Ff ladies - how do you make bottles for the night?

[soppypreggyloon]

how do you do it?

I want to use boiling water on the powder just in case there's any nasties but I also don't want dd to wake the whole street up while she waits for it to cool.

Any suggestions? :)

Before we go to bed I make up two bottles, according to current guidance, flash cool them, store them in the back of the fridge, then when I know she is stirring I race down and microwave stick the kettle on and heat one of them up. There is guidance on how to best make up and store pre made up bottles on one of the many threads here but I can't link.

Alternatively you could use the pre-made cartons.

Cool down in a jug of iced water?

Pg 13 of Support for those who formula feed thread apparently has the most recent guidelines to making up and storing of feeds in advance

Yes, ready to drink cartons for the night time feeds sounds like a great idea. They will already be room temperature, so may only need slight warming.

Yeah we've been doing cartons but they're a bit £££ especially as dd drinks 2-3oz at a time usually. we end up chucking a fair bit.
She is fine with room temp tho :)

Before bed boil kettle and fill a clean bottle with cooled boiled water. When she wakes boil kettle and fill bottle with half required amount of water, then add all required amount of powder. Top up with however much cold water needed.

Powder will still be sterile and no waiting for it to cool.

Or just make and put in fridge, that's what I do.

The cartons keep in the fridge for 24 hours once opened.

only put the amount you need to into the bottle (from the carton) and store the rest in the fridge for the next feed.

As I'm mix feeding I use cartons for night time, I take one up unopened with a clean bottle at bed time. When DD wakes I measure out as much a she needs for the feed, give it to her and once I've put her back down I then express breast milk, then once I'm done, quickly nip down to kitchen to store expressed milk and stick whats left of the carton in the fridge.

I know the cartons are expensive but I couldn't be bothered with waiting for kettles to boil etc plus DD would have the whole house woken up screaming for a feed. I also like her to stay in the bedroom where it's dark and quiet rather than taking her downstairs and waking her up more!

Wouldn't it be easier to breastfeed in the night if you're getting up to express anyway?

I don't breast feed in the literal sense, only express my breast milk and give formula top up. Was too painful for me but still wanted DD to have breast milk so this is my compromise. :)

Ah I see.

Haha just realised I'm moaning about faffing about waiting on a kettle boiling during the night but I do plenty of faffing expressing every 3 hours during the day and sterilising a million things an hour!!

Expressing is really hard work though so you're doing well! Maybe it'll be possible to get your dd feeding directly in the future.

I make the bottles up in advance and store in the fridge. We are using the comfort formula, which doesn't mix in cool water and doesn't come in cartons. Gah. Still, DS never took to BFing so up until now has been exclusively EBM - which he takes straight from the fridge, so at least we don't have to warm it up before giving it!

Not sure about current recommendations but I used to take flask of boiled water with bottle containing half measure of boiled cooled water. Also had pot of measureed out powder. Seems like a lot of faff but when baby wakes it's sconds to assemble to feed and NO trips downstairs! Not sure why but this always seemed more likely to delay my return to sleep!

cobweb do you mean your DS takes the breast milk straight from the fridge??

MrsWajs - yup! We didn't purposefully do it that way, but he has always gone from not showing ANY hunger signs to screaming in an instant, so the time spent warming the bottles got gradually shorter and shorter and we stopped bothering. I don't know if it was his reflux that made him like that or if thats just the way he is, but he is 13 weeks today and STILL isn't in any kind of routine. It can be anywhere between 2 and 4 hours, and of course now he likes chewing his hand anyway, so we cant' take that as a hunger sign any more.

I'm finding the comfort formula a PITA as you can't even mix it in half hot and then add cold, it doesn't dissolve unless you have nearly the full amount of hot. I don't know if you are supposed to make in advance and put in the fridge but that is what we are having to do.

I make up two bottles for the night feeds just before bed, cool them under the tap and then take them up to the bedroom in a cool bag packed in ice. DS is happy to take formula (which we give at night) cold and expressed breast milk ( which he has during the day) at room temperature or cold from the fridge so we are lucky that's he's very unfussy!

I make up and store in fridge and microwave heat up in a jug of boiling hot water :)

I always used to make a couple of bottles before bed and take them upstairs. I was never one for warming a bottle, always fed at room temperature anyway. I won't be doing any different for DC4 when s/he arrives (And nor do I take any notice of the ever changing guidelines).

I think that the easier you make it for yourself, the happier everyone is. If you're tramping up and down stairs all night and the baby is crying for a feed, then everyone will be miserable. The quicker you get them fed, the sooner you are all back to sleep!

Before I go to bed I boil the kettle, pour boiled water into a flask. Then fill one bottle with boiled water, cool down and put in fridge.

Come feed time pour in half of required water from flask into bottle then add powder, shake, then top up the other half with cold water - feed!

We use cartons at night.
In the day, dd is happy to drink warm, room temp or ice-cold formula - good job as the tommee tippee warmer is shit. For the day, we make up bottles and store in the fridge.

So do people generally make up feeds in advance?

When i left hospital, i was told in no uncertain terms by the midwife that, at night, i had to go downstairs and boil the kettle half an hour before the baby would wake up for feed (yes, really...). Then, when he woke up, to go back downstairs used said boiled water to make feed, which would be cool enough to drink. Ahem.

Not surprisingly, i decided to use the ready made stuff.

Sorry if i'm being a bit dim or missing something - don't often hang out on this topic - but do people tend to ignore the 'not making formula in advance' rule?? I know it's all to do with bacteria and stuff, but don't know much else than that! Thanks!

It's best to make the formula up with hot water (above 70 degrees when the powder goes into the water), cool to drinking temp and consume straight away - this kills the bacteria in the formula and minimises the time bacteria have to multiply in warm milk.

Second best is to make hot, cool quickly and store in the fridge to be consumed within 24 hours - again, killing the bacteria and minimising the time there is warm milk sitting around.

Your worst options are either making up formula with cool water (won't kill the bacteria) or making in advance and leaving out of the fridge til the next feed (warm milk - perfect for bacteria).