Bottle feeding help

[Becky5W]

Hi, wondered if someone could help me please. My baby girl is 3 weeks old, (first child), i gave up breast feeding at day 3 due to lack of support in hospital and was experiencing pain. I have had my health visitor out and she has told me that I'm doing the bottles wrong. She was very unhelpful and it seemed like she wasn't bothered in helping me now I've stopped breast feeding. Can anyone let me know how they make up the bottles? I was told about feeding on demand so we sterilise the bottles then boil kettle, pour the hot water into bottles and then fasten the lids, and then add the powder when baby is ready to feed. I have now been told that I have to boil the kettle and wait for it to get to 70 degrees before I put the water in? How can you feed on demand if you have to wait for the boiling water to cool down?! Also how do people manage when they are out and about? Sorry it's long, so confused with no support from health visitor. I've spoken to others who say they did it the same as me but then their children are much older and I know things change! Thanks and any help is much appreciated. Becky

we boil the kettle, let it cool for 20 mins and then transfer the hot water to a thermos flask which we then use for the rest of the day to make up feeds as needed. it is a pain having to make each bottle up individually on demand but after practice i can get it sorted in about 6 mins. the key is being organised enough to spot the feeding cues early before lo kicks off. dc1 is in a good routine of feeding every 2 to 2 and a half hours so in the day i just keep an eye on the time and make sure i make up a bottle 30 mins in advance.
if we're out and about we make up a bottle in advance - if we know lo will use it within 2 hrs. otherwise we just take the flask and powder out with us to make up as and when. hope this helps - its not too bad once you've got used to the routine - you'll get it down to an art!

Okay lovely thanks for your help!

It's a nightmare, I was boiling kettle using the freshly boiled water to make the bottle up, then cooling it down, as I did when I hadDS 4 years ago.

We use the pre made formula you can buy when we are going out. It's not always cost effective but saves faffing about.

i agree it is a massive pain. it's gets easier though, as previous poster said, you will start to know when your baby is likely to want milk and can have a bottle ready shortly before then.

if making even a short time in advance then as soon as the bottle is made up you need to quick cool it in a bowl if iced water. then put in fridge till your baby is ready. the bacteria breed at room temperature so it's important not to leave it sitting around.

if i didn't know when DS would be hungry - he napped for ages - i put the hot water in a thermos and then made a bottle up when he was starting to wake.

cartons expensive but are the easiest option for out and about if you can manage it.

massive faff generally, hope this helps

If the bottle is sterile and the water had been freshly boiled in the morning then wouldn't it stop bacteria breeding anyway? Thanks everyone

Its the powder that's not sterile that's why it needs to be mixed with water that is 70 degrees not cooled boiled water. We make up four bottles at a time and flash cool them then store them in the fridge.
For out and about we take one ready made bottle in a cool bag and then if we are going to be out longer I take another bottle and a carton.

So can you use freshly boiled water straight from the kettle (that has not been stood for 30 minutes) and cool it under cold running water to cool it down or does the water have to stand for 30 minutes ?

i never quite figured out why the guidelines don't say whether you can use water straight after boiling. maybe its because water that is too hot affects the nutritional quality? or maybe it's to prevent people scalding themselves by shaking boiling water?

probably better to have the water too hot when mixing with formula than too cool as the bigger danger is from not killing off bacteria in the formula. i used to wait at least 15 mins after boiling, preferably 25

i never quite figured out why the guidelines don't say whether you can use water straight after boiling. maybe its because water that is too hot affects the nutritional quality? or maybe it's to prevent people scalding themselves by shaking boiling water?

probably better to have the water too hot when mixing with formula than too cool as the bigger danger is from not killing off bacteria in the formula. i used to wait at least 15 mins after boiling, preferably 25

Yes it's because boiling hot water damages the formula. What we used to do was have a freshly sterilised bottle with a screw top each morning, fill that with boiling water and leave to cool. Then when you are ready to make the bottle, boil the water, add about 10 or 20 mls of the cold water to your baby bottle. Add the boiling water to the bottle. Add the formula and cool down under the tap. It does sound complicated but at least then you're following the guidelines and is actually really easy.

Babies have died from incorrectly prepared formula which is why they changed the guidelines.

Also some HVs are nicer / better than others, I'm sure she's not judging you. Probably just busy. Sounds like you're doing brilliantly after a hard start with poor support which happens far too often.

My SIL sterilises the bottles and boils the kettle. When the water has cooled down she fills all the bottles with the needed amount, puts the lids on and puts into the fridge, when baby is hungry she takes out a bottle and puts it into the microwave (with out the lid and test) until the water is warm enough, add the powder, shake bottle and feeds baby. We've tried all different ways to make it a quicker process, my friends all do it differently too. My MW was happy with the way SIL does it so i do that way too

Test not test

You can prepare a batch in advance and rapid cool them, put them in the back of the fridge and warm as needed. It's right at the back of the NHS guidance.

The risks basically go like this:

Using tap water or cold pre-boiled water = all the bacteria are alive and start breeding instantly
Using water at 70C to mix the powder and cooling it down = 99% of the Bactria get killed and the remaining 1% don't have time to breed
Using water at 70C to mix the powder, cooling it down and sticking it in the fridge until you need it = 99% of the bacteria get killed, the remaining 1% can't breed at temps under 5C so the only time they have is while you warm the bottle and baby drinks it so the risk is much reduced althought still not as safe as make fresh.

Out and about cartons are easiest.

Also the waiting 30mins thing is based on 1l of water which all hits 100C and cools at a constant rate in an insulated container. That's not what happens in my kettle!

The best thing to do is get a food thermometer, pour the hot water into a baby bottle and measure how long it takes to cool down there - it should be less than 3mins for 100ml - add the powder when it's at 70C and cool under the tap or in ice water.

Babystone just to clarify, you and your SIL do not do it correctly or follow the guidelines. It's your choice to do it this way but you shouldn't really be encouraging other people to do so.

agree with nomdeclavier, good idea to do some tests with a thermometer to see how quickly water cools in your own kettle/bottles/flask whichever you choose.

If you have enough bottles try this...

Say you want to do 6 oz bottles. In the morning make up 3 oz bottles and cool then out in the fridge. Put more sterile but empty bottles in the fridge too.

When you want to make a bottle boil the kettle, put 3oz boiling water in an emoty bottle and immediately add 6 scoops of powder. Then add this to one of your 3oz of cold fridge water and shake well.

This is the easiest quickest way I have found that ticks all the boxes for powder being sterile. Hope it makes sense!

This is a really common thread, and everyone has their own way, so don't be disheartened by your HV. She could've been a little more sensitive IMO!

There was a very long thread about this recently where it was agreed (via calls to the formula manufacturers) that they advise 70 degree water because any hotter could burn the person pouring. It's not to do with spoiling nutrients in the milk.

Sorry I can't link to the thread as I'm on my phone - hopefully someone else can corroborate?!

Given that the pre-made stuff is ultra-heat treated to sterilise it, I doubt using boiling water on powder is going to be worse than using 70 deg water (nutrition wise, otherwise surely there'd be no nutrients left in the pre-made stuff?)

I use SMA and have emailed them today re boiling water/70c. I have taken a quote from the email.... This is purely advice from SMA and have stressed to check instructions on the packet/tin you are using

QUOTEWe do not recommend adding the powder to boiling water as we would expect boiling water to adversely affect the nutritional value of Vitamin C, followed by Vitamin B1 and B6. We would not expect any of the other nutrients to be adversely affected, but we don't have any data to support this position.