Can I prepare bottles of boiling water in advance for formula?

[Jojonewmaman]

I have just started mixed feeding, expressing some feeds and using formula. I know the advice is very much to prepare bottles as required however I have read that some parents have pre prepared bottles of boiling water, then quickly cooled and stored them in the fridge and added formula when required. Is this safe? And does the powder mix as well in cold water? TIA

US baby milks are no more stringently tested than U.K. milks.

I made bottles with a perfect prep or if away from home did a DIY version (half v hot water + powder, shake to dissolve, top up with cooled boiled water) of just ready to drink cartons. I could anticipate when my baby was likely to be hungry though so could make bottles without having to wait for the screaming to stop.

The reasons for the advice to use water at 70c are due to Cronobacter -a rare but very nasty bug found in powdered milk.
Its very rare but often fatal.
Not just "a tummy bug"

What do you do if you're going out and there may not be a microwave to warm the bottle ie if you're making up the bottle then refrigerating it

Just buy the pre-made bottles for 75p a time?

What I done was the following

If baby on say 4 oz I used to prep bottles with 2oz boiling water and leave at room temp. When it was time for a bottle I used to top up with 2 oz boiling water and add formula. Killed any bacteria with the hot shot and made it perfect temp

Those who make all the bottles up in advance, have you actually sniffed that milk after and hour or 2 of it being made up? It’s revolting. No way would I have given a bottle more than an hour old to either of my kids.

The advice here (Ireland) is to, boil kettle, wait half an hour for it to be 70 degrees, then make up formula, cool and use straight away or cool them quickly and store at back of fridge for up to 24 hours. I have always made them up and stored in the fridge for me baby and it’s so handy, heat it up for a few minutes and it’s ready to go. I would never make up the formula using cooled boiled as it wouldn’t kill any bacteria present.

www.hse.ie/eng/services/publications/children/how-to-prepare-your-baby's-bottle-feed.pdf

Theres 16 years between my eldest (could use cooled boiled water) and my youngest for whom I bought the tetrapaxk cartons of ready made formula. You could get the larger sizes - opened, decanted into bottles in fridge and used as required or carried the "one feed" packs when out and about. That said, it can get very expensive if you are exclusively formula feeding. Single packs at room temperature were a god send in the middle of the night

Perfect prep only filters the water unless you fill it with previously boiled water, they go against the guidelines and you may as well just use filtered water from a water filter. The perfect prep gives the formula a shot of hot water to kill bacteria but then makes the bottle up with filtered water. No ‘super filter’ does the same as boiling.
My baby’s that had bottles, I made them up several at a time, cooled quickly and stored in the back of the fridge. Warmed to feed.

Slightly different as my DDs had Neocate formula but they have both been in hospital as babies. Their bottles were pre made in the special feeds kitchen to be used over a 24 hr period and would then be brought up to the ward, refrigerated and then heated when they needed to be used. I continued to do this method when we got home and have never had a problem. HTH

It’s safer to mix powder in then cool and refrigerate as powder isn’t sterile , I know they say not to do that anymore but it’s not always easy to make it up as you go along overnight etc .

The guidelines are that each bottle must be made fresh. However, I used to make up my bottles with boiled water and leave them on the kitchen counter (lids on) then add formula when needed. Dc1 had his room temperature, but dc2 liked it better warm so it went in the microwave for a little while (good shake afterwards). This is not the official way at all, but my 2 have been fine. I was careful to keep everything as clean as possible though and discarded any unused bottles after the 24 hour deadline.

It's impossible to sterilise something which is in powdered form, that's why the manufacturers can't guarantee that the powder is sterile. You can sterilise a liquid (UHT). But the point about it not being sterile once you open the tin is important, too. That's why you should wash your hands before preparing and use clean implements e.g. knife, scoop, etc. Even then you're still breathing near the tin potentially, you wear clothes which have presumably also been around bathrooms, other people, etc. Kitchens can be pretty germy places if not kept clean as well - bins, raw meat, dirt from vegetables, and the outside of the formula tin is unlikely to be clean having been kept in a supermarket warehouse for weeks and then on the shelf in the supermarket itself, placed in a trolley.

Most of this is simply normal everyday bacteria which babies, even newborns, can handle just fine as they come into contact with it during everyday life as well. The issue is that milk is high protein which makes it an excellent food for bacteria as well as infants. So you want to keep it at a temperature where bacteria can't multiply as much as possible. They aren't going to multiply in a tin of dry powder, but in rehydrated formula which is in the danger zone of 5-60 degrees, they're going to be multiplying like crazy - meaning you have a very limited window to feed it before it becomes dangerous. Making with hot water and/or keeping it refrigerated expands that window so that it becomes workable. But you can't really eliminate all bacteria ever, that's not the point.

‘Is fine, hospitals do it like this when you're in with a baby. Keep no longer than 24 hours’

Not sure if this poster lives in the US but here in the UK this is not the case. Formula isn’t sterile and has to be mixed with water above 70 degrees celsius to kill any bacteria in the powder. Otherwise there is a risk that the powder could the baby unwell.

make the*

You can however make bottles in advance and blast cool, store in back of fridge and use within 24 hours. The perfect prep machine is great but bare in mind you’d need to pre boil the water and cool and add this to machine for the first 6 months. Water that hasn’t been pre boiled is fine after 6 months of age.

If you’re going out you can use the instant mini bottles which I found a godsend and ds would just drink them at room temp as he was abit older. Or you could take a formula dispenser, flask of boiling water, and a bottle of pre boiled cooled water along with feeding bottle and empty lidless bottle to measure the water. You could then add acouple oz of boiling water to the empty bottle from the flask then the powder and shake and then measure the pre boiled cold water in the empty lidless bottle and add to bottle. It needs to be measured separately because of the weight of the powder. If you know where it goes to on the bottle you could take note of this which would mean you don’t need to take the empty measuring bottle as well as everything else.

I used to make up bottles of boiling water and leave them so they were room temperature. I’d add powder when I needed a bottle. Powder mixed with refrigerated water didn’t dissolve well at all. Did this for night feeds and going-out feeds. All of my kids are still alive.

France has had a few scandals in recent years with formula tainted with salmonella so I really wouldn't hold them up as an example of best practice!

No nursery or childcare provider would risk going against manufacturers, NHS and food safety guidelines by the way.

‘All of my kids are still alive.’

That’s the thing, it’s a risk to go against the guidelines and can and has ended in fatality. It may be a very small risk but it’s not one I’d be willing to take.

Quite shocked the amount f feeding experts happy to suggest making formula different from WHO / NHS and Formula Companies recommendations is safe

Crikey there's some scientific experts on Mumsnet.

Recommendations are there for a reason - To save babies lives - to minimise risk and not to make life harder for no reason.

If you can't be bothered to make it up safely then buy the large bottles of premade formula or the individual 200ml ready to use bottles.

Car Seats in their current form weren't legal requirement when I was a baby.... I wouldn't just strap a carry cot into the back of the car as you did back then as 'it done me no harm'

It's all about the temperature of the water when it's added to the milk. 70 degrees is ideal, but it shouldn't be lower than that.

Formula is not sterile. There is an (admittedly small) risk that it contains very nasty bugs. The vast, vast majority of tins will not, but it can't be guaranteed.

So yes, most babies are fine if formula is added to cool water, but if you are the unlucky one who buys a contaminated tin, then this method won't kill the bacteria.

TBH, even the people following guidelines may not be as safe as they think. Does anyone actually check the temperature of the water? They probably should.

No.

The second best way is to make the bottle as outlined on the tub. Flash cool it and store at the back of your fridge. Then use when necessary.

Only make up one bottle in advance to reduce the bacterial risk. You destroy bacteria that lives in the powdered formula with the 70 degree water. Like all cows milk, though, bacteria then begin to colonise the fluid again. The heat treated liquid formula is another option.