Anyone up to help? Making baby formula

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Can anyone tell me can you use boiling water to make up a bottle or do you have to wait 30mins to the water cools a bit?

It's aptamil if that makes any differed!

(Sorry for the AIBU but I wasn't sure what category!)

I thought you had to use boiling water because the milk is not sterile.

It says on the packaging leave to cool for no more than 30mins so the water stays above 70.

I'm not sure if you can use the boiled water straight away or will it also kill necessary parts of the formula.

I'm so confused but don't understand how you make it fresh each time and wait almost 30mins each time with a screaming baby!

I thought the 30 minutes was about how long you’ve got to use the water in the kettle once it’s boiled.

I make milk with boiled water and then let it cool down to a good temperature for baby to use. Normally I’d put bottle in cold water to help it cool faster.

If you put the made up bottle in cold water (I use measuring jug) then it cools down much quicker than just leaving it to cool at room temperature

Ideal temp for making formula is 70 degrees (in order to kill any bacteria) not 100 due to the risk of burning that’s why it says wait 30 mins.
I used to boil water in the am and then put it in a thermos. That way it was still hot enough and didn’t need to wait for a kettle

So I can use boiling water straight from the kettle?

That's great news if so!
I've never used powder formula before always bought the cartons but DS needs the comfort milk and it isn't available in cartons.

I'd bought it as a back up as I had a feeling the milk wasn't agreeing with him but tonight's confirmed that (very constipated and suffering terrible wind)

Problem is I've no clue how to make it!

Don't use fresh boiled, its too hot and it denatures the proteins.

Put 1 litre of water in kettle, boil, set phone alarm for 30 minutes, make up bottle and run under cold tap to cool.

Alternatively, use the 30 minute old boiled water, but only add 50% of the total volume. Swirl to dissolve powder, then top up with cold, previously boiled water, that will bring the temp down to drinkable sooner. You can store cold boiled water in the fridge.

I'd definitely look at buying a prep machine! They're worth their weight in gold if you ask me!

I used to pre make a few bottles in advance following the instructions (boil, wait 30 mins so the water is hot enough to kill bacteria but won’t burn the formula) and then I would just heat the bottles up in the microwave for about 30 seconds when needed (shake well to get rid of hot spots and test on arm when reheating)

Have your seen the tommee tippee perfect prep machine? It marks the formulae to the right temp in minutes. I think the smallest bottle it makes is 4 scoops.

I've seen the perfect prep I might have to go down that route. It's just I know the NHS doesn't like them.

I also done see how it's feasible to make a bottle fresh every time when a lo is screaming for it and it takes 30mins!

Cartons are so much easier! I never realized just how much to now!

Yeh that’s why I pre made them to the instructions and refrigerated till needed - would be a nightmare waiting 30 mins with a hungry baby! I used to pre make (with the perfect prep machine) refrigerate then take the bottles out with me for the day in a cool bag with an ice block. My baby didn’t mind drinking them cold.

Sorry meant to say i premade bottles using the formula instructions before I had the perfect prep.
If at home I made when needed with perfect prep but would also pre make bottles with it to take out with me for the day.

Honestly basically boiling water is fine - done it a million times and there have been no issues at all

What I did & my daughters all did was boil the kettle, put the water into the bottles for say 2oz less than what was needed. Stick them in the fridge & when a bottle was needed, bring it out, boil the kettle put in 2oz of boiled water, that gave a temperature that was ready to feed straight away & just add the powder. I know my SD swore by her prep machine, you just have to be strict with its cleaning.

I’ve just recently had a baby (a very premature one). I had been making up her full days feeds in advance (as per instructions) and storing them at the very back of the fridge and just heating as needed. She was waking every 3 hours for a feed and would scream at the top of her tiny lungs if she didn’t get it fast enough, she was used to not waiting at all in the NICU.

We can now use the prep machine as she’s up to 4oz and it really is a godsend. Don’t know why the NHS hate it but tbh, they’re not the ones trying to feed your crying baby in the middle of the night so I say stuff them.

Oh, and my baby has never had any ill effects from making bottles in advance or the prep machine.

You're really meant to make one bottle at a time, making them all up and refrigerating them isn't recommended unfortunately!

OP, I'm in same boat as you DD was on the ready made from birth until she was around 7 weeks as we had to move to the comfort milk. We had the perfect prep but I was too anxious to use it especially when she was tiny (even though it was recommended by HV). So I was making the milk up and just pouring the water in when it was boiling and cooling it in a bowl of water, we have the tommee tippee glass bottles which cool down really quickly compared to the plastic ones (so if you're sticking with the kettle method I'd highly recommend them). I still found this all too much of a faff so when dd was 2 months old we started using the prep machine and its made life so much easier.

If you pour the boiling water into the bottle (instead of leaving it in the kettle) it will cool much faster. You are aiming for over 70C (the lowest temp tbat will kill bacteria), though I'm not sure the upper limit.

I have a thermapen (that I bought years ago for cooking but is very handy for checking water for bottles) so its easy to check. Do you have anything like tbat?

Please check out the Nuby Rapid Cool and a thermos flask. Think it'll be as quick as the perfect prep but conforms to guidelines.

I say this as someone who uses the perfect prep (I don't have long left on formula) but will be buying the Nuby if I have another (unless there's an even better option by then!)

Flask of boiling water, make up the formula and use the Rapid Cool to quickly cool it to drinking temp within 2 minutes. Seen some good reviews and resisting temptation to buy it now (son on 3 bottles a day now, so not needed, really)

I have been searching high and low for a straight answer on this too OP!

I recently spoke with someone from Kendamil who advised that 70 degrees is preferable to 100 degrees due to the fact that 100 degrees will damage some of the nutrients in the formula. I also found documents from the infant nutrition council in America concerned over the issue of water over 70 degrees damaging nutrients in the formula, particularly some of the B vitamins from memory (I'll try and find the link if anyone wants to see it).

Everything I found from the U.K. skirted around the issue of whether 70 degree 100 degree water is preferable. They all just say "let water cool for no more than 30 minutes", but I almost feel like they're deliberately leaving it open to interpretation as to whether 70 degrees is just the minimum acceptable temperature or actually the ideal temperature.

Then I did find this info on Kendamil and Aptamil's websites (screenshots attached) which led me to conclude that I'm sticking with 70 degrees.

Until we bought a prep machine, for night feeds, we used to boil the kettle and put it in a flask, fill however many bottles we needed with the right amount of boiled water & we had one of those containers with 3 sections we put the right amount of scoops of formula in

When the baby woke for feeding, the bottles with water had cooled down so we put the formula in the heated it by putting it in water from the flask

But honestly once we got a prep machine we couldn’t believe we used to spend our time doing this

Perfect prep machine is easily the most useful baby related gadget we have purchased in the last 16 months. It takes all of the stress away from preparing the formula and does it fast.

Definitely get yourself a perfect prep machine.
The health visitors officially don't recommend them... But IRL any HVs or midwives who are parents themselves will tell you they are a godsend.
Make sure to follow instructions on cleaning and changing filter and they are perfectly safe.

As for making up bottle without one. Yes boiled or recently water to make up the formula then leave to cool. ( pop the now hot bottle of milk into a jug or cold water to leave to cool down)

Hope you get on OK.

Neither perfect prep nor making advance and refrigerating is recommended, but Jesus Christ something's got to give somewhere, so unless your baby is very unwell or premature I would definitely invest in a perfect prep. Overnight I just keep the little ready made bottles by the bed and serve at room temperature.

I made them up after letting the kettle cool for 15-20mins. Any more and the temp dipped below 70 in our kettle (I used a meat thermometer to check in an experiment).
I made up enough for the night and put them at the back of the fridge. I then warmed them up when needed and it took a lot less time than making from scratch.
The NHS webpage says it is ok to do this.

The perfect prep doesn’t get the formula hot enough to kill bacteria so that is why the NHS do not recommend it but I know tons of people use it with no issues.