Microwaving formula - honest truth?

[breatheslowly]

Ok, I know the advice, but I would like to know if people do microwave formula and if they have any problems with it. I don't really get the 'hot spot' arguement as I would have thought that shaking after a short blast would get rid of any hot spots and I wouldn't be aiming to heat very high, just to take the chill off fridge cold formula. Thanks.

I used to heat for 30 secs and shake thoroughly. It's one of those instructions given to cover the possibility of error or carelessness, but if you're sensible it shouldn't be a problem.

Yeah I did from the word go, when I hadn't made one up from fresh.

Heat it for 30 secs and give it a shake.

You're not supposed to micro bm as AFAIK it destroys some nutrients. This may be the same with formula but I don't know. If you want a more scientific answer I would ask baby milk action or phone the nct helpline.

HTH

It's the effects on the plastic bottle that would bother me, leaching dodgy chemicals into the milk. But then I have a "thing" about any plastic in the microwave. I'm not convinced that something weird doesn't happen to it...

did it with all 3 of my kids - no probs whatsoever.

And I make up bottles first thing and put them in the fridge then heat them in microwave.

I absolutely microwaved formula! It's the only reason we have a microwave! never used it for anything else!

As well as causing hot spots don't forget that the milk will carry on warming up even after you have removed it from the microwave so you will need to leave it and check it again before giving it to the baby.

Some babies have been burnt when the bottle has been heated in the microwave, shaken and given straight away.

If you give the NCT helpline a call they should be able to give you the information you need to help you decide.

Why not just buy a bottle warmer on ebay and avoid the stress?

Yup I do it. 30 secs, give a good shake and then also leave for a minute because I was told that things carry on "cooking" even after being taken out of a microwave. Dont know if that's true or not though.

yep 24 seconds in mine

All the instructions for microwave meals, food etc say to leave to stand for 1 min after cooking, so what ABF said makes sense.

I do use the microwave but have found another easy way to do it, after staying with friends without a microwave.

I boil the kettle add half the amount of hot water, add all the formula and thoroughly shake, then add the rest of the water as cold water. This brings it to pretty much the right temp, you can change the ratio of hot to cold to get it just right. It works a treat, powder added to hot water as it is meant to but then cooled quickly and ready to feed straight away.

FWIW if I'm doing 7Oz of formula, I put in 4Oz of hot water, then the powder, then 3Oz of cold water and it is the perfect temp.

I didn't do it all with dd1, relaxed with dd2 and used the microwave quite a lot with dd2. Ps thought bottlewarmers were the most usless feckin' things ever, nearly bucked mine out the window on a few occasions!!!

I done it from the word go as well for DC2 without any problems.

I was paranoid with ds and never used to microwave the bottle.. until..

the water we had heated the bottle in was sitting on the table ages later and s wriggled and knocked it over

he got a few splashes..by then it was cool but i beat myself up saying what if it was still boiling..

microwaved it from then on!!!

I always microwave formula. 30 secs from the fridge and a good shake et voila. I don't see that it can get hot enough to destroy nutrients, esp if you use 70 degrees water to make it up in the first place.