Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

Can I use cold tap water to make formula bottle for DS (9 months)?

76 replies

33goingon64 · 21/11/2011 13:34

I am still using First infant SMA formula powder, as I gather there are no nutritional benefits to moving to Follow On formula. The tin says I need to use cooled, boiled water... But is that just for babies under 6 months or do I always have to use boiled water? It's such a faff having to boil the kettle in advance and am getting tempted to move on to the much more expensive ready to pour stuff. Not sure if there is something about the First Infant formula that requires the water to be warm?

OP posts:
LoopyLoopsRootyFroots · 21/11/2011 13:36

No. The hot water kills the bacteria.

organiccarrotcake · 21/11/2011 13:41

The tin says cooled boiled water??

The water needs to be around 70 degrees which is boiled - then left for around 20 minutes. Then cool to the usage temperature, or fast cool and store in the fridge until required (no more than 24 hours).

You are right about follow on formula :)

www.who.int/foodsafety/publications/micro/pif_guidelines.pdf

fraktious · 21/11/2011 13:45

By cooled they don't mean cold, they mean not boiling. For 1l of water (and who boils a litre every time) in a well insulated kettle (not my shoddy supermarket one then) it takes 1 minute to cool 1 degree. So to reach 70C you wait 30mins.

The instructions are terrible. It should make it clear that the powder is not sterile and contains potentially harmful bacteria which can be killed by using hot water to make the formula correctly.

And yes, follow on is a waste of time.

moonbells · 21/11/2011 14:06

We always used close to boiling water, then cooled the bottles rapidly rather than waiting for the water to cool. That way we knew any bacteria would be killed..

I actually measured the temperature drop in my kettle (geek!) and it's faster than you think... and depends on the outside room's temperature too.

So many people think that boiling some water and letting it go cold, then putting it in a bottle ready to add powder to while out and about with baby is safe. It's not. I hated not being able to BF but was determined to FF safely. I once told a couple of acquaintances that powder+cold boiled water was unsafe and got told to butt out, they weren't stupid and could read the instructions thankyou.

I emailed them the WHO guidelines as per organiccarrotcake's link. Anybody would have thought I'd emailed them something highly offensive. I gave up at that point.

Booboostoo · 21/11/2011 14:27

Sorry to butt in on the thread, but I recently asked about water with food for weaning DD at six months and the consensus on that thread was that you do NOT need to boil the water first because she is now old enough. Is this a difference between water for making up formula and water for drinking directly (now that doesn't make any sense at all), or do people disagree on whether boiling is necessary?

Here is that thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/weaning/1347172-Stupid-questions-about-weaning

SenoritaViva · 21/11/2011 14:34

I'll try and dig out the thread that I contributed to recently but on that people were saying it is not the water but the formula that is the risk.

ChippingInNeedsSleep · 21/11/2011 14:37

BooBoo it's fine to give tap water straight to the baby. It is not fine to mix formula with cold water, boiled or tap. You need water at approx 70% to kill the bacteria in the formula powder. You can mix the powder with water at 70 deg then add cold water, tap or boiled.

Hope that makes sense now :)

whoopeecushion · 21/11/2011 14:38

Boo - yes there is a difference. A 6m+ baby can drink tap water. However, if being added to powdered formula the water needs to be hot enough to kill any bacteria that is already in the formula powder.

lilham · 21/11/2011 14:39

Booboostoo You don't need to boil the water for drinking because the bacteria isn't in the water. It's in the formula. So you still have to have 70C water to kill the bacteria in the formula even at 9m (or beyond). But it's safe to drink tap water. You can google forumla and enterobacter to read more about it.

TheOriginalFAB · 21/11/2011 14:41

No.

Why not make up the days bottles with just water in one go? Just add formula when they baby wants milk.

Booboostoo · 21/11/2011 14:48

Ah thank you everyone, you learn a new thing everyday! Sorry OP for hijacking!

sparkle12mar08 · 21/11/2011 14:49

The guidelines do state that in an emergency if there is no alternative and you have a safe drinking water source, you can use cold tap water straight from the tap to make up formula for feeding immediately. However this is amongst the least safe of the options available and is really for emergency use only.

befuzzled · 21/11/2011 14:53

so when i make bottles, I boil kettle, pour it straightin into the bottle, still scalding, add the formula and then let it cool down for a bit, then put the lid on and go out and about. If I am in a hurry to give it I sometimes add a bit of cold tap water to cool it down, or put it in the fridge. is all this ok?

fraktious · 21/11/2011 14:59

You should keep it hot whilst out (or cold) and cool it to at least room temp before putting in the fridge but otherwise that's fine.

It is the powder which has the bugs. UK tap water for the most part is perfectly safe.

SenoritaViva · 21/11/2011 14:59

befuzzled yes that's OK (disclaimer haven't done it for a while but been researching as might be doing it again in 5 weeks...)

thisisyesterday · 21/11/2011 15:00

befuzzled, yes that's all ok. as long as you are using hot hot water to add to the powder
.and if you take it out warm you need to use it up within a couple of hours

befuzzled · 21/11/2011 15:05

thanks!

so the only bit i struggle with is cooling it to RT before putting it in the fridge. I get home from school run and the baby is screaming for his bottle. I can either use the water which is already in kettle from breakfast and will lukewarm, but drinkable. Or I can boil fresh water and make the bottle and then put it staright in the fridge for 10 mins while he is screaming so that it is then cool enough to drink. How do you kill the bacteria but still make the bottle drinkable quickly enough to avoid earache?

I am interested as he has had a couple of tummy bugs - my first 2 were ebf but he stopped at 9m due to reflux - so I am not entirely sure i am doing it right.

ChippingInNeedsSleep · 21/11/2011 15:08

Befuzzled - no, actually, it's not ideal. If the water is that hot it will destroy some of the nutrients in the formula, it's better to pour it into the bottle and allow it to cool a bit first (of course it will cool quicker like this). As a one off it's not a big deal, but it wouldn't be good to do it too often. In your situation I would pour some water in the bottle, allow it to cool to 70 deg add the formula & mix it then add the rest of the hot water. It's not as ideal as doing it the other way, but mixing the formula with the cooler water first will help somewhat (or cold water if you want it there & then).

ChippingInNeedsSleep · 21/11/2011 15:13

OK - needing a bottle immediately. Boil the kettle. Pour a couple of inches into the bottle, stand it in cold water or in the frige, allow it to cool to 70 deg if you can (doesn't take too long), mix in the formula then add cold water.

lilham · 21/11/2011 15:27

befuzzled You can make a batch of them in the morning. Use 70C water, make up the feed, cool, and put into the fridge. Then you can just warm it back up after the school run. Or your LO might even drink cold formula.

This is the page from the NHS on bottle feeding. It tells you all you need.

"Even when the feed is kept in a fridge, bacteria can still survive and multiply, although they do this more slowly. The risk of infection increases over time so that is why it is important to make up the feed only as your baby needs it."

You can safely make it up earlier in the day, as long as you aren't leaving it there for a long period of time.

ChesterDraws · 21/11/2011 15:32

WHy can't they treat the powder to kill the bacteria? Or am I missing something?

fraktious · 21/11/2011 15:42

You can't pasteurise powder and in any case once you open the tin it's a free for all for any passing bugs.

mummytime · 21/11/2011 15:44

They do try (to kill the bugs in formula). The advice used to be that it was fine to make up bottles from cooled boiled water. Then SMA had a problem in its factory, and lots of babies became ill. As formula powder is very nutritious it is ideal food for bugs, so now the advice is about making up formula at at least 70C.

crikeybadger · 21/11/2011 16:37

But lilham- on the NHS website it does say to make up feeds one at a time as your baby needs it.

lilham · 21/11/2011 16:57

crikeybadger yes I know. The bacteria multiplies after you made the forumla, and that it's slower in the fridge. It's just a calculated risk thing. If you are feeding a very young baby, I'll definitely say do a fresh bottle each time. But OP is talking about a 9mo. It does have in bold "always use boiled water at a temperature of at least 70ºC". That's a step I wouldn't skip.