Can someone please talk to me about making up formula

[splatt]

At 6 weeks DD has very poor weight gain due to a mixture of posterior tongue and poor supply and a viscious circle. Have been advised to top up all day time feed with formula. However, as a feed takes about an hour as it is I think it's going to be increasingly tricky and DH and I have essentially decided to slowly switch to formula.

This has been very hard thought, emotional and heartrenching for me so please I DO NOT NEED anyone telling me to persevere, that breast is best and that everyone can and should breast feed. I have tried, I really really have.

What I do need is someone to enlighten me as to how they go about making up formula feeds when out and at night. The carton says boil kettle, wait 30 mins, make feed, cool and give immediately. So how do you go out for the day? And in the night what do you do with screaming baby while you wait half an hour for the water to cool to 70 degrees. All input greatly appreciated. I never thought I'd be in this situation, my close friends have all breast feed to at least 6 months so can't advise.

I saw the best ever idea this week. Did require more equipment. Boil kettle and fill flask and small bottles with 4oz which us allowed to cool. When needs pour water onto bottle out of flask, add powder and mix then add cooled boiled from other bottle. Formula made with hot water so germs killed but cooled boiled means ready to drink straight away. Amazing!

I used to make up a 7oz feed by filling bottles with 5oz boiling water at the start of the day, which then cooled down (ought to have been in fridge, i see now, but weren't) and then when he wanted one, I topped it up with 2oz boiling water (into the now-cold boiled water) and then put the powder in.

Obviously that falls foul of the 70degrees thing, but if you added the powder to the boiling water, i.e. put the seven scoops of formula into the 5oz boiling water and then when it was cold and when you needed it, you add 2oz boiling water, to bring it up to right temperature would that work? My child hated room-temp feeds and wanted them URGENTLY so I ended up with this set-up.

I expect everyone will say my new brainwave is not accurate enough for amount of water-formula, but I think I might try it next time round...!

belinda31, when i want to make a bottle up for immediate use i do it the reverse way. I put the powder into the bottle, add 2/3rd of the required HOT water, stir to make sure all the powder is dissolved then add 1/3 cold water. The result is generally a bottle ready to drink straight away. the hot water/cold water ratio is adjustable depending on your babies taste. What matters is the powder is dissolved in suitably hot water.

TheSugarPlumFairy this only works if you are measuring the water out in a container other than the bottle with the powder in it.

If you add the water to the bottle with the powder already in it you will not be able to accurately measure the correct amount of water due to fluid displacement.

e.g. 7 scoops of powder + 7oz of water gives nearly 8oz of formula. If you are only filling to the 7oz line then you will not have the correct fluid balance and risk putting strain of babies kidneys.

mousema yes, sorry i thought that was a given.

i was going to ask the same question about formula.

boil kettle and leave for 30mins
fill bottle to amount needed and add powder
making up a few, can you cool and leave in fridge?

just checking :)

boil kettle, make a few straight away, plunge the bottle into cold water then keep in the fridge ready for use. 30secs in micro makes it warm enough. worked fine for my two and nieces and nephews.

ok thanks homeagainhomeagain

So many different ideas, and I bet none of your babys have suffered!

I was speaking to a friend yesterday who's DD is 10 months. EBF to 6 months then formula when she went to nursery. Nursery insisted that bottles were either pre made or the water was in the bottle and therefore cool and the formula was measured to put in it. Apparently they weren't allowed to measure the hot water themselves in case they got it wrong and therefore incorrect concentration (health and safety hey!)

The point is babies across the country in nursery either get milk made up and stored for more that 2 hours OR mixed with cold water. There has been no great outbreak of illness in these babies. Clearly as much as possible I will make it up as per the guidelines but am not going to let myself get toooooooooo stressed about the few when I am out.

I believe there is a mumsnetter whose ds got salmonella from an incorrectly prepared bottle quite recently? And I think someone posted about babies in Belgium who contracted enterobacter (sp?) from formula too.

got another question.mousesma said e.g 7oz of water plus 7 scoops of formula would make up 8 oz formula.if this is wrong then how would you make up a 7oz bottle then?
on my formula carton it says 200ml water (7oz) and 7 scoops if thats what they advise then that must be right?

babyrose - see other thread. It's always one scoop of powder per ounce of water.

babyrose it is confusing isn't it, although the fully mixed bottle is nearer 8oz you would still call it a 7oz bottle.

I used to make up six to eight bottles at a time and then heat them in the microwave. (This was for twins though) Take the lid off so they don't explode. If I was out I had a flask and a largish container to put bottles in to warm up. But most places will do it for you anyway.

yeah, especially when you have been use to breast feeding for the past 6 mnths!

OK got a bit more time to post now.

splatt your BF story is very similar to mine. You might like to read of others who wanted to BF but who had to move over to FF here.

Responding to your OP

"The carton says boil kettle, wait 30 mins, make feed, cool and give immediately. So how do you go out for the day? And in the night what do you do with screaming baby while you wait half an hour for the water to cool to 70 degrees."

The information on the packaging is sadly crap. .

The reason for the boil the kettle and wait 30 minutes is so that you are using water which is 70 degrees.

Of course you have to cool the bottle and test the temperature on your arm before feeding

This is the World Health Organisation guidelines which have been adopted in the UK.

Formula powder is not sterile and has been shown to contain nasty bacteria which can cause severe and fatal illness.

Of course this is rare, however the risk is higher for younger babies and especially prem and immune compromised babies.

Experiments have shown that water which is 70 degrees will kill bacteria but won't destroy nutrients in the milk.

Please note that you should not use boiling water or water which is hotter than 70 degrees.

In order to get water which is 70 degrees (if you have no thermometer) then 1 litre of water boiled and cooled for 30 mins in a normal kettle will be just over 70 degrees.

Of course you cannot predict accurately when your baby needs a feed.

So the first thing to note is that a feed should be used within 2 hours - so there is a little lee way to start with.

Alternatives for out and about and night time are cartons or flasks of milk or - making in advance.

Yes part of the guidelines show how to safely make in advance. This is much much safer than making with cool water.

Seethis leaflet which I linked to above.

Please can you consider taking this up with your HV - I am afraid she is giving out dreadful advice. The guidelines are not "in constant flux" they have been the same now for about 4 years.

NikkiTwinkle - you didn't follow the guidelines - I am never sure why people who did not follow the guidelines post on these thread and do not disclose this fact? (unless you don't realise what the guidelines are?)

babyrose and others who are not sure - pleae please read the leaflets I linked to in my first post. Reading this thread is no substitute for carefully reading all the guidelines and all the alternatives.

splatt - I would like to take exception to

"So many different ideas, and I bet none of your babys have suffered!"

These risks are low but very very serious - therefore we are statistically unlikely to have someone here on this thread/section/MN whose baby has had a problem.

Are you aware that FF babies have far higher instances of D&V? Have a look at this current MN thread about salmonella in babies.