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?

nothing to do with trying to boost the breastfeeding numbers by making formula impractical, oh no

I very much doubt this particular conspiracy is true. You don’t need to ‘make formula impractical’ - it’s always going to be a more involved process than whipping out a boob, whatever you do to smooth it. If the NHS was really invested in boosting breastfeeding numbers they would start offering much better breastfeeding support services.

I do remember the first time I made up the bottles. The entire house had to be sterilised. Nothing was safe. Everything bleached. Toilets, stairs, kitchen, counter tops, table, dining room, bedrooms, floors, cupboards, chairs, legs of table and chairs, windows inside and out , mirrors polished etc. It was going to be a fucking sterile environment if my child was going to have a chance to survive.

THEN the new bottles were washed in hot soapy water and after about 5 minutes per bottle, they were reverently transferred to the steriliser. Kettle had of course been boiled in preparation for this astronomically important chemical experiment. Timer was set to 20 minutes precisely so that the boiled water could cool sufficiently. The newly sterilised bottles were laid out and I went to the scooping powder scoops into the bottles phase. Given the risk to life of me losing count, two independent auditors were present to verify my count of scoops into each bottle. Then of course, the transfer of water into the bottle began. I was tremoring at this point with the sheer gravity of this event.

I knew a LOT about solutions. The miniscus had to be eyed up in full light, at eye-level of course, lest I perhaps over dilute or underdilute.

Bottles then had to cool further before being transferred to the bottom shelf of the entirely bleached, rinsed and then sterilised fridge.

I relaxed after a while.

My DC only got a bottle on a Sunday. Other than that, they would only drink cans of coke. They have beautiful teeth now

that made me chortle, cheers man.

I'm glad I didn't bottle-feed. I've never met anyone who makes bottles up the same way. Back in the day it was make them up in the morning, store in the fridge and shake under a hot tap or put in a cup of hot water to warm. Nowadays it's, all different.

The one thing that I would heed on the formula advice is tapping the little measurement spoon so that it's not too densely packed which can concentrate the formula a bit.

I always did this. Made a batch in the morning for the whole day. Warned into microwave when I needed them. Job done

And this is why I only ever used ready made.

I used to just put boiling water in bottle and leave to cool and then add the powder when baby wanted a bottle. It was cooled 9 times out of 10 in time or if completely cooled down, only took seconds to heat up. That way I wasn't wasting the formula. I had 3 under 2 so it worked for me.

Also, when I was going to bed I'd boil water, leave it in a thermos bag and added powder when baby woke up.

Did it with box mine. They’re alive, and adept at draining my bank account.

Not sure if that’s just teenagers or the fridge formula

Why are you asking other than to be goady? You clearly know it’s against advice, it’s a risk

Every parent needs to make a risk assessment on these things, but it's really not hard to follow the correct instructions on the tub and not have any risk of giving your young baby an infection, so I tend to err on the side of caution because it's not worth the small risk.

The reason advice or instructions change is because of incident and learning, not just because they like to confuse different generations with different advice. There have been changes to the preservatives used in formula as well as incidents where dodgy ingredients from China ended up in the supply chain, and because the formula wasn't keep sterile, it killed a small number of babies around the world. That's when it changed to hot water over the powder etc.

The old advice was to make up bottles and keep them in the fridge for 24 hours. Even as little as 12 years ago. Then the advice changed. Most of us will not have had bottles made fresh and discarded in 2 hours. It's fine if done properly in the fridge. As for making formula, you don't add formula to boiling water either. It's supposed to be about 70 degrees - hence why the instructions are to boil a kettle, wait about 25/30 mins (can't remember exactly) mix it with formula and then cool the bottle down before giving to baby. The idea is to kill bacteria in the formula with a hot temperature, but not boiling as that could destroy nutrients in the milk. Sterilising the bottle to stop the bottle harbouring the bacteria but the adding very hot water to formula is also to stop danger from formula itself.

7 kids

Always made a batch last thing in the evening, steam sterilised, hot filled, rapid cooled.

Never a poorly child, thats got to be almost 10,000 bottles of milk.

Manufacturers probably do err on the side of caution. It is also very much in their interest for us to throw away as much formula as possible.
As soon as my bottle/teat sterilising method had finished, and my kettle of fresh water had boiled and been left for 10 minutes, I would make up bottles for the next 24 hrs, stand them in cold water to cool, then stash them in the fridge. I had those bottles with the lid that stored the sterilised teat. When needed I warmed them either in a bottle warmer or a jug of warm water.
Once finished with I washed the used bottle and put it ready for the steriliser.
I bottle fed babies for nearly seven years in total and don't recall any illness attributable to milk.

I always prepared enough feeds for up to 24 hours in advance for all of my three and all have survived to tell the tale.

The kettle only generally cooled for about 10 minutes before making up the feeds in sterilised bottles. I cooled it pretty quickly and stored it in the fridge.

I even used the microwave to warm the bottles up when required. Hotspots are only left if you fail to give it a good shake afterwards. Shoot me!

Never had any problems. My "children" are 25, 22 and 18 now and very healthy, so I must have done something right.

Always made mine up the night before and left in the fridge and my kids survived!

Is it ok to put the bottles straight in the fridge after making up formula or do you allow them to cook for abit?

If you'd ever looked inside a PP machine, you wouldn't use one. Grim.

OP - I always stayed one bottle ahead during the day (as DC finished one, another was made, cooled and fridged) and two ahead at night

I added freshly boiled water to however much powder, mixed thoroughly then topped up with previously cooled boiled water. I always used the microwave to warm up but made sure to thoroughly mix the milk to avoid hot spots.

Bottles were sterilised and stored with lids on when dry.

I can't believe people can make up a bottle with hot water then wait for it to cool, while their baby is crying, I could never hack it. Never an upset tummy from doing the above

@novaissuper

Is it ok to put the bottles straight in the fridge after making up formula or do you allow them to cook for abit?

It's fine. Only thing is that they will heat up the fridge, so not recommended for the sake of the other products in your fridge. I allowed the bottles to cool for 30 minutes once made up, before transferring to the fridge.

@novaissuper

Is it ok to put the bottles straight in the fridge after making up formula or do you allow them to cook for abit?

You're not supposed to put anything hot straight in the fridge. The fridge temp drops which isn't good for anything else in there.

Is it ok to put the bottles straight in the fridge after making up formula or do you allow them to cook for abit?
They need to be completely cold when they go in the fridge, otherwise they will raise the temperature of the fridge. You needs to cook them as quickly as possible, try standing them in a bowl of cold water with ice if you've got it, and shaking them frequently.

I never did this. I used Aptamil from day one and made each bottle as and when required, day and night. Discarded after 1 hour. I did keep ready made formula in the house for emergencies though.

I know people who done this.
I used to sterilise the bottles then top them up with boiling water and would put the lid on and leave on the side. When DS wanted feeding I used to pop the formula in then get a jug and heat it in boiling water.

This is the way my mum and sisters always done it and midwife and HV said it was okay.

This is the guidance on the back of my formula box, Hipp organic formula

It’s how I always did it. My kids survived. 🤷🏼‍♀️

People did this for years and were fine

I did the thing where you make up bottles of boiled water, leave them on the side and then add powder when you want to use it. Then heat up or just have at room temperature if baby is ok with that (which mine were).
I think the advice then changed and that wasn’t considered ok but my kids and many others were fine.