To find this unhygienic?

[TeenyTinyToria]

Recently, I've seen a number of mothers go into public toilets, fill up a baby's bottle with hot water from the sink, add milk powder, and feed the baby. AIB totally U to find this disgusting and unhygienic, and think there must surely be a better alternative?

Mumdrivenmad, that all sounds good but goes against current advice

You weren't using hot enough water to kill any of the bugs in the powder. Its great that you sterilsed the bottle and everything else, but the main component, ie the milk powder wasn't sterile. I am very (honest!) pleased that your baby was ok but you could be as sterile crzy as you like. The formula isn't. Hence the current guildelines

quite dark here too!!

Ok the current advice on formula probably is hysterical arse-covering on behalf of formula manufacturers (given the vast number of FF babies who didn't die or explode or shit through the eye of a needle due to their mothers making up a day's worth of bottles and sticking them in the fridge or pouring the boiled water into a sterile jug and leaving it to cool).

But given that for decades most people have known that drinking the water from the hot tap is inadvisable for adults, this is really pretty grim. But could well be a reaction to the sort of hysterical arse-covering/woman-hating advice with which PG woman and new mums are so constantly clobbered with, just like the effect of the more witless anti-drug campaigns (Just Say No! One joint will turn you into a smackhead) had the effect of making some people believe that, because the hysteria around cannibis was just that, the dangers of heroin and crack were exaggeratd as well.

how can all this have changed so much in the 9 years since my youngest had a bottle.
what a pita ...

agree with boiling kettle, only the once, letting it cool, making up bottles, into the fridge.
reheat in jug of boiled water, preferrably. dangerous in microwave.

carry round in coolbag, i didnt have one.

but no probs.
not argueing, just wondering??

i recollect seeing people taking milk from hot taps too now i come to think of it.

Valpollicella, my children are 9,9 and 4 so I did not get that advice back then, but thanks for pointing that out.

I saw a girl fill up a bottle in the Thistle Center, and scoop from a huge tin of formula. Must be a pita carrying that thing around.

Still tring to find the humour in my typo MDM

RDD...yeah I'm all of the let them lick the pram wheels type guard, but when it comes to a bug that has actually killed children...well. I'd err on the side of caution

Ooh didn't know advice had changed since I used bottles 6 years ago.

I used to make them all up for the next day the night before with boiling water and formula then stick them in the fridge and warm them as needed. So I'm not supposed to do that now?

I was of course referring to MY typo

Actually according to WHO guidelines you can make up formula in a jug and keep it in the fridge. DOH say you can't.

I you look hard enough you can find the evidence to suit almost any opinion. There's enough of it saying different things... although none says to use water from the hot tap.

Oh and not once did any of my kids have a stomach bug as young babies...

Eyesdown, this is where I got caught out as DS was born just as the guidelines changed!

App you arent supposed to re heat as any residual bugs that may have been left over in the milk, which wouldn;t have been too many to make them ill, would still be residual in that bottle

Therefore heating them (after having made them for all day) and then feeding them to the baby is a No=NO

Because there may be some residual bugs, and reheating would mean a mssive activation of them...

Worrying

To be fair, human immune systems are tougher than you think. Or we would be extinct by now. It's a wonder, for instance, that most of us who were kids in the 70s didn't expire of collywobbles on our daily diet of full-fat milk that had been sitting in a crate in a warm classroom for 3 hours.

(Ever considered that this might have been one explanation for the success of Margaret Thatcher? That a whole generation of people just old enough to vote in 79 actually loved her for stopping the godawful school millk they'd been retching over for years?)

Eyesdown
agree with boiling kettle, only the once, letting it cool, making up bottles, into the fridge.
reheat in jug of boiled water, preferrably. dangerous in microwave.

And to anyone other...

When you made up fomula like this you are potentially not killing the bacteria I mentioned earlier. I am going to look for some links

If you make up your bottle as above, you

a) haven't killed the bacteria in the unsterile powder - it needs to be above 70c. Bacteria will breed if added to tepid water. re heating is not a guarantee thos bugs are killed

b)made it up and let it cool down -I hope you are doing this quickly (ie under running water etc). As otheriwse that bottle is multiplying bacteria. And the it gets heated....

I didnt realise there was so much contraversy surrounding making up formula

You boil the kettle only once, you leave it to cool for no more than half hour, poor into clean/sterilised bottle and you put the correct amount of formula in. Shake, check temp, run under cold tap if needed and serve...

or

You do above (without serving), then store it in fridge up to 24 hrs no longer, then you can reheat in microwave (yes you can), shake and test temp with temp food probe has to be above 70'C, then you allow to cool by placing in cool water. Then serve...Never reheat twice, never leave made up formula out for over two hours...I never left is more than an hour.

Boiling water should never be put into bottles that arent BPA free - risk of chemicals dispersing is high. Throw scratched bottles away. Dont use teats for more than 3 months.

For those dumb ppl who use tap water straight from the tap- Never use tap water straight from the tap!!!!

I was gobsmacked teeny when I read your thread...its just sickening literally.

Bottles can be sterilised up to 6 months of age - some mums dont bother at all - yuk - or even better up to 12 months.

You will find all info here at FSA think teeny you should make some posters and stick them up in the public loo's

Sorry Chegirl, the advice has definately changed! You definately shouldn't store formula as there is no guarantee that you 'didn't kill off the bugs' first time with the making of the bottle.

Reheating it (appreciate it will have bbben refridge) could potentially indrease the bacterial load in that bottle of milk

Sorry!

SGB..I king of agree with the ass covering....But this is one of my random ones that I feel people need to know about, even if it is unlikely

I loved the milk!! it was kept outside in the shade and we had straws plus a biscuit!!!!

what about breast milk?...I stored mine in the fridge and freezer..formula I tended to make as needed

Aside from whether it is does any harm to make up your formula in advance, lets face it, we have all done it and baby came to no harm....
Why would anybody think it's ok to drink water from the hot tap? You would think that they would at least go to a cafe and ask for boiling water out of the tea urn and then add the powder.
Especially in a public toilet where the place is often minging dirty anyway.
I saw a woman doing the same thing last week at motorway services, washing old milk down the sink, rinsing bottle under hot tap and then filling with hot water before adding powder. There was a cafe with free baby facilities ffs, including microwaves/bottle warmers the lot
at the whole thing

...once again I say nasty

I was just about to say - well you can store breastmilk in the fridge... Val you mihgt wanna see here you can store formula in fridge. When I was a nursery nurse a couple of yrs ago these were the guidelines... we had to put milk from baby bag straight in fridge, and heat in microwave, shake and test with probe to be over 70'C then cool under tap.

sorry 'might'.

Humpty - uegh!! how hard is it to ask the cafe staff to put some boiling water in bottle for you...they arent allowed to heat it up in microwave anymore, due to safety standards but can give you boiling water in a jug to do it yourself.

chellesgirl the advise has changed, you are supposed to make each bottle fresh when you need it.
Whether or not we agree it is necessary, that is the current advise/guidelines.
Also, you are not supposed to heat milk in the microwave. Fair enough you understand to shake it, but clearly some people (like the ones the op saw in the public toilets) have no bloody idea what they are doing... and their kids are probably the ones ended up burnt from reheating in microwave too!!!

"Ideally, you should make up formula milk freshly for each feed just before feeding. This is because using formula milk that has been stored may increase the chance of your baby becoming ill. When you are going out, you can put boiling water in a flask and make up fresh formula milk when you need it. If you need to take a made-up feed with you, make it up in the morning, cool as above, then put it in the fridge for at least one hour before putting in a cool bag with a frozen ice brick. Feeds stored in a cool bag should be used within four hours.

You should do the same if you need to take a made-up feed to a nursery or childminder ? when you get there, take the feed out of the cool bag and put it straight in the fridge. Try to make sure the made-up feed is used on the same day you take it in, because it isn?t ideal to store feeds, especially for young babies. You should never store feeds for more than 24 hours.

Remember, it?s always safer to make up a fresh feed whenever possible. You could also use a ready-to-feed liquid formula."
Food standard agency

whats changed - its thier current guidelines

see here