Help!! Info needed!!!

[wobblymum]

I just gave dd a bottle feed while I was surfing on the computer and she took half then fell asleep. I carried on and then she woke up and started crying for more. I checked the time and it had been about 40 minutes so I gave her the rest thinking it would still be ok, because it was still under an hour later. Then ten minutes later it dawned on me that I'd definitely been surfing for longer than that (I thought the time was just going slowly) and I realised the PC clock was about an hour behind. So the milk was about an hour and three quarters old!

I feel like s**t for not realising before I fed her but how harmful is it? I just keep thinking that now she'll probably end up with some stomach bug or something because of me.

I think she will be completly fine, i think everyone has done that, and you really really shouldnt feel like s**t or give yourself a hard time

I think she will be completly fine, i think everyone has done that, and you really really shouldnt feel like s**t or give yourself a hard time

oops!

Don't worry wobblymum - I am sure she will be fine.

don't worry, wobblymum. This is the kind of thing I do all the time. And I'm not neglectful.

Anyway milk being out for 2 hours or so probably doesn't mean anything bad. It'll strengthen her up! (really. well, depending on how old she is.)

Was it in the fridge in the intervening time? If so no worries at all, if not then - oh, maybe 1% worry? But even if she does catch a bug, it'll be one of those things. We all forget things sometimes.

I really wouldn't worry. What they tell us is to be absolutely right. It was only an hour or so not overnight, you didn't reheat it which you are not supposed to do (but I did on numerous occassions and left feeds for over an hour if they didn't drink them). At the absolute worst she will just chuck that bottle up and then be fine, but if it has been more than 10 minutes just relax.

My friend who was a midwife, used to make up all of her bottles in the morning and then leave them on the table all day. Her kids never came to any harm although I was like "mmmm I don't know!!"

wobblymum, if the bottle was sterilised then absolutely nothing will happen to her, even in this heat. there will be so few (if any) bugs in there that it would have to be out MUCH longer than that for them to multiply to the numbers needed to be harmful. Honestly, don't worry!!!

Thanks everyone, just wasn't sure how strict the 1 hour rule was. DD seems fine, except she's still grizzling so might have to make ANOTHER feed if I can't calm her down. She seems to pick a time each day when she won't take the whole feed at one go, she'll just keep snacking for about 3 hours then switch back to normal!!

lucy123 - she's 7 weeks old and the milk wasn't in the fridge, it was just next to me.

runragged - it's been nearly 20 mins now so hopefully everything's fine. I wouldn't like to try the leaving bottles all day thing though, would scare me mental!!!

Thanks for the help - I have GOT to stop stressing! This is what happens when you don't keep enough chocolate and/or biscuits in the house!!

princesspeahead - posts crossed! The bottle was sterilised and it's not all that hot in the room (just everywhere else in the house!). So hopefully everything's fine!!! Thanks!

wobbleymum, top of shopping list for tomorrow - "Lots of chocolate!!" Honestly babies are really resilient and its quite difficult to poison one (!) because their tummies are so sensitive they just chuck anything that they aren't sure of!

Oh, it's fine! All those recommendations include a huge margin for error.

WM - I used to be fanatic with dd1's bottles, till I realised her extremely experienced childminder was INCREDIBLY laid-back about it, and would cheerily leave bottles around, and possibly even re-heat (I couldn't bear to investigate too closely, I admit). No harm whatsoever to dd1 or to any of the very many other children who have been to same childminder. Chill, honey (you, not bottles!). xxxxx

Wobblymum, when my dd was about the same age, I got up in the night to feed her (half asleep) and I hadn't taken the bottle down after her 10pm feed. Of course I put down the new one and picked up the old, fed her half of it and realised it had been out for 6 hours! I got straight on the phone to NHS direct and then called the milk manufacturer's helpline in the morning.

They both said not to worry (though I sat up all night waiting for Exorcist style vomiting and the rush to A&E!) in fact the milk people said that essentially they put that on there to cover themselves and the lady said that she used to leave her dd's milk out for hours sometimes.

My nanny is also much more relaxed than me about it, I think your dd will be fine! It's an awful feeling when you do something like that isn't it?

Thanks - I've just got to stop obsessing about her bottles!!! Keep reminding myself that if babies really were all that fragile they wouldn't last long.

runragged - bought lots of chocolate......and then ate it all!!! So still got no chocolate in house and keep thinking I should get the exercise video out. Or I can just forget about it for another month!! And as for the chucking, know all about that!! DD seems to enjoy chucking up the last feed before bed so that she makes herself hungry again and I spend even longer with her before I can sleep!!! Never mind!