Formula help please!

[wishmynamewasdave]

I've decided to give my ten month old two beakers of formula a day. But as I exclusively breastfed my pfb I've not a flippin clue where to start - it's soooo confusing, and the bottles/beakers I've managed before now have taken an hour of faffing and waiting before I can give them. This can't be normal!

So - my questions are:

1. When do I give them? I want to give one before bed, but do I give this with dinner? Or do I wait until I'm trying to settle him to sleep?

What time should I give the day one?

1. What should my sterilising/preparation routine be so that I'm not constantly waiting for water to cool, sterilizer to do it's stuff, and beakers to cool down?

I'm so confused!

Are these going to replace breastfeeds? If so I would just pick the times you breastfed.

For bedtime we have always given a bottle after the bath, then clean her teeth and straight up to the bedroom for a story. The key thing is teeth cleaning afterwards, really. We've always done it right before bed so they have a big sleepy drink on their tummy to help them go to sleep. Our day-time milk has always been first thing in the morning, with breakfast an hour or so later. But selfishly that has always helped with getting DD through until she's at the childminder's!

At 10m we were definitely still giving any afternoon bottle too, before a nap.

Try and use beakers if you can, only because it's a pain getting them off bottles bitter experience

If you're using powdered formula then you might need to experiment a little with the times to get the water cool enough, but roughly it's boil the kettle, wait for it to cool down a little (we used to do half an hour, I think), then make the formula, then you'd need to wait again for it to cool down to the temperature your baby will drink it at. If you're doing the milk at the same time every day you should hopefully be able to slip into a routine of getting the drink ready roughly an hour or so before feeds, maybe?

A lot of people don't fully sterilize at this age. A good hot dishwasher wash should be fine for a drink that's being drunk very soon after making.

Thank you very much - that's what I thought! It's so long winded - I'm not sure I'm cut out for this!
My husband always jokes that it's a good job my babies took to breastfeeding as I'm so disorganised they'd starve if they were bottle fed

Powdered formula can contain quite nasty food poisoning type bugs so it is recommended that you sterilise - particularly if you end up using bottles. Liquid formula is heat treated to remove these bugs.

So if I just but ready made I wouldn't have to sterilise?

It's up to you. I would be happy not sterilising with ready made formula.

Sterilising the bottles wouldn't magically make the formula powder sterile. That's what the hot water is for! A hot dishwasher bottle is sterile in any case.

I never sterilised after 9 months. Lo's were on the floor then so I did not see the point. Wash bottle or beaker thoroughly though (obviously)!

The temperature of the water used to mix with the formula is what is important, as far as I know. It needs to be 70 degrees, or boiled and left to cool for 30 minutes.

Do double check though, because my youngest Ff LO is now almost 3 so memory is hazy.

I always gave before bed

When they're sleepy, not with dinner. Formula is a meal in itself. (Again, I'm not an expert though)

Are you giving follow on or what stage formula? Will you be breastfeeding also?