Bottle feeding basics

[Freshnclean]

Can anybody help me with some bottle feeding questions please? My dd is 18 days old and I am moving onto mixed feeding with the support of my health visitor.

When I make a bottle the guidelines give the quantities for a 2 week baby or 8 pound baby but what if your baby is somewhere in between, eg 10 pounds?

When I make the bottle it says to shake for ten seconds, this makes it bubbly is that ok? I thought bubbles were bad?

If I make a bottle can I put it straight in the fridge or goes it have to cool first? I believe I can make up enough bottles for a 24 hour period and keep in the fridge?

If my baby starts her bottle but doesn't finish it do I throw it away or can it go back in the fridge and rewarm?

I have an electric bottle warmer but is it easier to just run them under a hot tap to warm them?

Thank you for your help.....

Okay..

If you want to make up enough for 24 hours (which isn't the official guidelines but I did that after a while) you make normally, cool very quickly, store at the back of the fridge. You should not reheat this again.

I used the microwave to heat bottles, providing you shake very well after wards it should cause no problem.

When my ds was very young I made bottles like this, do for example if he was on 3oz you put some cool boiled water in bottle, leave to cool when needed top up to full amount with freshly boiled water, add formula, shake, cool if necessary. It was very quick.

When my ds was a bit older I made 2-3 bottles in advance also didn't like them to be sitting in fridge for ages.

Hope this all makes sense.

The risk is in the formula powder which may contain some nasty bugs. These can only be killed by water at 70 degrees or hotter. However you make up your feeds the water that you mix the powder into must be at least 70 degrees.

If your baby doesn't finish a feed you do need to throw it away, again because of the possibility of bugs breeding.

Here is the NHS advice on making up formula.

The most sensible way, given that you're mix feeding, is probably to make 2 or 3 at a time at a fixed time every day, by mixing the powder with hot water and the flash cooling them before storing them at the back of the fridge. You can then reheat that using a bottle warmer.

As Ex said the most important thing is to make sure your powder is mixed with water that's at least 70C to kill the bugs.

You don't say whether you're topping up with formula or not but I presume you're just replacing certain feeds because you're making a full feed.

Two things...it's really not recommended to heat up bottles or baby food in a microwave because it can hear unevenly and cause hot spots which can burn your baby's throat. And if you baby had started feeding from a bottle but didn't finish it you should not put it back in the fridge. If it's not finished within an hour you should discard it.

If you shake the bottles really well after heating, which I do after microwaving them, it breaks up any hot spots that there may be in bottle.

Whatever way you heat the bottle just check the temperature on inside of your wrist.

I mixed fed till 6 weeks then had to stop breast feeding due to health reasons.

I just made them up when needed till around 4 weeks. Boil Kettle with fresh water add formula, shake and cooled it under the tap.

Now Ds is 9 weeks I make up about 3 at a time. Same way but cool them in freezing cold water in a Tupperware box, and straight in the fridge. Usually takes about 10 minutes. When it's time to feed him I heat it up in a jug with boiling water.

Sometimes he has a mid feed nap then wakes up and finishes it, I don't reheat it I just leave it at room temp.

And I chuck it after 2 hrs.

As for guidelines, DD has tended to follow that pattern. I think she was on 3-4 ounces at 3 weeks. You'll learn quickly how much they want.

Bubbles are fine, I'd never heard of them being a problem.

I make bottles on demand, it's not time consuming, it's just an extra few mins to cool and usually you can pre-empt when they're due.

You don't need to rewarm bottles if they're not finished but chuck after 2 hours, in any case. DD is on 6 ounces so can have 2, nap then finish the rest half an hour later.

Just experiment with how much to make up for baby, just be alert to all her cues that she's either still hungry or had enough and u will soon figure out the right amount. She may but take the same amount at every feed anyway.
I make up several bottles in advance, u get into a cycle of clean, sterilise, make up, cool, it's like working in a factory!
Sterilise bottles & clean kitchen surface. Boil kettle with fresh water & allow to cool a little (no more than 30min), make up the bottles shaking well (bubbles will settle when bottle is stood in fridge), & put in fridge (not the door).
To warm up I boil the kettle and stand the bottle in a jug with a couple of inches of the boiling water while I change baby's nappy. This is usually about the right length of time to hear the milk enough, but always check. & I find it a good use of the waiting time :-) Never use microwave, as well as the hot spots issue, things carry on cooking for a while after they have been taken out of microwave so temp may rise after u have checked it.
I don't reheat during a feed, there's no need. It will only drop to room temp which baby will be fine with & won't be much different to the temp u want it anyway. And I will throw away leftover milk after an hour & never reuse it, it's already been exposed to lots of bacteria through chilling & reheating once, airborn bugs & baby's saliva etc without doing it twice.
Hope this helps.

hi...I don't shake my bottles I stir with a sterilised plastic spoon. I used to shake them well until frothy and my lo used to get really windy and upset. my hv suggested stirring and we've definitely noticed a difference in his fussiness.

I also use a tommee tippee perfect prep machine it makes a fresh bottle in less than two minutes its amazing best thing I've bought

Hi everyone, thanks for all your responses. Great ideas re stirring bottles and warming in few inches of water, I will try these.

Still not sure how much to give her though. Formula box doesn't give the amount for a ten pound baby, do I just go with the closest it says? Eg 8 pound babies need four scoops etc?

Also, do I need to wash bottles and tweets and lids in their own dishwasher load? I just emptied my dishwasher and I washed my bottles in with my usual plates, cups etc and the teets have gone yellow. Do I need to throw these away?

When I sterilise where should I then keep the sterilised bottles? Are they ok in just a cupboard until I need them?

Finally I am still confused about heating etc. eg baby starts crying for feed. I make up bottle but spend ten minutes running made up bottle under the tap to cool it. In the meantime the baby is screaming her head off. Do I just need to suffer this?

If I make up bottles in advance do they need to cool before they go in the fridge? Won't they go off if I have to wait twenty minutes for them to cool before putting in the fridge? And if I reheat these later is it bad that that are being reheated? I am paranoid I am going to poison her!

Please help. Thank you am getting into a tizzy. My DH not interested in helping and I still have to work out how to use my new steriliser yet. And the bottle warmer!!

Also sorry to ask so many questions. My mil and mum can't remember and I don't have a single friend to ask who has had a baby. Nor nobody in my family, eg sister have had any kids

For a 10 1/2 baby it says 150ml so 5 fl oz, which is 5 scoops.
Boil Kettle with fresh water pour water up to 5fl oz add 5 scoops, shake well put in freezing cold water then put in the fridge when it's cold. Make up 3.

When baby is awake they do signs before they start screaming their head off, mouthing chewing hands and things. Heat up a bottle then by warming it in a jug of boiling water.

Roughly your baby would want food every 3/4 hrs, well Ds does so if he's sleeping and I know he will need food when he wakes up I start warming the bottle before he wakes up. You can keep it at room temp for 2hrs, don't re heat it.

Read the book that goes with the steriliser to see how you work it. The dish washer apparently cleans and sterilises bottles but I don't have one so haven't done it.

If you are panicking a bit can you get some cartons of ready made formula for a bit, these keep in the fridge for 24 hrs once opened and you can feed the baby them at room temp or warm if you want.

Hi fresh. Your baby will let u know when they have had enough milk so maybe make 4oz and just see how u go with that. The guidelines on the tub are just as a guide anyway, not a strict rule to get tied up in knots about.
Wash your bottles seperately, I hand wash mine, and sterilise them maybe at the same time u boil the kettle so they are ready at the same time as your water is (depending on your sterilsing method).
Once bottles are made I put mine straight in fridge but u could run them under cold tap for a minute to cool them first. It is always best to make up a fresh bottle of formula when u need it instead of reheating stored bottles, but it's not always practical.
And I'm afraid u will have a crying baby until feed is ready if u can't catch her early enough. Hence why I change her while her bottle is warming.

Just re read your post

I keep my sterilised bottles in a box with the lids on to use when I want.

And yes sometimes if you muck up your timing you will have to let the baby cry, you can try and sooth them but they will have to wait.

Are you unhappy breast feeding or are you being pushed to formula feeding?

I'm sorry you haven't got any useful rl support. Although your DH needs to man up and do his bit. Why on earth can't he be working out what to do with the steriliser!

I can't answer all your questions unfortunately as I only used a bit of formula for a short period of time whilst I was getting bfeeding going. I used the ready made cartons to avoid all of these things. They are expensive though.

When you make up a feed in advance from powder, you need to "flash cool" it. That means getting it cold as soon as possible. Put it into a sink of very cold water or similar and it will cool down quickly. You don't want to put warm things in the fridge as that will warm up everything else.

The steriliser stuff I have forgotten about. I think we just used to sterilise immediately before we needed he bottles etc. Only took 12ish minutes plus cooling time. They stay sterile in the steriliser until you open it (I think). Someone will come along with better advice on that soon!

Hi there. I make my bottles in advance. DD has 4x 6 oz. I put 6 scoops in each sterilised bottle and then use another sterilised bottle to measure 2oz of boiling water.Add this to the powder and shake for 10sec. I then use the 'measuring' bottle to measure out 4oz of cold tap water and add to the bottle. Shake then put in a bowl of cold water. They take 5 mins to cool completely then put at the back of the fridge. When needed I warm using either the microwave (shake well) or boiling water in a jug. Hope this helps

I wouldn't put newborn (well, pre-weaning) stuff in a dishwasher because there's a small risk that food residue could get into it and upset a little tummy. Also sterilisers go to above 100C and your dishwasher probably doesn't.

What kind of steriliser do you have? Maybe someone here can help you? They do indeed stay sterile until you open it, which is another reason that making batches is more practical - everything is sterile then you make the formula and fridge it immediately. It minimises the chance for contamination.

It's better to err on the side of making too much and then stopping and discarding the bottle if you find baby just isn't hungry any more.

I used a microwave steriliser and once done I would assemble the bottles with the lids covering the teats and leave on the side ready to go. my hv said this was ok for 24 hrs but they never last that long anyway with amount of feeds we do.

also I did have a go at making bottles up in advance under the advice of my hv. I only made half a days worth in one go and I would put a piece of paper in the fridge with the time because you'll soon forget. I would put the bottles straight in the fridge after making them. this did seem odd to me but the hv said it was fine and a leaflet from the world health organisation said to do this too. the nhs didn't say either way which was a bit unhelpful! i just thought if you legt to cool that would be eating into the two hours before you need to throw it away so went with it. maybe some of the rapid cooling beforehand would be worth a go. but whether you decide to cool first or put them straight in the fridge put them to the back of the fridge. in the end I only did this for three days and got fed up of worrying about it so bought a machine to do it for me. I got really stressed when we moved to formula so I can totally sympathise but you'll soon get the hang of it

OP you've had some great advice here. The key thing is about adding very hot water to the powder to kill any bacteria in it, and not leaving bottles hanging around at room temperature for hours growing bacteria (you wouldn't leave a pint of semi skimmed out all day!).

There is a thread here almost weekly about the practicalities of prepping bottles in advance and getting them to the right temperature.

As an aside, do be prepared for mixed feeding to turn into exclusively formula feeding - I suspect your supply isn't fully established and will most likely be damaged by introducing formula so early. HVs are keen to push for formula top ups for all sorts of unnecessary reasons, and it's worth knowing the potential impact on your supply.

I am in no way judging your choices or second guessing the advice you've been given, but there are some very knowledgable posters here who could help you continue to breastfeed, should you wish to do so.

Congratulations on your little one by the way.

Thanks for your help everyone.... The kindness of strangers on Mumsnet is lovely. Have taken in all the advice and tips. My LO seems less interested in bottle and just wants to be on my boob constantly. My DH being much more supportive though and is willing to help more. Just to confirm, bf is going fine, I only want to stop and switch to formula bd ause I hate sitting around all day with no top on not being able to even go for a quick shower without her wanting me. My first dd who is 4 was the same. I should have gone straight onto formula. Then I could be like traced mums in Starbucks whipping out a nice bottle rather than awkwardly getting a boob out. I really wanted to enjoy this baby and it feels like bf is making me depressed.

Glad your partner is being more supportive and hope the move to formula goes well.
I couldn't have possibly fed in public due to massive norks but did feel weird feeding him with a bottle in public as felt people would judge me for not breast feeding him for some reason as I had pressure from family members to keep on feeding him.
But people don't care and would probably have more issues if I was effectively flashing trying to feed a jumpy squirmy baby.
Totally recommend the already made up cartons for going out since you don't need to heat them up. I do have a cool bag I take if I'm going to someone's house so I can heat up bottles there. You will find out what works best for you an your baby.
Recommend the nuby bottles in boots much cheaper than Avent and tommy tippee. Wish I had bought them first.