How long can I keep made up formula for?

[29herzie]

Yes I know that it should really be made up freshly for each feed and disposed of afterwards (the tub says after 30 minutes) but I can't help wondering what leeway there is for this?

My DS is 3 months and has been breast-feeding poorly since a foul cold when he was 10 days old. We have been working on his latch with expert help but to no avail. He also has reflux and is on ranitidine. To help this I have cut dairy from my diet which seems to help. However he has continued to fall down the 'curves' and both GP and health visitor are concerned and so he now has to have extra bottles. I am expressing as much as I can but can't get enough so have been supplementing with formula. However dairy based formula upset his tum and he has now been prescribed neonate, which seems to suit his tum, but he absolutely hates it (it smells totally rank to be honest) so I am expressing and mixing EBM with the formula to get him to take it.

This means that I am making up bottles with 50% EBM only to have him fuss about and drink about 1 oz. I then have to throw it away, including my EBM which I don't have enough of to do!

Can I keep this milk chilled in the fridge at all (not all day, just till the next feed)? Also to complicate matters we are going away soon and I am trying to work out how to combine the above with airport security! Any suggestions welcome.

(Neocate, I think, not neonate?)

You could call the neocate helpline - there will be a number on the pack - to ask about this.

I think they will say that once your baby has had some of the bottle, you will have to discard and not keep in fridge. Thirty mins sounds very cautious though.

One thing you could do is to prepare two small bottles and only use the second when your baby has finished the first. Keep the second one in the fridge and use it next time. This should be fine, but check with Hv.

My health visitor says 2 hours and then discard.

Not sure with that milk but normal milk is 2 hours from being made up- so make it hot and leave to cool.

Or 1 hour if used I think?

Thanks everyone, I think we are getting the hang of it with lots of little bottles

I have a baby who snacks. If I discarded every 30 minutes I'd have to have about 40 bottles. I tend to let him use a bottle for 1-2 hours, he's on neocate

Was going to say although a faff lots of little bottles will be the way to go (2oz?) I exclusively pumped for quite a few months and know how precious that hard earned breastmilk is!