Making up bottles for night feeds

[JaffaCakeJaffaCake]

Is it ok to make up the water for bottles in advance, cool it and store it in the fridge? We seem to be spending ages making them as we go and waiting for the water to cool which isn't great when DD is screaming to be fed. All the guidance I've read online says not to make in advance but I wondered if this is the manufacturers being ultra cautious. DD is 7 weeks. Thanks.

I have a bottle of cooled boiled water in fridge. When making night feed I use half boiled water from kettle first, shake to mix powder and then add half water from fridge. The water needs to be hot to sterilise the powder. Hope this helps

Yep, same as Laura. For a 7oz feed I use 2oz boiling water to mix the 7 scoops of powder then add 5oz of previously cooled boiled water. Hope that makes sense?!

you could make the formula up in advance with hot water, quick cool then store in back of fridge. just warm as needed. either that or use cartons or mix of hot and cold as mentioned here......or spend a load on the perfect prep machine. x

As long as they have been made fresh with boiled water then cooled and stored in a fridge the will be fine for through the night everyone I know does it this way even my HV has said she did it that way

Dont quote me but im sure bottles stay "fresh" for 24 hours, i think my hv told me this, so we make a batch of 6 they are left to cool then put in the fridge.

Ive just worked out that buying premade would cost us £40 a week.... a tub of formula that lasts a week costs us £8.

Thats not a bad idea

£4 for less hassle sounds reasonable

Do you know why the water has to be boiled? It isn't to clean the water, it's to kill any bugs which might theoretically be in the powder. Cooled boiled water can't do that.

The half-boiling, half-cold method is therefore utterly brilliant - kills the bugs and can be used immediately!

your not allowed to store cooled boiled water or store bottles since the new guidelines came out, I use the cartons of ready to feed formula for nights

yes the guidelines are just that but when it isnt practical to make fresh making up and storing bottles correctly should be another safe method to use. it all depends on what you are happy with but it is what i will be doing again when my next lo arrives. i must admit last time lo didnt need night feeds for long so i used a carton then as i didnt need to go downstairs to fridge or warm it.....but that was me being lazy and not wanting to disturb the dogs ! Daytime i made a few up in advance and always made the first milk of the day the night before x

The boiling water is to do with the formula powder, not UK tap water.

I used to make up a day's worth in advance, flash cool and store in the fridge. For a long time we used cartons in the night as it was easier. When she was older we would warm a bottle, put it in one of those thermal holders, and leave it in the room. I'm not recommending that though, as I'm not a professional. It worked for us and we had no problems, though we were always conscious that we were making up in advance and if the baby was ever to get an upset stomach we would make up when needed (not that that happened)

I've made up my sons' bottles every night (standard boil the water and leave it for half an hour before mixing technique), stuck them in the fridge and warmed as required (in a dish of hot water) for six months. As long as you use them within an hour of getting them out of the fridge and chuck any that are older than 24 hours they should be fine. Not having a bottle ready and having to wait that half hour is indeed a total nightmare!

The way to do bottles in advance is (as per the WHO) to make up the bottle properly and flash cool before storing in the coolest part of the fridge.

If specifically talking about night feeds, I would make them just before bed in accordance with above then discard in the morning if not used.

Or there are machines like this which claim to automate the 'kill bugs with hot and then add cold' method mentioned above.

Yes, half boiled half cool is fine because you kill the bugs with the hot (above seventy degrees) before cooling with the cold.

Just to say you do not have to wait for the water to cool in the kettle - the advice is to leave it no longer than 30 minutes so the water is at least 70 degrees. In fact I wouldn't want to leave it that long as I doubt my kettle cools that slowly.

Yes I know there is something about boiling water destroying nutrients (not that I can find a decent reference) so off the boil yes, waiting for 30 minutes when water could well be less than 70 degrees, not necessary.