Idiots guide to formula feeding please

[Hannispan]

Hi,
I was wondering if someone could give me an idiots guide to formula feeding as I am slowly weaning my 8 month old onto one bottle a day but am finding expressing really hard. My 2 year old refused bottles point blank so I never used formula with her - I have honestly never bottle fed a baby! I've looked at the label on the side of the tins in the supermarket but I'm not sure what formula an 8 month old need? or how much?
She is starting at a childminders hence the need for a bottle so do I send a tin of milk? Or bottles ready prepared? Whats the best way to bottle feed an 8 month old?
thanks in advance

Buy ready made cartons.

[lazy mother emoticon]

Practicality-wise:

You will need to experiment a bit with different formulas to find one that suits. I've always recommended Aptamil as a first option, or Hipp Organic, to mothers as a maternity nanny.

You can get nifty little tubs where you pre-measure the amount of formual required and send it to the CM. Ready prepped bottles aren't recommended for hygiene purposes and sending a tin isn't that practical!

The best way to bottle feed an 8 month old is to get someone else to offer the bottle. Babies aren't stupid - they know you have breastmilk - but they don't understand your reasons. If you have someone who clearly doesn't have breastmilk on tap to offer the bottle then you're one battle down. 2 common schools of thought - I won't comment one way or the other - about when to give them the bottle: do it at a time when the baby is hungry but not starving, relaxed and just give a small amount each feed to start but baby might not be interested at all, ever, or go cold-turkey and wait until the baby is too hungry not to take the bottle.

I second the ready made cartons for just one feed a day. You'd end up throwing away a lot of powder on one feed a day as tins can only be open for four weeks so would prob be cheaper anyway.
I would send a carton and pre sterilised bottle a day for them to use.
Most ready made cartons come in 7oz servings which should be fine for an 8 monther. SMA comes in 9 oz servings.
As for which one - trial and error a bit. Most people try Aptamil first. Other companies doing ready made are SMA, Cow and Gate and Hipp Organic.

For an 8 month baby, you need 3 bottles of 7oz a day. So if your DD is only having the lunchtime one at the CM, then I agree the ready made is a good idea. (Aptamil and Hipp both come in 7oz packets). Send a bottle (pre-sterlised unless they have sterilisers there - and if they are using cold water steriliser like Milton, check at home first that your DD will drink from a bottle that's got that Milton taste, not all will.)

Don't send ready prepared bottles as each bottle has to be drunk or thrown in 1 hour.

I'm not an HCP btw - I just get a lot of info from them. Plus I've rarely had a baby that reacted badly to Aptamil and it's the formula I recommended switching to if one of the others wasn't working so personal experience makes me recommend that over SMA or C&G.

Powder formula is also more complicated than ready-made to prepare safely. It isn't sterile so needs to be made with water of at least 70C (but preferably not boiling), which means boiling 1L of water in a kettle and then leaving it for 30 minutes before making up formula. Lots of faff for one bottle a day!

Could you express?

I find expressing painful - i've tried different pumps

i hadn't hears of cartons and that seems like a perfect soloution - thanks