Am I being unreasonable /silly for my idea of a nighttime formula-making method?

[Bubsworth]

I guess AIBU (or possibly silly?) to consider this method to make formula tonight? The main thing I want to know is, is this method safe or would the water not be sterile anymore?

If I boiled the kettle in the evening and pour it into small sterilised containers and left to cool down before putting the lid on. Then put the formula powder into a bottle ready. Then took it to the bedroom. Would I be able to use that (room temperature, but sterile) water in the night/early hours to make a bottle up? Would it be safe to do so?

Backstory I fully intended to BF, baby born with condition that means I had to bottle feed but I was completely unprepared, never made a bottle in my life. After EPing for 3 months I switched to formula and from day one of formula have been using a Tommy Tippee bottle maker machine, so I have no knowledge of making formula the good 'old fashioned way'! I don't know the 'rules' for sterilising the water or how long it's sterile for, etc, etc.

Also moved house recently to a VERY old cottage... I would like to be able to NOT have to venture downstairs in the night alone!!!

I made the bottles in advance and then stored in the fridge and heated in hot water/microwave (making sure I gave a good shake).

If you really don't want to go downstairs then your options really are just Perfect Prep upstairs or cartons.

If you used a flask if hot water you would still have to wait for that to cool down.

As far as I know, PP are mistaken

We’re not. The powder has to be mixed with milk that is at least 70 degrees to kill the bacteria in the powder.

It’s nothing to do with the cleanliness of the water, it’s because of the potential for harmful bacteria to be present in the powder.

Fyette Your post goes against UK guidance (in multiple ways) so I’m afraid I think your post is irresponsible.

I made up bottles with boiling water and added lid. Took cooled bottle and formula (measured in pot) upstairs to bedside table and when needed tipped in powder, shook and fed. My daughter prefers bottle at room temp.
TbH made it much easier to manage at night and when out & about😊
You're always going to get conflicting info.

If you can afford it buy the mini bottles / cartons of ready made milk during the night. Make it easy on yourself as much as possible!

As far as I know, PP are mistaken: your method sounds perfectly safe. As long as you always mix the bottle on the spot, and make sure the powder is in an airtight container before you do.

Nope.

There can be bacteria in the powder, whether or not its kept in an airtight container. Its called E. sakazakii.

It's rare but babies have become very ill and even died from it.

You can make a bottle up in normal, approved manner put it straight in fridge to cool and then when time for your bed, put it in a cool bag with ice pack so it remains cool and then feed baby. Depends if your baby minds then drinking it cool!

The way you suggest in the opening post is the way I did it for my last two children. Indeed, it is what the midwife suggested. ( For my first, we made 24 hrs worth of complete bottles at once - boiling water and formula, cool and then stored in fridge.) Whilst I appreciate this is not current NHS guidelines, all of mine survived and are now high school age, so this was not that long ago. Like weaning age and car seat advice, the advice changes multiple times in a few short years and it is easy to become sceptical about the latest advice, when you realise it is very likely to change to something else in the near future.

Save yourself the hassle and buy the premixed formula for night feeds.

Can you still get the formula cartons? I just had those by the bed, along with a sterilised bottle with lid on, then in the middle of the night, open carton, pour in milk, feed....
Easy.
Mine never bothered that it wasn’t heated.

Please put me out of my misery and tell me why living in an old cottage means you dont want to go downstairs at night !
Is it the cold, or are you overrun with huge spiders or is the place haunted ?

@Applejack5 that's exactly what I used to do, although we had prep machine too, the beeps are sooooo loud at night!

I did exactly what you are suggesting, OP. I also never cut up a grape or cherry tomato, ever. My boys are now strapping, healthy teenagers.

But if I were raising a baby now? Knowing what I know now? I would do it differently. Because that's what risk assessment is about, isn't it? No matter how small the risk - if you identify it, and can mitigate it... well, that's what you do....

Fyette Your post goes against UK guidance (in multiple ways) so I’m afraid I think your post is irresponsible.

You're completely right that it goes against NHS guidelines, but she's right that it's how they tell people to do it in many European countries. The difference seems to be whether or not they standardly use kettles - it seems to have been judged more dangerous to encourage people to pour all that boiling water than to tell them to make baby bottles up with room temperature water - which means clearly if you do have a kettle using hot water is safer, but also gives you a sense of how relatively risky using room temperature is.

Incidentally, in places where they say to use room temperature water they do say the bottle should be given to the baby straight away and not allowed to sit around at all.

What @LisaSimpsonsbff said. I do know NHS guidelines are different, and please follow them if it makes you feel more secure, but infant mortality rate here is lower than in the UK, so you have to realise how relative these risks are. OP's baby is older than 3 months; victims of E. sakazakii have pretty much all been premature or very, very young babies (less than a week old).

You can turn the volume down on the new perfect prep machine 🙌🙌

FWIW the guidance to make formula with water that is at least 70C isn’t just UK/NHS guidance, but WHO guidance too.

For DC1, we used to add boiling water into a 1 litre flask (bought just for this purpose), make in the night with it (a decent flask will keep the water above 70C for something like 6-8 hours, obviously as you use it it gets cooler as well as time passing), and cool down in a jug of cold water which we filled from the bathroom (put the hot bottle into the jug, not putting water into the feed). That was 7 years ago now! Not sure if that’s perfect but that was what we did at the time with a bit of testing of temperatures to try and ensure it was hot enough for making the formula.

With DC2 we lived in a different set up and it was easy enough just to go to the kitchen. With DC3 now who is newborn, and our kitchen feels far away (town house), so we just take sterilised bottles and ready to feed milk. Costs more but so very much easier, especially when you’re bleary eyed in the middle of the night!

However what I would reiterate from others and above is, the advice for over 70C water has been around for some time now. People may not heed it, but it’s not new!

Final point - you can also get formula kettles (although if you have the Perfect Prep then may not be necessary?). It’s basically a kettle with a setting to keep the water above 70C for up to 24 hours (usually has other temperature settings, and you can also get regular kettles that boil to specific temperatures but not with the keep warm function). These can be quite handy for making bottles throughout the day or night.

Perfect prep upstairs did I every night that bloody sound will haunt me

People seem to go through a lot of unnecessary hassle! You can buy little bottles for single feeds or big bottles of pre made to keep in the fridge. Pour into the sterilised baby bottle and off you go.

We realised when DD was about 4 months that she liked her milk cold, so now I pre make bottles with boiling water and powder, quick cool then in the fridge. Can just grab and go. I wonder how many other parents waste time warming bottles when the baby isn't fussed.

Despite my eldest being 15 now, I still have huge huge mum guilt that I did this back in 2003. I thought I'd figured out a Mum Hack and a lazy way around it. Unfortunately this teen was often at Out of Hours doctors with gastroenteritis . I didn't know back then and even in 2016 when I had my second I decided to breastfeed to try and avoid the tummy bugs. When I found out about the water needing to be hot to kill bacteria in the milk I put two and two together that I probably caused his poorly tummies. Breaks my heart! He has bouts of trapped gas now which are very painful for him and I dread to think whether his gut was affected by the formula I gave him.

Anyway, enough about me, you know the score now! Good luck!!

I wonder how many other parents waste time warming bottles when the baby isn't fussed

I wish mine wasn’t fussed. He won’t touch it cold. Obviously I’ve tried it (many times) rather than just assuming he only likes it warm.

Am I missing something? Why can't you just make up the bottle with boiling water before you go to bed and take it up with you if you don't mind it not being hot at time of drinking?

Why can't you just make up the bottle with boiling water before you go to bed and take it up with you if you don't mind it not being hot at time of drinking?

Once a bottle has been made up, it should be discarded after 2 hours.

You could do what someone I know does, and just take up a carton of ready made milk and feed it to baby cold!!!