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!!!

Why ask here, why not ask an HV or go to NHS or NCT site where they can tell you the current advice. The fact is if a bottle made up incorrectly or stored inorrectly the baby can get sick. Yes my sister had carnation milk for a while and survived, but just because she's ok doesn't mean I recommend it.

My delicious hv in 1995...
I really want to ask about the cannibalism but do not wish to derail the thread

This made me laugh.

I used to take a small thermos flask up with me - boiled the kettle right before bed, and a sterilised pot of measured formula, the water was still warm by the time she needed it but took less time to cool down running the mixed bottle under the bathroom cold tap (she liked her formula cool).

Thermos of boiling water. Add powder and a couple of oz boiling water to bottle to sterilise the powder. Top up with cooled boiled water. Basically what the perfect prep machine does

I prepared bottles this way. Boil kettle, leave to cool 10 mins and made up bottles using hot water and formula. Cooled them very quickly in cold water and put in fridge. Then I would warm them up when needed, either bu popping in a jug of boiled water or microwave.... be very careful with microwave for hot spots!

Formula is not sterile so needs to be added to near boiling water to avoid bugs.

I always added pre-measured powder into cooled boiled water. It is not the official advice at all. But it’s what I did with both dc during daytime and nighttime without any problems at all. It’s up to you to decide how much you want to adhere to the official advice.

Things would appear to have changed since my 3 were born, quite drastically. We used to stabilise everything at night, fill the bottles with boiling water. Measure the exact powder in to the little bottle inserts and only mix when needed. By 3am the bottle was warm but not boiling.

But alas, it would now appear that this is unacceptable.

All those mums with strong as an ox adult children despite not using water above 70 degrees, you did nothing wrong in the context of advice at the time, but I think your babies were at higher risk. I was a teenager on children’s wards in the mid-eighties. The first third of the long, wide ward had individual glass and timber cubicles on each side, these were always populated by the babies with gastroenteritis on IV fluids. Over 20 years later, I again spent a lot of time on children’s and babies wards with my youngest daughter, and the numbers of babies with gastroenteritis were so low that I was unaware of them.
It was a massive change.

Its what I did with my 2 kids. Youngest age 6 so not thst long ago either.

Mine are all 14 and under. I think that the advice changed post China

You need very hot water to hit the formula as previous ppl have said.

The shortcut (which I learned from a mum who is also a paediatrician so I felt I could rely on it) is this. Though you will have to experiment to find the right proportions because it depends on the heat capacity of your bottles and the power of your fridge - when I say "quarter" etc below you might actually need a different fraction.

Boil up and measure out exactly three quarters of the amount of water you would normally need to make up a feed. Cool that and put it in the fridge to chill down at least 6 hours before the feed, in a sterile sealed container. (Yes you will actually need a stock of these)

When the feed is needed, boil the kettle but put only one quarter of the required amount of water into the formula, water just boiled. Shake it up to ensure all the powder gets contact with the just-boiled water. Wait 3 minutes (if there are any germs in there, 3 minutes that hot should be enough to kill them. Less than that & they may survive).

Then top the bottle up to the correct dilution level using the cold sterile water from the fridge and give another good shake. Check the temperature - if its too hot or too cold adjust the fractions you use then time.

Don't use formula that was made up more than an hour ago. That is a bigger risk than not bothering with the boiling water at all.

Throw away the unused cold water in the bottle contained more than you needed.

Prep machine. Problem solved.

The powder needs to have hot water added to it. You can then add cooled boiled water to quickly get it to temp. I'd buy a really decent flask (Kleen Kanteen are great) for taking hot water to bed in. Also take the containers of cooled boiled. Add hot water to powder , then add cooled boiled water to get correct temp. You need to have measured both waters. E.g., 6 scoops formula, use 3oz hot water, 3 oz cold. For example.

I wait 20-30 mins before adding water because that's what it says on the box! And I've used more than 1 brand. I do wonder if some of PP have ever even been responsible for a baby. Please read the instructions OP, along with NHS and WHO guidelines. Some of the suggestions on here are worrying.

Why do people take the noisy perfect prep upstairs? Why not just go down and make a bottle like normal people?

Another vote for bring the perfect prep upstairs. It's much easier to walk upstairs for a bottle in be daytime than downstairs at night. Likely your husband will sleep through the beeps if he is tired enough.

To make a six ounce bottle , two baby bottles one with six scoops formula powder, one with four ounces cooled boiled water , flask with two ounces boiling water.
Add boiling water to bottle of formula powder shake, then pour cold boiled water in and shake again.

My daughter is 10 now but when she was a baby, I made up 6 bottles from cooled boiled water. I made the bottles at 9pm every night.. the bottles went into the fridge when completely cooled. When I was going to bed around 12, I would take dds 3 am bottle up with me. I did the same when my son was born. I think the important thing is to make the formula properly.. cooled boiled water (70c) should kill any bacteria in the formula

Cooled boiled water can't kill the bacteria in the formula. It's the heat in the water that does that.

I was given an NHS leaflet on bottle prep when I couldn't breastfeed. The water has to be over 70 degrees when added to the formula. In hospital, we were told to throw out the formula after 1 hour at room temperature, but the leaflet said 2 hours.

Don't take the perfect prep upstairs, just make the bottle in advance as advised with 70c water, then take it up to bed in a cool pack type thing with an ice pack jn then warm it when you need it in middle of night with a bottle warmer.

Hi OP, when out and about, this is what I do if I've run out of cartons and it would work here for you:

Prior to bed, fill your bottles up with 1oz less than their feed (ie 5oz if they have a 6oz bottle). These will cool to room temp.

Fill a thermos flask with your boiling water.

Take an empty cup upstairs and your pots filled with powder.

When it's time to make a bottle, empty your sterile water from your bottle into the cup. Pour in 1oz of your thermos water. Add your powder. Swill it around to kill the bacteria.

Pour the sterile water from the cup back in.

Bottle ready.

We used to buy the little cartons and big bottles of ready made feed for night times. I appreciate they aren't that cheap but they were a life saver in the early days and the big bottles can be stored in the fridge for 48 hours.

I always did what you describe OP. For a long time too. I used to take pre-filled bottles of water to bed along with a formula dispenser and knock the powder into a bottle of water and shake it. DD never minded room temp milk and never got sick from it.

Not what's advised but going to the kitchen and boiling water was too much...I was exhausted as DH worked away so I was on my own.

Why do people take the noisy perfect prep upstairs? Why not just go down and make a bottle like normal people?

Because I found it easier to roll over and press a button than walk downstairs.