Formula feeding help...

[Doodle1983]

Hi. New mum here - we are formula feeding our 5 day old baby.. And it's so much faff and would love some advice.

Were using cow and gate and it says on the pack:

1. boil the kettle (1 litre fresh water)
2. Leave the kettle to cool for 30 minutes
3. Pour the desired ammount of water into a sterilized bottle
4. add the desired ammount of powder
5. shake well and let it cool under a cold tap untill it is the right temperature.
6. use immidiatly and within two hours.

Why do u need to boil a litre and leave it for 30 mins? Can't I just boil enough to fill a feed I need and let it cool slightly so as not to melt the bottle... Then cool under a tap? My bloody electric bill is going to be huge ! Thank goodness I'm not on a water metre with all the wasted water ... Help !

You don't need to leave it for 30 minutes no, but after 30 minutes the water is not hot enough to kill the bacteria in the formula.

We have a large thermos flask, so twice a day we fill a kettle, boil and then fill the thermos so we have boiled water on tap throughout the day.

You could also keep pre boiled water,

Boil kettle
Pour in half the amount needed (even boiling it won't damage the bottle)
Add all the powder
Add enough cooled water to make up the feed (use the bottle you are pouring the water from to measure the correct amount)
Shake, check temp and serve!

Thanks so much! Husband went out and bought a flask yesterday and that's what we used last night... I did just say to him that's what we should do through the day. I can't understand why it tells you on the mix to boil a litre of water ! X

I think the thing about a litre of fresh water is to stop people reboiling smaller quantities. Reboiling can eventually concentrate the natural minerals etc to an unsafe level, as far as I understand it. Although if you boiled a smaller amount of fresh I can't see the problem with that!

Do you leave for up to 30 mins?

They say a litre so that after 30 mins the temp should be approx 70c. Using more than a litre will take longer to cool, less than a litre will take less time. The water needs to be at least 70c to kill potential bacteria in the powder, but hotter than that can destroy the nutrients

I boil I don't know how much and make it straight away

we boil and pour water in bottles to where we need it and put powder through the day.
we didnt worry about needing to kill powder germs as there arent that many reported cases of illness from incorrectly made formula

Have a read of this article from the Analytical Armadillo before you decide about not using water at 70 deg plus. I personally wouldn't take a completely avoidable risk.

I've always batch made 6 at a time.
Boil kettle
leave 15 mins
make up six bottles
cool rapidly in a sink of cold water (I just stand all the bottles in the sink)
put in the fridge until I need them

Can't imagine what a faff making up a bottle at a time would be! Ever likely people think ff is such a chore.

I don't find it a faff at all, takes me less than 5 minutes to make a bottle up and that includes washing the last bottle and chucking it in the steriliser.

I do the same as LST. The point of boiling the kettle and leaving for no longer than 30 minutes is do the water is hot enough to kill bacteria. It only says let it cool slightly to lower the risk of scalding yourself. You wont melt the bottle.

If you want to make up fresh, then we used to put 50% boiled water in, then the powder and shake, then the other 50% of water from previously boiled water from the fridge to cool to the right temp.

However you do it, you must use water over 70 degrees to mix the powder to kill any bacteria.

As someone says above there aren't many reported cases of illness from not doing it properly but its just not worth the risk with such a tiny baby.

Thanks. I think through the day we'll use fresh boiled water and cool under a tap and then in the night a flask for a couple of feeds. Good advice x

Just to say you can always use ready made formula at night congratulations on the baby

Just to say you can always use ready made formula at night congratulations on the baby

Another vote for ready made cartons. We take a sterile bottle to bed, pour the milk in and feed - DS drinks it at room temperature. It takes seconds to prepare.

Can you warm up the cartons ? We do have some in reserve for emergencies

Mine always drank ready made cartons without the milk being warmed

My dd quite happily drinks the cartons at room temp, but you can put the bottle in a jug of water to warm the milk if needed.

We also put boiling water into sterile bottle then put it straight into fridge. Then make up a bottle with two thirds of the water needed(boiling) and all of the powder needed- mix then top up with the cold water- great if you need a bottle quickly.
We also take cartons and sterile bottles for bed-DS sleeps better if it's warm so we bought a bottle warmer for the bedroom-it takes 2 minutes. It's a pricey way of doing it but OH decided it was worth it not to have to get up- it was his job whilst I BF(I'm mix feeding)!!!!