having to move onto formula

[NameOfTheNick]

II need to get my 5 month old dd off the breast and onto formula so I can resume some medication that is not compatible with breastfeeding.
Hows the best way to go about it?

She's now comfortable with a bottle of ebm finally after trying lots of different bottles.

So formula feeding, I know the water needs to be hot to dissolve the milk powder to kill any bugs etc.
But it seems to take forever to cool down and ddi gets into a state crying having to wait for the bottle to cool down on the few bottles of formula we have given. Not surprising really as with bf you just wip it out and done!

Can I make a bottle up with say half hot water to dissolve the powder and then top up with ice cold boiled water to make it drinkable temp straight away? Will I make her poorly by doing this?

If you aren't doing many could you use cartons ? If not the next best way to making fresh ( and one that many of us use) is to make as fresh with water over 70 degrees then rapid cool and fridge at the back of fridge for max 24 hours tho I go no more than 12 . You can then heat in bowl of hot water when required ...

You can rapid cool in a jug of iced water or mini icepacks - it takes only a couple of minutes. I usually make my twins bottles fresh each time and flash cool this way.
If she is an anykind of routine you just need to remember to boil the kettle in time. If you pour the water into the bottles it will cool quite quickly to 70 degrees (probably about 5 minutes for a 7oz bottle).

Hi, cartons will be ok short term, but very expensive once totally off the breast which is what we need to do with at least 7 feeds a day.

I've tried the fridge then warming up but it just takes too long, even though it's only about 5 mins, she's just not used to waiting and gets into a right old state which Is killing me as I don't want to stop bf as i enjoy it and been so lucky that it has come so easy to us both with no pain or problems, but I need to for my own health so I can start taking my medication again. Otherwise I'm in constant pain and the safe tablets to use whilst bf just aren't cutting it.
I just though if it was acceptable/safe to do the 50/50 hot and cold wAter then we would both be happy as she will only have to wait seconds for me to mix it all.

It's such a bloody minefield and there's barely any support at all for ff.

Thanks.

She's not really in a routine still bf on demand. Sometimes she goes 3/4hours othertimes it's only 1. No particular pattern to it long term.

Sorry - didn't answer your question!

I sometimes do the hot/cold thing. I use just less than 1/2 boiling water, add the scoops, shake well and wait a few seconds, then add the remaining cool boiled water. Make sure though that you add the correct amount of water - for example a 240ml bottle with the scoops added will measure about 260ml. So you might want to make up a bottle in the normal way and take a note of the total volume.

Once on formula and also presumably solids soon too, you may find her feeding habits change. My twins were mainly bf up to 6 months and fed 6 times a day. Now they are mainly ff they have just 1 bf in the morning and 2 formula feeda.

I know you didn't ask this, and I don't know your timescales here but I think its important to drop feeds gradually to avoid mastitis if you can. If not possible you may need to express, just enough to avoid getting engorged (not too much otherwise your body won't know you are trying to stop).

Also I am sure you have double checked, but have read on these boards before that there are only very few medications that are not bf compatible. There is a website with a list of medicines but I don't have the link - I think it might be the breastfeeding network pages perhaps?

Thanks ceevee.
Yes Ive double checked the medication and it's a no no where bf is concerned unfortunately, and it is the only one that actually works for me.
We need to stop bf ideally within the next month.
So if I was doing a 4oz bottle. Put 2oz hot water in bottle add powder the shake and leave a few seconds. Then measure in a separate bottle 2oz cold water add and shake? Should that be safe and to the right concentrations?

Yes that sounds about right!
Good luck

yep that is right re the half and half and is what i did :) you may need 1/3 hot to 2/3 cold to get the right temp depending on the quantity of the feed, good luck :)

Yes, have a mess around with quantities. If you keep the cold water in the fridge it will obviously cool the bottle down a lot quicker so you need more hot/less cold water