Reheating formula

[ellesabe]

This may be a really silly question but I'm new to formula so please bear with me!
At 7pm I gave dd a bottle of milk which we had warmed by standing in hot water. She doesn't like cold milk.
She only drank half of the bottle and I'm not sure if I can reheat it and try to give her the rest if she wakes in the night. I know it says on the carton to discard within 2 hours but I'm never sure how crucial this is.

Any thoughts or advice?

No it's very important you don't ever reheat formula!

Well, I have been re-heating left-over formula right from the start (DS is 4 months now) and never had any problems! I always put the left-overs in the fridge. I also mix left-overs with new formula, which is probably also a big no-no... But I do think that as long as the bottles have been sterilised and the water was boiled, it should be OK!

It's obviously a personal decision what and how you do with formula, I started doing this out of sheer ignorance because I didn't read the instructions on the formula cartons very carefully

I would not reheat formula either. The powder is not sterile and can harbour nasty bacteria. Leaving formula sitting too long is an ideal situation for that bacteria to multiply and can result in food poisoning. I would use fresh milk for each feed. I formula fed both mine btw.

Oh okay thank you. We've not actually tried powdered formula yet, only the ready-mixed cartons for convenience, but I think I will stick with the advice to not reheat!

It's not just the reheating - it's also that as soon as the baby has had the bottle in his/her mouth you have bacteria on it, this multiplies - but after two hours the rate of multiplication is much much greater.

As with anything you have to make your own decisions about how closely you follow these rules. I find a google on bacteria mulitplication helps you stick to them

If you start using powder you need to mix the powder with water over 70 deg to kill the bacteria that can be present in the powder, once it is mixed you can add cool water.

JBrd - please be careful. It really isn't enough that you boil the water and streilise the bottles, as the bacteria grows in the milk. It's not worth risking it for the tiny bit of time/money you save.

I agree - I am quite blase about a lot of things () but I would never ever reheat formula nor add old to new.

A baby with food poisoning will presumably only got it from one place. I know how food poisoning can ravage an adult so I'm not going to take that risk with my baby.

I've fed 4 with formula (from between 5wks and 6m) and I didnt't even do it in the distant past when dd1 was little.

JBrd please reconsider. It's like saying I don't wear a seatbelt but it's never been a problem. Seriously, I'm not everdramatising this - babies can die from food poisoning very quickly. It's not a risk worth taking.