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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be annoyed when people describe making up bottles as "faffing around"

140 replies

shuffle · 21/01/2009 02:54

It takes 5 mins! You have to follow similar process when expressing (never referred to as faffing around).

OP posts:
MauriceDancer · 21/01/2009 15:04

it would also be safe, bub.

georgimama · 21/01/2009 15:05

My SIL is Australia is mixed feeding and apparently non one sterlises there. They just don't do it.

But on the rare occasions I did give DS either expressed milk in a bottle or formula, I did find it a faff, principally because I slavishly followed the "correct" procedure and also because it was unfamilar to me as I was BFing.

MauriceDancer · 21/01/2009 15:08

i don't sterilise, i use the dishwasher. but it's still a faff compared to a good bfing baby.

Bubbaluv · 21/01/2009 15:08

I agree Maurice - no question there.
It's not 5 mins a day though! You can FF with minimal faff, but it is a safety compromise - one that it seems most people are happy to make.

MauriceDancer · 21/01/2009 15:12

tbh only because they don't know that if their child were to get the bug that can reside in the milk powder they stand a 50% chance of dying. not a big chance of getting the bug... but once they've got it, half of them are dead.

georgimama · 21/01/2009 15:16

What bug?

50% chance of dying? Are you serious?

MauriceDancer · 21/01/2009 15:20

yep, it's called e salazakii (or something like that), it's because the powder isn't sterile. that's why the feeds have to be made up at 70degs, to kill it. now, not all boxes have it, presumably, and not all kids will be affected etc etc so it is a small chance... but if they are affected there's a 50% fatality rate. some kids in france and belgium died, that's why they changed the pack instructions. (i mean, i don't boil the kettle and wait half an hour etc, but i do make sure when the powder hits the water it does so at over 70degs).

trixymalixy · 21/01/2009 15:46

Making up and sterilising bottles is a total faff.

Expressing is soooooo much more of a faff, all those fiddly little components to clean are a nightmare.

Bfing before 6 months is a bit of a faff too trying to get the latch right, but bfing after 6 months is not a faff at all. It's so much easier to be sitting at the couch and whip one out and your DC sorts themselves out rather than standing at a sink cleaning bottles or waiting for the kettle to boil.

fruitful · 21/01/2009 15:53

Try expressing and tubefeeding. Now that's a faff.

I didn't find it that bad (bottlefeeding) but I am enjoying my recent liberation from it.

Anyone want some bottles?

foxytocin · 21/01/2009 16:04

only read OP:

DD is nearly 4 months old. Fully bf.

Haven't expressed yet. Expressing is only necessary if you ahve a poorly baby who can't suck.

MilaMae · 21/01/2009 16:21

I found making up bottles way less faff than bfeeding my twins,dp and I got it down to minutes.By the time they were weaned we could do it in our sleep

Bfeeding all of my 3 was a nightmare. With the twins I was practically glued to the sofa, once on formula I suddenly had hours more time in the day. It was quite liberating actually

jasper · 21/01/2009 16:27

YANBU that used to bug me too !

Plenty of reasons to breastfeed but "to avoid faffing around with bottles " was never one I understood.

tittybangbang · 21/01/2009 16:30

The recommendations on making up feeds correctly are most important for preterm babies, babies who are immune compromised and new babies under 6 weeks, who are particularly vulnerable. I think it's quite worrying that so few people are clear about the 'hows' and the 'whys' of this.

I also suspect that we really don't know the full extent of the risks. My understanding is that e-sakazakii is linked with meningitis and with necrotising enterocolitis, also that it has been found in up to 14% of formula batches. I've been wondering - if it's so common, how we can know if meningitis or NEC has been caused by it or not? Given that they can be caused by other things too?

CrushWithEyeliner · 21/01/2009 16:30

BF is a TOTAL faff especially in the early months, for many women not at all just a matter of picking up the baby and popping on the breast

foxytocin · 21/01/2009 16:46

someone on mn found a maggot in a tin of formula this week.

psychomum5 · 21/01/2009 16:52

t'was faffing around to me.

BF all mine, and then DC5 was found to be allergic to so much that when I adapted my diet, he stopped thriving, so I ended up bottle feeding, and my goodness it was a shock.

but then, because of his allergies he was on special formula, and because he also had GORD he needed lots of meds, so I had to make bottles as he had them......no making up in advance for me, as the milk went too thick to use.

so yes, it was faffing around!

wastingmyeducation · 21/01/2009 17:03

jasper it's something to say that can't be taken as a criticism.

harpsichordcarrier · 21/01/2009 17:09

blimey if it isn't a faff to make up bottles I don't know what is
all that heating up and cooling down and sterilising.
faffarama

MilaMae · 21/01/2009 17:13

Collectively my dc have eatenmaggots,snails,worms,woodlice,poo......all still around to tell the tail

FfreckleFface · 21/01/2009 17:38

it's all faff though. Little ff gained weight veeery slowly, and had reflux, so, because I am contrary determined to ebf and prove hv wrong I was stuck with the most supremely faffy routine ever.

Make up gaviscon, in sterilized bottle, feed to baby, then bf baby (usually for at least an hour), THEN express from each boob, decant into sterilized bottle, and give that to the baby. 9 times a farking day. For six months.

I'm glad I did it though, but gratefully appreciate just flopping a boob out, now it has been decided that she is just small, and no amount of expressing, topping up, of force feeding will change it!

ithinkimtallandblonde · 21/01/2009 17:42

BF i would consider the least faffing but faffing none the less.

Expressing was shockingly faffy espescially when i ended up pouring gallons of milk away as the stuff wasn't sterilised only to find out later it really didn't matter.

FF what a bloody nightmare powder everywhere, dh talking to me when measuring scoops and having to start again as i couldn't remembered how many i'd put in.

mushing babyfood, horribly bloody faffy.
Car seats and babygroes all faff faff faff.

Having children, what a bloody nightmare.

ithinkimtallandblonde · 21/01/2009 17:46

Freckleface i had a similar experience with dd the hv reduced me to tears over bf on more than 1 occasion over BF. It seems i just give birth to humoungus babies who turn into little dots as a result only saw HV twice since ds was born when they called around.

NormaJeanBaker · 21/01/2009 17:56

I was looking after my Mum who had cancer and Alzheimer's at the same time as struggling to breastfeed my first two. Not all the time but when I was with Mum I was changing her etc and helping her to eat etc etc. Or out combing the streets with the police when she went missing or going to hospital appointments with her etc. The breastfeeding didn't work out for long in the end - just didn't have the time to look everyone I loved in the way I might have done if my Mum had been healthy. If it hadn't been for formula I'd have gone mad. In my circumstances the rhythm of making up the bottles, which didn't take much time, was one of the least faffy things I've ever done. It's all relative I guess.

Nantucket · 21/01/2009 18:01

I have never made up a bottle in my life either.

That was always Dh's job.

So no faff.

NormaJeanBaker · 21/01/2009 18:12

Dh does find it a faff - mainly because he forgets and suddenly it's midnight and no bottles done.

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