Hopelessly confused about how I am meant to make up bottles of formula for a previously demand fed ebf baby

[caroline0]

I have been ebf my 15wk DD but she was weighed today and is still failing to put on much weight so have been told I need to either top up or swap to forumla. I am just getting really confused about how to make up the bottles as I have been demand feeding my DS and there is no way she will wait 30mins for boiled water to cool down!

I know I am meant to make up formula for each feed but how do you other Mums actually practically do this? Do you make your babies wait for the 30 mins or are there some tricks to the trade? And what about when you are out of the house?

Also, the steriliser i have can do 6 bottles at once, but then presumably once I take the first one out, the others aren't then sterile!! Will the other bottles be ok to keep if I put the lids on straight away. Otherwise seems a bit daft having a steriliser which can do 6 bottles at once!

Thanks, and sorry for the ridiculously daft questions.

carolineO I'd give the NCT Helpline a call, they should be able to give you the information you need on the formula.

OK. First of all, do you want to give up bf or are being pushed into it by HV?

Is it reaaly a situation of either/or?

Could you not bf and top up with either expressed milk or formula? Or work with a bfc to increase your baby's milk intake?

Is your baby genuinely failing to thrive or is she just naturally small?

FWIW, I mixed fed DS2 and made up a bottle about an hour before I gave it to him following instructions. If he was hungry before giving him the bottle, I would bf him!

When you are out and about I would use those little cartons.

BUT, I'm sure someone knowledgeable will be along to give you proper advice. I just can;'t believe that you have to give up bf now when you have reached 15 weeks.

I boiled fresh water and allowed to cool for 30mins. I then put water in flask and made up formula on demand. I replaced water in flask every 6 hours.

The made up bottle needs to be disgarded after 2 hours if not finished (although i ditched mine after 1 hour)

So when out and about you can pre make and it will be okay for 2 hours, or you can take a portable flask and make fresh, or you can take cartons.

My sterliliser took 6 bottles and resterlised every so often so all bottles okay when needed.

Hope that helps

With the new guidance to use water at 70 degrees to make the formula, we make top-ups by mixing the powder with freshly boiled water, we then stick bottle in the fridge in a bowl of cold water and it's usually drinkable in about 10 minutes (warm but not hot).

As above, if she's ravenous in the meantime I bf her.

Out and about if we need a top up (i.e. if we're going out for the evening as that's when she has them) then we make it in advance if we've got a 2 hour window, or make it, chill it and put it in the cold-bag section of the change bag to rewarm later. (Her night time bottles are made at our bed time and sit in the fridge til needed too.)

I'm thinking along the same lines as tryharder.

Did your HV give any other suggestions or was it just a knee jerk "you have to give formula" reaction?

Very rarely is formula the only answer. One of the helplines would certainly be able to chat through it with you.

Thanks all for your replies, this is really helpful.

JJJ - I hadn't even thought of phoning a line - seems baby brain is alive and kicking here.

Tryharder / Mawbroon - Thanks for your concern. I've really tried to increase my supply in all manner of ways and have used a really lovely lactation consultant but apart from when I sit around eating all day (which whilst lovely, isn't wholly practical in the long term!) I just don't seem to be able to get enough milk to properly ebf DD (she's dropped from the 75/50th to 9th centile) and I've made my peace with that now. But yes, topping up each is feed is probably how I'll go to start with and see how that goes - questions still remain though as expressing is one of my least favourite activities (grew up on a dairy farm......)

Is she losing weight caroline0, or just dropping through the centiles?

What weight was she to start with, and what is her weight now? (wondering if it could be "catch down growth?")

not sure if i picked you up wrong there, but sitting around eating all day won't affect your supply.

despite myths, eating/drinking lots does not make more or 'better' milk. it is good for you to stay well fed and not get dehydrated, but it won't change your supply.

i hope you get some good advice from the helplines. :)

Yes, hope you call someone, caroline....apart from anything else, mixed feeding is a faff, and if you don't want to/don't really need to do it, there are plenty of options to increase your baby's breastmilk intake.

Giving top ups will make your breastmilk production decrease.

Agree that eating all day makes zero difference to supply - hope no one really told you that it did :(

leaving aside the breastfeeding issues which others seem best placed to help you with, i can say that you dont need to be making the bottles up "on demand". You can premake the bottles you think you will need and store them in the fridge ready for when you do need them.

You need to make them up with 70 degrees + water and to then cool them quickly in cold water then pop them into the fridge (preferably at the back where it is coldest). When your little one is hungry just warm them up either in a tub of hot water or by pinging them in the microwave for 30 seconds (give them a good shake afterwards to even out any hotspots).

Bottles can be kept for up to 24 hours in the frige but should be discarded after 2 hours of being returned to room temperature.

I hope that helps.

leaving aside the breastfeeding issues which others seem best placed to help you with, i can say that you dont need to be making the bottles up "on demand". You can premake the bottles you think you will need and store them in the fridge ready for when you do need them.

You need to make them up with 70 degrees + water and to then cool them quickly in cold water then pop them into the fridge (preferably at the back where it is coldest). When your little one is hungry just warm them up either in a tub of hot water or by pinging them in the microwave for 30 seconds (give them a good shake afterwards to even out any hotspots).

Bottles can be kept for up to 24 hours in the frige but should be discarded after 2 hours of being returned to room temperature.

I hope that helps.

if you do decide to switch to ff, could you use the cartons of ready made milk just for the first week or so until you get more of the hang of it. this would work out to be expensive in the long run, but it might be ok for you just at the beginning. as for the steriliser - i got into a similar state of confusion and panic! if you construct the bottles and put the lids on they will be ok.

There is lots of advice about making up bottles and guidelines to follow, but there are some shortcuts that you can take that shouldn't cause any harm, but make sure you check with HV first if you want to use different methods.

With our DD, we used to make up all the bottles the night before with boiling water that had been left for 30 minutes to cool down. We then put all the bottles in the fridge until the next day.

As each bottle was required, we then heated each bottle in the microwave (starting at 30 seconds and then more if required) always making sure to thoroughly shake the bottle to remove any hotspots and test the temp before giving to her.

All bottles were used within the 24 hour guideline or discarded. Also, any unused milk was always discarded within 2 hours of the feed.

HTH

I hope not to confuse you even more/frustrate you by not answering the question, but DS did the same with his centiles over a shorter time period. No one EVER suggested formula to me, so do think about the fact that this is simply one opinion. I coped by stopping the weigh-ins (the weekly weigh ins were instigated by me, not the HV or her assistant, they were completely unconcerned...)as I could see that my DS, whilst a bit wee, was clearly healthy and alert.

It took a bit of a leap of faith for me but all worked out ok. By 26 weeks of EBF he came back up to the 50th and I hardly even cared by then!

ps sometimes you have to leave message with the BF helplines before they call back-don't let this put you off!

If you do need to use formula top ups then I'd highly recommend using individual pre-made cartons if you can possibly afford it. Much much easier, and safer too, for a relatively young baby.

caroline0
At 6 weeks my daughter had only gained 5oz from birth weight. Was always crying, I had tried EVERYTHING but had to give in to formula top ups. She then gained 21 oz in 6 days!!

Now at 13 weeks she has both breast and bottle at her morning and pre-bed feed and just formula for the others. only YOU can decide what is best for your baby. Don't feel you have failed in ANY way if you start giving some formula. You have done AMAZINGLY well to EBF to this stage.

To answer your question, I use a flask. Tommee Tippee do one which is £10, fits in change bag easily and has a handy outer part to cool drink. I keep it full with approx 70 degree water. When she needs a feed use this to make it up then put bottle in cool water, It's drink telperature in about 5 mins. I can now rougly anticipate when she needs a feed and make up bottles before she gets hungry cos know they'll be drunk within 2 hours

Just wanted to share my experience with you. DD lost about 100g in weight one week and for the next 6 weeks either put on nothing or went up/down 20g. The end solution for us was to mix feed with a high calorie formula (I
nfatrini). This comes as ready made 200ml bottles on prescription so no cost, no making it up, just sterilising bottles. I also believe it's better for maintaining BF that we are increasing calorie intake with a minimal volume of FF. DD has BF then 120ml FF at bedtime and BF then 80ml FF before morning nap. The rest of the time she is BF and I express a little as well so when I have enough EBM, I substitute one of the FF for the EBM. This has worked well for our situation and last weigh in DD had gained 300g in 9 days. More importantly, for the first time I'm enjoying BF instead of constantly worrying about DDs weight.

bumping to see how OP is getting on :)