To make formula up in advance and store it in the fridge?

[novaissuper]

Stores in the fridge for no more than 24 hours and heated up with a bottle warmer. What do you think?

Seriously you think you know better than the people who ACTUALLY MAKE THE FORMULA. Keep acting like we are all stupid to be following the advise to use hot water to kill any bacteria in the unsterilised formula, and we will keep doing it anyway to be on the safe side.

No children were injured in my experiments.

@Horsemad

I thought the coldest part of the fridge is the fridge door? 🤔

Exact opposite is true! That’s why butter is kept in the door. 🙂

@ismiseeire

Seriously you think you know better than the people who ACTUALLY MAKE THE FORMULA. Keep acting like we are all stupid to be following the advise to use hot water to kill any bacteria in the unsterilised formula, and we will keep doing it anyway to be on the safe side.

No children were injured in my experiments.

I'm very pleased to hear it luckily none of mine have been injured making the formula with hot water either

The water SHOULD BE HOT, but NOT BOILING.

@Newmama29

Once a bottle of formula is made up it’s supposed to be used within 2 hours. I make my bottles up in the morning with boiling water up to 4/5oz & let them cool & when he needs a bottle top up with boiling water to 6oz & then add the formula so the formula is still getting boiling water to break down the bacteria but it doesn’t take forever to cool down as I have a very impatient baby! I suppose it’s the same way a bottle prep machine works.

My GC all had formula prepared in this way. I think there was a little thingy to pre-measure the right amount of powder so you could just tip it in.

There is bacteria in the formula powder that needs to be killed. Formula is full of sugars, which bacteria thrive from. So it needs to be made using boiling water.

Then store it as it says on the NHS website.

Do not save used bottles, as that's just reintroducing bacteria into the formula where it will proliferate again.

I always did this. And in the winter I brought bottles into the bedroom for the night feeds and left them on my bedside table (don't have heating though, so it was pretty cold).

I know nhs advice is 2 hours, but I never managed to find any research to back that up.

@novaissuper

Stores in the fridge for no more than 24 hours and heated up with a bottle warmer. What do you think?

That's exactly what I did. Works perfectly. Once a day mixing was simpler /easier to be really careful/strict about hygiene and measuring. I used a Mothercare sterilising tank; wash and change that once a day after making up the feeds. As each bottle was used it was washed, rinsed and put in the tank.

Yeah I always did this, I didn't even know you weren't supposed to. I'd make them up every evening to cover the next 24h

Likewise.

Most people make up the bottles for 12-24 hours in advance.
Some nervous parents will obey the RULES!

I've survived. My DC have survived.

I don't know why this question causes so much debate. The NHS guidelines are very clear!

The safest way is to make up a bottle fresh each time with water that is at least 70c. However it is also acceptable (but comes with a slightly higher risk) to make up a bottle (70c+ and sterile bottle) cool rapidly, store in a fridge and use within 24 hours.

I always made up the bottles for the day and used them on the day.
I think they say you should have water and then add the powder thereafter but I never bothered, too much faff.

Ismiseeire, YouCantBeSadHoldingACupcake isn't wrong.

Bottles need to be sterilised but the water meeting the powder needs to be at least 70 and better hotter to kill any bacteria in the powder - the powder is not sterile and there were some cases of (I think) babies in Belgium who died due to bacteria in powder. Whether putting boiling water on the powder in any way reduces the nutritional value of the milk is debatable.

I basically recreated a perfect prep set up using a shot of boiling water on the powder and topped up with cold to get it to the right temp (I did tests with a thermometer and measuring cups etc. so I didn't have to think about it after getting the measurements right!!!). I did this as there was some issues with perfect prep and hygiene that concerned me.

I wouldn't have done this and stored for 24 hours though as if there was any surviving bacteria, it needs time to mulitply, would maybe have done it three times a day and stored for 8 (at the back of the fridge) if I had to leave the baby with someone....

@ismiseeire

Why not to use boiling water?

1. Evaporation - hence concentration of formula
2. Affects some nutritional content

No evaporation from a bottle thats sealed as soon as the boiling water goesin.

If there's any loss of nutrition, that would account for why my stunted littlke waifs all stopped growing at 6ft 6".

You could of course anticipate when your baby might begin to squawk, so that you'll always be ready with a kettle to boil, cool, make the formula up and allow to cool further for baby to drink...

Or you could do what has been done for generations.

2bazookas

Giantism?

making up 24 hours worth used to be standard. Its fine if its done cleanly so wash hands before starting. use boiling water and sterilised bottles. cool quickly and store in fridge.
The problem came because people werent following that advice , some kitchens not so clean or not using boiling water etc so there was a risk that babys could get gastric upsets from contaminated milk, so the advice changed to only make up fresh as this poses less of a risk.
Hospitals make up feeds 24 hours in advance, its standard practise.

It's like the advice to sterilise everything until the age of 1.
Once dc started to crawl and lick the floors, I gave up on the sterilisation bit.

After trying and faffing around with the "preferred" methods, I made them up in advance, kept them in the fridge and gave them to the poor bugger cold or room temp. He survived to tell the tale. The NHS website says it's fine to do so.

@alphabetQ That's exactly what I did at night. Saved a load of hassle.

@ismiseeire

I can't believe that people think that they are 'sterilising' the milk with boiling water each time they make up a bottle!

This was the standard line from HVs when I had my kids (early 2010s). Apparently there was this one kid who got food poisoning and it was traced back to non sterile formula, hence their changing the guidelines so that you had to add boiling water to the powder nothing to do with trying to boost the breastfeeding numbers by making formula impractical, oh no

Imagine my surprise when I moved to Germany and discovered that they don't have that guideline here, and in fact some of the formulas (Hipp Combiotik for example, which is also available in the UK) had an explicit instruction not to use water over 50 degrees. And yet we don't seem to have had any babyood poisoning outbreaks. Pure luck, obviously

Always did this. Like a pp, I also took bottles out of the fridge and left them in the bedroom for overnight, fed at room temp.

I also put DC's in their rooms on their own from a couple of weeks old, without monitors, and left them outside in their prams, in the snow, for hours.

I am such a renegade .

@ismiseeire

It's like the advice to sterilise everything until the age of 1. Once dc started to crawl and lick the floors, I gave up on the sterilisation bit.

Ha ha ha.... yes, this too. When the babies started to lick the cats, and suck their tales, I gave up too.

Anycrispsleft German efficiency!

I did this with all 3 of mine. Youngest is nearly 3 and a lot younger than the older ones. I checked with my midwife about doing this as I knew it wasn't recommended and she said that as I was sensible and knew what I was doing it would be fine. And it was. As long as you do it properly there's nothing wrong with it. Its a lifesaver at 3am as it takes 30 seconds in the microwave to heat up and is in baby's mouth within a few minutes of waking up.