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!!!

lisasimpsonbff
I don't ff or use a creche but from friends/family/colleagues here I hear that bottles are sent to creche already made up. A childminder (much more casual arrangement than in the UK) might make bottles though.

Take a flask of boiled water up to bed and a tub with the formula in x

Get a Tommee Tippee Perfect Prep machine. Absolutely saved my sanity!

However before I had one, I used to just make up the bottles in the morning, pop it at the back of the fridge then microwave/heat it up when he was ready for a feed.

All I did was boil the kettle, get 6 bottles, put 5oz (or however many your LO is having) of boiled water in, add x amount of scoops of formula, give it a shake until it is all mixed in, leave to cool in a sink of cold water (make sure the teats are covered in caps so the tap water doesn't contaminate it) and then put straight into the fridge).

People will probably say oh they don't do it that way any more! Our parents who used to formula feed us ALWAYS did it this way and we are all here, alive and kicking.

The most IMPORTANT thing to do is make sure you sterilise the formula in BOILED water to kill off any bacteria that may be in the formula powder.

You'll be fine!

DungeonDweller Unfortunately it isn’t seemingly obvious. There are people on here that can’t use google for a start and are actively arguing for an unsafe preparation method saying that the WHO, NHS etc are wrong. This is the danger of a refusal to educate about formula. The gap is filled with outdated or incorrect advice.

get a kettle upstairs?!

We have a "milk station". bottles, formula, cooled boiled water etc on the landing!
just outside the bedroom door (or inside your room if you have space?)

HTH

Hotseat-

Maybe you’d like to read this from the WHO link Soydora posted earlier.

It ‘is not a sterile product, even if it has been manufactured to meet current hygiene standards. This means that it may occasionally contain pathogens that can cause serious illness.’

Or the NHS

‘Even when tins and packets of powdered infant formula are sealed, they can sometimes contain bacteria.’

This is the danger of a refusal to educate about formula.

I agree with this so much.

When I was pregnant with DC1 I went to the antenatal class put on by the hospital. Due to medical reasons, I knew there was a high likelihood that I wouldn’t be able to breastfeed and that I may also need to deliver on the labour ward (as opposed to the birthing centre). The person leading the class refused to talk about formula feeding or birthing on the labour ward They were very set on encouraging all mothers to birth in the birthing centre and breastfeed.

I totally get that it may be appropriate for many mothers/low risk mothers, but to refuse to engage makes no sense at all and doesn’t appear to be improving anything anyway!

In the end, with DC1 a few days old, desperate to feed (as I was producing nothing, and getting nowhere in terms of advice as to whether that was normal or not), he started to show early signs of dehydration and I just got totally fed up of the, “Oh just keep going...”. I cracked out the bottles and formula and proceeded to spend what felt like ages checking and rechecking guidance online to ensure we were doing it correctly, as it wasn’t obvious - I also wanted to know the why, as it didn’t say on the formula tin why to boil a whole litre and leave for up to half an hour for instance or why to use that temperature of water. It took a while researching to find clear info which explained it all (it seems easier to find these days, this was 7 years ago, or maybe I was just too tired and bleary eyed!).

It should be simpler than that. My recent stay on the postnatal ward having had DC3 made it clear how many mums are opting/having to formula feed, and yet don’t know what to do. Midwives were regularly intervening to correct what they were doing and warning them about various risks and it occurred to me, well, when would they have actually learned otherwise? It might just seem to most people that you simply get some water, add formula and go, and keep the same bottle until it’s finished. Not everyone would think, “I must check online to see if there’s more to it than that”, especially if they’ve seen friends/family/complete strangers in public do otherwise.

I do totally agree that the NHS refusal to even discuss formula is actively harmful. Some folk in my antenatal class were doing extremely dangerous things (making up the days batch at 6am then leaving e.g. the 12oz bottle to be drip fed over 12+ hrs during the day, at room temperature, it was fucking scary esp when 1 baby has already had massive stomach problems from birth).

The pursed lips "we don't talk about that" (sometimes critical!) aspect of feeding even if there are predicted low milk supply issues e.g. one woman with PCOS who has a history of mix feeding by necessity due to her condition.. yet NHS staff still can't discuss?!

Something has gone badly wrong with feeding approach in the NHS in the last few years; from what I hear it wasn't always like this.

When I was wee in the 60s my mum and dad fostered babies, when I say babies I mean up to 6 at any time all different ages and stages. My dad used to make up Cow and Gate into flasks for the night feeds, worked really well. My mum was a fully trained midwife, Paediatric nurse and Health Visitor and no one died.

The advice isn’t to make up bottles and store them in the fridge, they must be discarded after 2 hours otherwise they can harbour bacteria.
No WHO say storing in back of fridge for 24 hours is perfectly safe.

Doubletrouble99

The point is though some babies have died and there is a way of mitigating that risk. There are lots of parenting practises from the 60s I wouldn’t choose to replicate. That is no reflection of people at the time who were doing the best working the guidelines they had.

There is a lot of ‘well no one died’ on here but it’s a pretty low bar.

There seem to be a few misconceptions on this thread. The WHO and NHS guidelines are:

Bottles should be prepared fresh and use water at 70 degrees +, to kill bacteria in the formula. Once made, the bottle must be discarded after 2 hours as it will start to gather bacteria, or 1 hour if your baby has drunk from the bottle.

Do not chill and reheat, do not make 24 hours worth in one go, do not use cooled water to make them up.

Make bottles as you need them. You need to put 1/3 of the bottle of boiling water to kill the bacteria in the formula and you can then top up with cooled boiled water if you wish.

@lifeinthedeep the perfect prep delivers the shot at 70 not 100, so hot enough to kill the bacteria but not so hot it begins to break down the milk proteins.

Flask of boiling. Cold room temp sterile. Mix formula with boiling then top up with sterile to amount.

ignore Fyette, the water needs to be at least 70deg to kill the bacteria in the formula (which isn't sterile). To do this ensure the water is mixed with the formula within 30mins of it boiling, then cool it before giving to baby obviously.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/making-up-infant-formula/

I used to sterililise a batch of bottles - once they were washed they would go into a big tub of water with Milton tablet in.
Then I would do a batch of hot water and leave on the side until they were needed. I would only do a few.
Then would mix in formula as it was needed. So yes I did what you are suggesting. Mine only ever had room temperature milk never warm. This was the correct preparation method at the time 2008/2009.
I used to take powder out in a tub with compartments and do same on a day out.
Neither ever had any bad tummy infections or any health problems. I do wonder if this method has been suggested to put people off bottle feeding?

How many times does baby wake? The little pre made bottles are a godsend in the night. Saves messing with anything and you are sure it's sterile

I do wonder if this method has been suggested to put people off bottle feeding?

No, advice changed because there is more awareness now around the type of bacteria that the milk powder can harbour.

so this might be a bit out there, but...

Have you considered getting your little one used to room temp or cold bottles? It worked for me with my second child. I used to keep a small bottle of formula (the premade 200ml containers) by my bedside with a clean sterilised bottle and I'd wake up, dump it in and serve straightaway. Then I moved her to chilled, so I'd make up a batch of bottles with hot water in the evening and put them in the fridge. And when DD cried, I'd hand her a chilled bottle straight from the fridge. Night and day, cold was absolutely fine.

Really cut down on the amount of time she was crying and hungry before I could get the milk to her. (I remember desperately trying to cool hot bottles under a cold tap with my eldest while he howled.)

WHO guidance is to use water at 70oc to kill the bacteria in the powder. It's actually written on the back of the formula boxes. I don't understand why some people don't know that it's the correct method when it's there in black and white. It's been the same since at least 2011 when my eldest was born.

I recently raised this issue with our local hospital who weren't making formula in this way. They had no idea and told me I was wrong. I pointed them towards the WHO guidance and letters from various bodies (I think RCM and and possibly public health england) that were sent to all GPs and midwives across the UK explaining how and why formula needs to be made like this. Our hospital did a big review and agreed that they weren't doing it properly and now make it in line with WHO guidance. If that was wrong then they wouldn't have made the chance. Anything else is based on opinion.

I know what you mean as my sister lives in different country but the milk they are having is different. When i went to visit they tried to make my DS milk their own way which i had to stop them because our milk is different.

For OP
We use SMA comfort. We have a water bottle flask 500ml i fill it up with boiling water and once the baby wakes up just simply mix it. Also have a small container separately for the powder milk which I measured ahead for the night it has 3 small separate storage so i have prepared 3 different amounts of milk powder for the night. I know its sounds a drag but we do like this since birth. Also read how long you can keep the milk after mixing it its on the can of the milk powder. My HV was really good at advising how to use milk powder and we read through completely every instruction on the can. Plus always can call up the helpline as i did of the company making the milk. As my DS reached 6 months i was told by HV soon i have to change the milk as the second stage milk should be stronger in nutritions. But with is is different as the SMA comforts milk is up to age 1. The SMA helpline give us all the information and guidelines regarding of the milk and i feel safer and knowledgeable now.

OP that is exactly what I used to do 13 years ago.

It was the way to make bottles up then. No wastage too.

Can't understand why it's frowned upon now. Has the formula powder changed making it unsafe?

Has the formula powder changed making it unsafe?

No, just the awareness of the potential risks.

I did that with my first because the midwife told me to. I boiled the kettle and poured this water into two bottles at a time. I'd place these into insulation bags for the night feeds. When I was ready to feed, I'd pour powder into the bottle and shake it. It was warm, just right. My second I was told to make them fresh each time by the midwife.
But couldn't because of how long the reflux medicine had to be in their milk beforehand. The dr told me to pre make the bottles and put them in the fridge. You could get a mini table top fridge for the bedroom?

OP your original post is how I made middle of the night bottles. Except I kept a little bottle warmer on the bedside locker too.
So baby wakes. Switch on warmer first. Add powder to cooled water. Put in bottle warmer for a few mins while changing baby. Nice warm bottle for baby without leaving room.
I know it's not recommended but my babies were fine