formula feeding. how are you making up your bottles?

[deborah86]

Im Just a new mum and for the last couple of day have been using the pre made milk but im wanting to switch to powder. If i went by all the rules on sterilising and preparing i think i would have a very unhappy life with a screaming 5day old and spending my whole day in the kitchen. What i want to know is do you sterilise your bottles one at a time and make a feed when there screaming? Or do you prepare them in advace? My friend suggested sterilise bottles and put fresh boiled water in them and add the powder when i need it. What do you think?

You don't have to sterilise one at a time. You can sterilise in a batch. Fresh boiled water and adding powder later is wrong, sorry - the really important thing is that the powder is added to water while it is still no cooler than 70 deg C.

You can ask the midwife to do a demo - at 5 days she should still be available to you :)

I just wasnt sure if i could make a couple of bottles up at a time. If you go by the guide line you only get 2 hours on the life of the milk. Im sure when my neice was born you could make up 2 or 3 at a time

Hi OP. The advice is not to make up bottles, but I did and it's quite common to do so. Make sure the water has been freshly boiled and cooled for no longer than 30mins. It is imperative that the water is at least 70c when the powder goes in. Cool quickly (I used to fill the sink with cold water and cool bottles that way) and refrigerate at the back of the fridge on the top shelf. I used to make up 3 bottles up at a time this way.

I now have the Tommee Tippee perfect prep machine which is amazing if you can afford it.

Sterilise bottles in batches and store somewhere clean and sterile (I keep mine in a massive Tupperware box). Do you have a microwave steam steriliser?

Sorry meant to also say - please don't do what your friend suggested, your baby could get ill doing things that way.

As pp says, batch sterilise the bottles and then Tommee Tippee Perfect Prep - life saver, no more unhappy baby while I'm frantically trying to cool / heat up a bottle. If you switch from ready made to powder, it pays for itself in no time I still use the smaller ready made bottles when out and about though.

Also highly recommend the perfect prep machine if you can afford it. If I'm going out ill make up a bottle and thankfully my DS takes bottles at room temperature.
As others have said its all about the temperature when the powder hits the water. As long as you have made them up you can then put them in the fridge and just warm them when needed if you can't afford a perfect prep machine.

So I've been making with boiling water or at least 70° but a friend has suggested I use partly this boiling water, add powder, mix then add cooled boiled water that is stored in sterilised container in fridge. Is this safe?

Yeah it is a steam steriliser i have. I just worry if she get sick they'll blame me but i guess they will find something to blame it on anyway. How does the tommee tippee perfect prep work?

Icklekid that is exactly what we do and it works well.

In terms of sterilising... I have a large saucepan which I fill with water and put half a Milton sterilising tablet in. I do this once a day. I then put all my bottles in it and take them out when I need them.

I keep a bottle of cooled boiled water in the fridge (you can sterilise the bottle as well if you have a tiny baby). Then when I need to make a bottle I put for example 3oz of boiling water in, add the powder, mix together and then add 4oz of the cold water out the fridge. This makes it at perfect drinking temp. It is effectively the cheap version of the tommee tippee machine.

It requires a small amount of organisation on my part, but I get everything done in the evening and then it is ready for the next day.

I am generally quite relaxed about germs but I do have a bit of a thing about using boiled water to sterilise the formula. I am also quite a lazy person but this seems to work well for us

Hope that helps.

' I just worry if she get sick they'll blame me'

Who is going to blame you? Why are you worried about 'them' anyway? Surely the only thing to be concerned about is that your actions DON'T make her sick. 'Blame' is and should not be the reason for doing or not doing something harmful.

af20000 explains a good way of avoiding having to store premade formula but have it ready quickly when needed.

I would make up 3 at a time. I washed all bottles and sterilised. Boiled kettle and let it cool for 30 minutes. Make up the bottles. Rapid cool in a saucepan of cold water for 15 minutes then in the back of the fridge until needed. I warmed very slightly to room temperature in warm water or 20 seconds in the microwave and a good shake.

Always had a good few cartons in, just in case they can't wait.

Tommee tippee perfect prep

I used to make up in a morning, cool rapidly and keep in the fridge. Then warm when needed by submerging in hot water.

I'm buying a Perfect Prep machine this time. Bingo,

We have the tommee tippee steam steriliser so sterilise 6 bottles at a time and th

*sorry fat fingers on phone posted too soon!

We leave the 6 sterilised bottles in machine until used and then I wash as go along and put all 6 back in when used.

The perfect prep machine is a life saver, so easy to use so we only ever make a bottle as required and use ready made bottles when out and about. Mothercare had £20 off the perfect prep when we bought it just 6 weeks ago

Perfectly fine to make up for up to 24hrs in advance and keep in fridge. Use boiling water to make them though.

This complies with WHO guidelines:
www.who.int/foodsafety/publications/micro/PIF_Bottle_en.pdf

I used to pre make ds formula, starting with the night feed for a week just to make sure he was ok with it. Then when he was fine did the night and morning then eventually was ' batch' making 3-4 for the day, saved my sanity. But you do what you feel is best

Thanks af2000 if I'm honest I tried this yesterday and it was so easy and made bottles ready at the perfect temperature. Definitely saved me feeling the need for a perfect prep machine now! Win!

If at home, you can easily do a tommee tippee perfect prep job yourself, by adding about a third of the bottle's total volume of hot water to the powder, then making up with cold. There is no need to boil UK tap water for healthy term babies, but I was advised here once that doing it gets rid of the chlorine, which seems preferable! So keep a jug of boiled cool water in the fridge.

Boil your kettle. Add 2oz very hot water to 6oz worth of formula. Shake thoroughly. Then 4oz very cold water. Voila, perfect temp safe bottle in the time it takes to boil the kettle. Quicker than warming a pre made one.

Oh sorry af on phone and just saw your post

Exactly what rubberstamp said and link from World Health Organisation - my son recently spent a night in hospital trialling CMA formula, and this is how the NHS nurses prepared his bottles - and told me to do same. As long as bottles are sterilised, boiled water, made and cooled quickly, then refrigerated between 2-4 degrees as they're all used up within 24 hours.

Saves sanity!

It's so difficult to know what way is best to prepare formula
The health care people seem to have strict opinions on how to prepare formula feeds online but no mention of it in hospital at all. I find I have been relying on other people's advice best practices on this forum as they are reluctant to discuss formula feeding in any great details. Hoping that will change next week when I go in to have baby.

excited, the key is that the water is very hot when it hits the milk powder. The milk powder is of more risk than the water, iyswim. You are essentially trying to avert food poisoning.

Good luck with your baby!

Yep, hot water to kill milk powder bacteria. Short storage time to prevent dangerous levels of bacteria multiplication.