the day!

It's your decision OP. Part of being human is constantly appraising and assessing risk. We all do it, constantly, on a daily basis. There are risks associated with absolutely everything - even going to bed. Some people go base-jumping or go and climb K2, knowing the risks. Some people never fly or take the tube because they're so terrified of risk. We all appraise risk differently. Sometimes we get our fears totally out of proportion to the risk - fear of flying is a good example.

Part of being a parent is assessing risk on behalf of another human as well as on your own behalf and it can be very very stressful.

Personally I haven't read anything that would make me think that the level of risk associated with the PP is unacceptably high. But it's irrelevant what I think because I most likely assess risk differently to you.

But people who say 'why would you do anything that puts your baby at risk' piss me off because everyone's babies (and everyone) are always at risk of SOMETHING. What they mean is 'I think this risk is an unacceptable one to take so I don't think you should take it'.

What @toolonglurking said.

People seem to be completely missing the whole issue with the PP machine as many of the comments are about how they thoroughly clean it. You can clean it as much as you want but the main issue is that it does not kill the bacteria that is present in the formula powder! Formula powder is not sterile. It needs to be made sterile so that a baby can consume it safely. In order to make it sterile, it needs to be prepared with cooled boiled water of 70 degrees so that it is hot enough to kill the bacteria and sterilise the formula but not too hot that it destroys the nutrients present in the formula.

Would you feed your child raw chicken? No, you wouldn’t because that would be really irresponsible and you could cause baby serious harm from food poisoning. You would cook it so that the harmful bacteria is gone. Using a PP machine carries the same risks because you aren’t sterilising your baby’s source of food.

Oh and this whole rubbish of “I used it and my child is fine” is not evidence based information. Your child may have been fine but they were lucky, the next child might not be and end up consuming very harmful bacteria. If you need to make up formula in a hurry at night just buy the ready made formula bottles. Don’t risk your baby’s health by using an unsafe product.

Seriously... raw chicken

I stuck my finger under tge hot shot once...wowzers!

40 years ago the hv wasn't happy with my mum putting bottles in the dw. She couldn't explain why, it just didn't seem right to her.

Fantastic bit of kit - wish I'd had one with my first.
Just keep it clean and don't use cheap filters.

Never had a problem with mine and DS2 was always fine.
DS1 however was bf and ff made the traditional way - was far more sickly.

I love mine, wouldn't be without it. No illness in my baby (so far!)