Preparing formula in advance

[Tagz269]

Hi,
I just wanted a little bit of advice really. My baby is 7weeks old and I pretty much eating every 2-3 hours (no real routine). I have the ready made formula however this can be very expensive so we only give this to her throughout the night. I also have the powdered stuff and its driving me crazy having to guess when her next feed will be or making it when she is hungry- resulting in a screaming baby!
I have read that some people make batches of powdered formula and keep in fridge but then elsewhere people are saying this is bad.
Can someone advise?!
Thanks

I keep a flask by the kettle, after each feed I boil the kettle, wait the 20 mins for it to cool to recommended temp, put in the flask. Water is right temp when needed for next bottle..

you are actually allowed to make up milk using freshly boiled water left for no longer than 30 minutes, cool quickly and then refridgerate for no more than 24 hours. If you didnt want to make them all up at once you could make a couple up at a time and then just replenish as required and then they wouldnt be stored for a large amount of time each.

www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/formulaguidance.pdf

I make up DS' bottles in advance and put them at the back of the fridge (temp of fridge set to be quite cold). Everyone I know who FF does this, my health nurse, GP and midwives all said it was ok too. I know it's not the "optimal" way to do feeds but as you say you will go broke or crazy using pre-mades or making up formula at each feed!

Dispose of any unused formula strictly after 24 hours!

Yep, agree, make a refridgerate. I never reheated them, dd had her milk room temp or fridge cold (premade them as per instructions and refridgerated).

What ilovepowerhoop says!

I chill the bottles as fast as I can by putting straight away at back of fridge. Maybe your fridge has a part of the fridge that is particularly colder than other parts - DPIL's fridge has a "super chill zone" and it's brilliant for cooling bottles quickly.

I make in advance, flash cool by putting in a sink of very cold water and then put into the fridge. I use the microwave to heat the bottles very slightly before feeding (I'm talking 40 seconds maximum and swirling really well so no hot spots)..

Have done this with two dc and no problems at all.

I think the absolutely essential part is the water must be practically just boiled when making the feeds initially. It's the powder that needs the hot water to kill the bacteria not the water that needs sterilising !

I believe that it is very important that very hot water is added to the powder as it can harbour some nasties so adding boiled lukewarm water to the powder does not really do the job. I used to add some nearly boiling water to the powder then top up with pre-prepared cold boiled water - you easily find the right measurements e.g. 50 ml boiling and 100ml cold = perfect temp for my baby. It took seconds. Even faster if you have a flask of boiling already made up too! Get buying some flasks!

Brilliant! Thanks for your advice! Every conversation I read with it being ok was years old. I will prepare maybe 2 feeds in advance which will buy me time for the next few!