how to formula feed out and about?!

[chickenlickin]

I am posting for my sister. She has a baby 5 months old. She is exclusively breastfeeding and all going great. She has just been told she has terrible arthritis (has been having problems for a long time) and since having a baby has got really bad. She has to start a very strong medication to hopefully improve things for when she gets older, but cannot BF on this. She is really sad about stopping BF but feels that this is for the best. Anyways . . .the thing is none of us know much about formula feeding as all BF!! Obviously when at home you heat it up etc but what do you do if out and about? For example not near shops or cafes. Do you take hot water in a flask and add the formula? Or take it ready made and take hot water in a flask to pour into a bowl to heat it?? God it sounds a nightmare!! Please give us some tips!!! Thanks! xx

When I switched from bf to ff I made all my bottles up in the morning. I then take the bottles out and then either get hot water from a cafe or stand the bottle in the flask lid ( filled with hot water from the flask). other friends take the water in a flask and the formula in a tupperware pot which has a pop off lid on the top which you then tip into the water (measure the powder out before you go out). Also some babies like their formula warm and others will just take it at room temperature - you will find out as you go.

chichenlickin a lot of people don't follow the guidelines but ideally if using powdered formula each feed should be made up fresh using water at 70 degrees celsius or hotter and then cooled to feed. There are other ways too which are less safe but still within the current guidelines. The guidelines are here: NHS guidelines or for the WHO version here: WHO guidelines.
My baby is happy with room temperature so I'm not sure on the bottle-warming, but you can get bottle-warmers. However, flask of hot water and something to stand the bottle in should do the trick.

Personally, I use ready-made formula when out and about. More expensive but a lot easier. Just take a sterile bottle with you, open the carton (you need a small pair of clean scissors for this - I have a pair of those baby nail scissors in my handbag as they are useless for cutting baby nails anyway!), pour in and heat by standing in hot water if required.

I used ready made cartons too. Easy, but yes, expensive if you go out for hours every day!

To warm bottles when out, sticks it in pocket or up jumper for ten mins. I used to take bottles of sterile water and formula powder (you can get pots to measure the right amount into) and shake up as needed. I realise this is against guidelines though. Your sister's baby is nearly old enough for weaning, so soon she could have food when out rather than dealing with formula.

Just a suggestion - there's a very helpful service from the Breastfeeding Network where you can check whether drugs that are listed as contra-indicated for BFing really are unsafe - and work out if there are other options. Just a thought :)

www.breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk/drugs-in-breastmilk.html

I did the same as Bike above - sterilised bottles, filled with boiled water and one of those milk dispenser units preweighed out. DD1 was happy to drink at room temperature.
In my defence this was 2004 and the guidelines were different.

DD2 was on nutriprem and it only came in ready made cartons (but as it was on prescription it was free) so just carried a few around with me with sterilised bottles.
It's much easier feeding when out now - beaker juice, beaker water, half a ton of cereal bars and job done :)

I half fill each bottle with water and leave it to cool. I then take a flask with boiling (nearly) water in it. Top up the cooled water, add the milk powder. Hey presto, a warm bottle (which I need as gaviscon doesn't dissolve too well in cold water).

Is it a faff? Hell yes. I'd rather be bf but after 4dcs I've had to accept that I'm not much good at it so this method has been tried and tested somewhat!