To make baby bottles in advance?

[MrsMotherHen]

I have a tommee tippee machine but it doesnt make the milk warm enough for my DDs liking. Its a struggle to get milk in her as it is now today I made a bottle with boiling water so by the time we got to play group it was nice and warm (not red hot but hotter than the perfect prep) ready to give her she downed 5oz then did the same with her next bottle.
So am thinking of making her bottles up in advance then ping in the micro. How is it done? just make them up then throw in fridge?

This is daft i have two children and dont know how to make a bottle

Babies are not just fine in France, their rates of reported cronobacter deaths are among the highest in Europe

Was that comment addressed to me? I was talking about Germany, not France. But in any case as coddiwomple says it doesn't mean much unless you know the absolute numbers.

coddiwomple I had my kids in the UK so no idea about Germany's maternity services, but I would guess they are bloody excellent if the paediatrics is anything to go by. They have dedicated children's GPs here and I've never had to wait more than a day for an appointment or 10 minutes in A&E. I find it very odd how the precise preparation of a bottle at 4 months is of the utmost importance but if your kid has a rash and a temperature you're left winging it as to whether to tough it out at home or go and camp out in A&E for 8 hours (speaking from direct experience). But of course the difference is that in the NHS's eyes, my time comes for free, so if they manage to prevent one incidence of food poisoning in the country in a year that's worth it as long as all the mums dying on their arse faffing about with boiling water at 4 in the morning manage not to burn themselves or go nuts from sleep deprivation or anything else that will require medical care. And if we all feel slightly ashamed because not only did we fail to breastfeed, we also failed to follow the 324 step formula guidelines, then we'll be on the back foot and less likely to complain about shit services for mothers and children.

The numbers are tiny something like 12 deaths in 5 years. It's very very low risk but if it's your baby who dies it is obviously catastrophic.

Up to each individual to weigh the very low risk (and over three months it is even lower) against the inconveniences of making powdered formula in hot water (and it's fine to make in advance)

It really is fine to make up in advance as long as you make sure that:
-The water is boiling (or very close to it) when it mixes with the powder
-you cool the bottles quickly (run under cold tap then stand in cold water for 15 mins) and then store them in the fridge
-you shake the bottle well when you've heated it in microwave to get rid of hotspots

Those are the WHO and nhs guidelines for the 'second best' way of making up formula (the best being to make it fresh each time)

Microwaving is dangerous. Can't you do what you did today? Hot water and waiting for it to cool? Or just keep sone cold sterile water and the add sone boiling hot to get the right temp?

If you've already got a perfect prep and the only issue you have with it is you'd like the milk a bit hotter why not use it but stop it early...... so for example if you want a 6oz feed, put the dial to 7 or 8oz, get the hot shot, formula, shake, then as the cold goes in, stop the machine at the 6oz mark. The hot shot would be a bit bigger for a bigger feed meaning that your formula will be hotter because you've changed the ratio of hot to cold slightly in favour of more hot.

Nb: you'd have to do a "practice run" at each size feed as a 6oz feed doesn't come up to the 6oz mark on the side of a bottle due to the volume of the formula powder, so you may actually need to stop the machine when the water level is at 6.5oz for example.

I make up in advance and store in fridge for 24 hours and heat in microwave when needed or a thermos of hot water if out. I don't know anyone in real life who doesn't do this. Just shake and leave for the length of a nappy change and it's fine.

I used to make my babies bottles in advance, but instead of warming up in the microwave we just used to boil the kettle, put the hot water in a pan or bowl then put the babies bottle in the hot water, just move the bottle about a bit an shake well to prevent any hotspots, the same when using a microwave, just shake a lot then test the temperature on wrist.

Another one here who makes up bottles with boiling water then puts them in the fridge. I heat in the microwave - if you shake well and test yourself you won't scald your baby. The advice is to cover for those people who would blast a bottle at high heat and then not test it....so just don't do that. I also prepare bottles with boiling water, pop in an insulating pouch and then it's at perfect temp a few hours later when I'm and out about.
What not to do is add powder to cold water then heat as sooo many people I know seem to do.

Please make sure you don't put the teat in the microwave though!

We used to boil the kettle, pour in say 2oz of boiling water, add the formula, shake and ensure it had dissolved. Then I'd get from the fridge some pre cooled boiled water. I'd measure out how much I needed (say 4oz) for the rest of the feed and then add it to the boiled formula mix.

I was always very aware that once you add the formula it adds volume to the liquid. So if you have 6oz of water and add the powder the measures on the side would then show over 7oz because of the addition on the powder. Thus if I was adding cooled water AFTER adding the powder then i couldn't just fill to 6oz as it would be 6 scoops or whatever and only 5oz of water even though it looked like six!

So I pre measured and actually that was always pretty quick. Boil kettle, add powder, add cooled water. Perfect temp every time and I knew the powder had been properly sterilised.

With my daughters I filled all bottles with boiling water at night, when needed I’d pour out couple ounces and fill again with kettle water to heat up and add powder.

God knows what I will do this time round.

I always made the bottles with boiled water and cooled then, stored in the fridge. I took them out, added powder, microwaved and shook to even out any hot spots. Took about 45 secs to deliver her milk which mattered because she had NO patience!
Never any heat issues, never any hint of tummy trouble. Happy baby.

Why don't you just heat once you've made it from the machine?

In the microwave making sure you shake well of course

My baby only likes cold milk so they're too hot from the TT machine. He only has 4 bottles a day now so pre make 2 from the machine then put in fridge. I heat in MW for 20 seconds so they're not ice cold.

We always made up a days bottles (8) and put them in the fridge, and reheated by microwave - amazingly none of our children died or got scalded to death. But then we didn't nuke them for 5 minutes and feed the child without a good old shake and testing the temp first.

You have more chance of getting a ghastly bacterial virus from someone who hasn't washed before popping a breast nipple in babies mouth. People scratch and touch all manner of places about their person.

2 kids
Always made up bottles in advance
Always heat up in microwave

Ds2 is a couple weeks off one can't wait to never make up or sterilise bottles again

You're fine OP - make the bottle up, store in fridge, microwave when needed, shake and serve.