Can someone advise the best way to do this

[susiecinnamon]

Dd has been on prescription milk for CMPA since 6 weeks old. This has to be made at room temperature. She's now moving back to normal formula as she no longer seems to be reacting it. However she won't take it warm. I need to figure out the best way to make bottles safely and get them to room temperature quickly. Obviously they need to be made with boiling water initially but the length of time it takes them to cool down in a jug of water is way too long for the night feed when she's screaming!

A prep machine still makes it warm so even if we used that we'd still have to cool it a bit afterwards too.

I'm thinking of pre making the night feed at least and putting it in the fridge then warming up slightly in the microwave or a jug just to get it back up to room temp. Is this ok? She's 6 months now and will be starting weaning soon so I'm hoping the number of bottles will drop fairly soon anyway.

Why don't you use the pre-made ones at room temperature for the night feeds?

Make them before you go to bed and store in the fridge, you can do that for up to 24 hours.

Microwaving is not recommended because of hot spots but if you make sure to shake well, they are less of a risk.

@NuffSaidSam that's a very good idea, I hadn't thought of those. The prescription formula is so easy to make as you literally just pop it straight into cooked boiled water. I've got used to not even getting out of bed for it. So that would be great.

Day time can I keep them in the fridge? I wasn't sure if that's recommended

In the daytime, if she's in a routine, I'd just make them up and let them cool a bit (probably 20-30 minutes before she's going to drink it). I wouldn't make and keep them in the fridge and then reheat.

If you're feeding immediately, and your baby isn't immunocompromised or under 4 weeks old, then putting powder into previously boiled water isn't that risky. It does carry a risk, and pre-making with boiling water is best, but if there was any contamination in that powder it would be a very small amount. The problem would be if the powder is contaminated AND you don't sterilise it with the hot water AND the bacteria exists in such an amount that the baby's stomach acid and immune system can't fight it off, which is more likely to happen when made-up milk is sitting around in the danger zone between 5 and 60 degrees C.

It's your choice obviously but I would probably consider doing that for some feeds for the convenience factor. Faffing around trying to get a temperature right is a pain.

Did you know, I read recently that until 2001, it was advised to make up the bottles for the day and just leave them sitting out on the counter at room temperature (up to 24 hours).

Obviously that's not ideal, and nobody advises doing that now, but the fact it was official advice until 20 years ago makes you think, it can't have been hugely dangerous because otherwise it never would have been advised at all. It must be higher risk than the current recommendation to keep in the fridge, just based on common sense, and I definitely wouldn't want to feed a bottle that had been left made up for a whole day especially in the summer, but there it is anyway.