FFers please tell me your tips and advice!

[MorrisZapp]

My DS is ten weeks old and was breast fed up til now. We're weaning him over to a bottle of formula as I want to stop BF.

I suppose I just want to ask what all your handy hints are, especially for minimising kitchen faff for night feeds? Also, how does one FF when out and about?

How exacting are you with sterilising?

Lastly, does anybody know roughly how often and how much (in MLs) I might expect a pretty hefty ten weeker to be drinking?

OP - I realise that I'd not really addressed your OP.

There's not much info out there about formula feeding is there!

How often and how much

There is some info on formula packs about volume of milk depending on a baby's weight.

This UNICEF leaflet is realy good and explains all about how to formula feed.

Sterilising

1. Sterilising the bottles and teats:

You'll be aware of the recommendations to sterilize. This is to mitigate against the risk that you bottles and teats are not scrupulously cleaned of milk and milk powder.
Any residue left is the perfect breeding groud for bacteria. Young babies have undeveloped immune systems. I did not feel confident that my cleaning would be 100% and felt more comfortable sterilizing the bottles and teats.

Whilst I agree that for older babies and children the overuse of antibacterial wipes/sprays etc is probably not a good thing I don't see how this translates to a young FF baby.

The way I saw it - if my DS had been BFing he would not have been coming into contact with teats/bottles/milk bacteria - in fact he'd have been getting protection against bacteria via anti-bodies etc. Therefore by sterilising and eliminating bacteria I was certainly not disadvantaging him somehow.

1. Sterilising the formula powder.

Lots of people are not aware that formula powder is not sterile - i.e. harmful bacteria have been found in cans of formula powder. This is why the guidelines state to make bottles up with water which is 70 degrees C.

The reason the packets say boil kettle and wait 30 minutes is because on average then the water will be 70 degrees. The packets should mention the 70 degrees but some companies refuse to comply with this! Updated food standard agency guidance points oout that in most kettles 1 litre of water needs to be boiled and left for 30 mins for it to be 70 degrees.

Minimising kitchen faff/feeds out and about.

Formula in cartons is sterile as it has been heat treated so that's an option for overnight and out and about. However it is more expensive and some babies don't like it as much as powdered formula.

Contrary to popular belief there are some safe ways of making formula in advance - so you could have a bottle made in the fridge for night feeds ready to pop into a jug of hot water to warm up. Or you could keep a flask of water at 70 degrees so you're not waiting 30 minutes for the water to cool.

Some useful leaflets on formula preparation:

Dept of Health leaflet.

WHO leaflet

Very good Irish leaflet - click on guidance note 22

I never understand why they use 1 litre as a guideline. If you're supposed to make up one bottle at a time, surely it's very inefficient to boil an entire litre of water?

Lolling at alpinepony How do you know tab that she wasn't referring to me as the lunatic fringe? What a massive leap to make.

And yes, formula doesn't dissolve properly in hot water. It goes lumpy and gives DS2 green and yellow poo's all mixed!

BTW your BMA chat is becoming somewhat derailed. How on earth will the hon Mike Brady be able to work out what to answer?

FunnysInTheGarden - I have no idea who Alpine was referring to. I take issue with her posting that comment - to whomever it is directed. It is inflammatory and obtuse (obtuse as in we don't know what the point is).

BTW it's not "my BMA chat". I suggested that MN invite Mike Brady from Baby Milk Action to do a webchat. Many people posted in support.

Actually what MN have done is what they call a Q&A session. If you look at the OP of that thread MN are sending Qs though to Mike and will post up answers. These Qs needed to be posted by Friday midday I think it was.

Bertie - the reason they talk about 1 litre is purely because most people don't have kitchen thermometers.

The guidelines state 70 degrees C. It so happens that 1 litre of water boiled in a standard kettle and left for 30 minutes will be about 70 degrees. Sadly most formula packets fail to mention the 70 degrees and also don't explain it.

If people have their own thermometer then they could work out a smaller volume of water left for a shorter amount of time.

But tab it is your BMA chat, as I recall you were thrilled that BMA was coming in for a Q&A. You requested and organised it. In what way is it not yours?

Anyhoo, back to the point, formula made with hot water makes the milk go lumpy and is difficult to digest for a baby.

I am thrilled!

I requested it!

But I didn't organise it!

I detected a sense of "glee" from you that "my" webchat had been "derailed"?

All the questions and comments are very interesting to me and I am sure they will be interesting to Mike Brady and Baby Milk Action.