Making up bottles of formula in advance

[daisystone]

Hopefully someone can help with this.

I have been using the ready made cartons of SMA but as we are going through them like nobody's business I have just bought a tub of the powdered SMA.

It says on the tub to prepare each bottle as you need it, but as you have to boil water and then leave for half an hour before making the bottle, this seems less than ideal. Cannot imagine doing that in the middle of the night!

Can I make up a batch of bottles during the day and then stick them in the fridge to be re-heated as necessary throughout the evening and night?

To remain within the guidelines, I used to mix the whole amount of formula with 1/4 water above 70 degrees, then top up with cooled boiled water.

it's not recommended to do it that way
how old is your baby?

how about using the ready made in the night and then making htem up fresh in the day?

there have been loads of threads on this complete with how to make up a bottle safely when out and about etc, maybe do a search? should be some useful advice

She is two weeks old.

i would stick to the guidelines and /or ready made

newborns can get very poorly if the milk is not made up correctly.... have a search for diffrent threads on this topic for help

Will do, thanks. I think I will have to do ready made at night as can't face the thought of waiting around for water to boil and then cool. I am like a zombie in the middle of the night as it is!

You can make several bottles up with boiled water cooled for 30 minutes, then cool the bottles quickly and store them in the back of the fridge. Then you just need to reheat them as needed.

How would you cool the bottles quickly? Surely putting them in the fridge cools them quickly?

Run them under a cold tap or stick them into a bowl of ice water.

Ok. Why do you need to do that?
how long would you stick them in water for?

Just til they're cool. I always thought it was a bad idea to put hot food in the fridge because it raises the temperature in there? Plus the longer you have warm milk hanging around the more opportunity there is for bacteria to grow.

you are probably right about teh bacteria

Boiled water stored in a thermos flask in the bedroom may help with making up nighttime bottles fresh. Or use premade cartons overnight and make up as you go during the day.

My method takes 3 minutes.

tethers -I'm sure you know this, but it's not clear from your post, so just to be certain OP knows what you mean: it's important that the cooled boiled water is measured out exactly and stored in a sterile container. If you just used boiling water, added powder and then made that bottle up to a set volume by pouring in cooled boiled water then you would end up with the wrong concentration of formula because adding the powder changes the volume IYSWIM?

Good point, Here: I pre measure the volume- so 2oz of water above 70 deg, add measured powder, top up with, the remainder of water (say 5oz), rather than to 7oz.

I should have made that clear, sorry.

Cooled boiled water in container in fridge.

Last thing at night fill and boil kettle
In morning fill all bottles for day and put in fridge. Including ones for in night!
Use a thermos in night or dash down for microwave! Shake a lot for hotspots.
Get Tommee Tippee bottles with powder containers or the milk tub from Mothercare and measure out milk in morning
As Ramsey would say DONE

Remember the water has to be hot (70c) when you mix the powder in though MayDayChild.

I have never put powder in hot water and have never met a mother that does!?!?! What have I missed?

The milk powder isn't sterile, it can contain bacteria that can cause illnesses in babies. So feeds need to be made up with 70 degree water to kill any bacteria present - the instructions on the carton say to boil water and let it cool for 30 minutes as this brings it to 70 degrees.

Just wanted to agree with MoonUnitAlpha- it is really important that the powder is added to hot (70 degree) water and not cool water, even if the water has been boiled before hand.

Would love to do a straw poll on mumsnet to see how many people actually do this.
I'm not trying to be controversial, I just can't believe anyone would actually do this.

Everyone I know who has a baby the same age as mine (4 months) makes feeds up hot.

In my opinion it's a bit like avoiding brie in pregnancy, or avoiding honey for babies - the risk of listeria or infant botulism is quite low, but the consequences can be serious. I wouldn't take the risk.

We used to do it your way MayDayChild when mine were small (16+ years ago) but the guidelines changed and they are now much more specific about the temperature.

I've never known anyone who makes up bottles with cold water! DD2 was ebf til about 7 months - then I used tethers method - i.e. use some hot water to dissolve the formula and then topped up with cold water.