Making up formula bottles for night time!

[LeytonsMumma]

I'm mix feeding my 4 week old (exclusive BF was difficult for me) and the advice now is to make a bottle as you go, but some people say that making up bottles or preparing bottles before hand is fine. What is the advice on here and what did you do? Thanks

I can't really help with what other people do, but these are the current guidelines on making up formula.

This leaflet might be helpful too

I made up the bottles and put them in the fridge and heated when we needed them - 15 years ago!

Now I would boil the kettle and put water into sterilised bottles , cool and put in the fridge then when baby wakes put formula in an empty sterilised bottle and make up with an couple of ounces of boiling water then add the water from the bottle in the fridge and shake. Quicker than using all boiling water and cooling down.

Get a perfect prep machine! Utter life and time saver!!

I had two flasks, one of very hot boiled water and the other cool boiled water. Mixed both (got quite good at guessing how much of each needed) with premeasured formula.
Like a perfect prep machine but cheaper.

You can make up the bottles in batches as long as you super cool them (cold water in the sink or a bowl) straight away and then put them in the fridge. But you can't keep them for more than 12 hours.

Failing that I used to use pre-made formula. Which can be expensive but a god send in the middle of the night!

All the official guidance says you have to make them up fresh each time, but nobody really does! You can get perfect prep machines secondhand for about £30/40 and they make up bottles in 2 mins. If we formula feed the next one we're getting the machine!

I used to make for day then for night. I flash cooled in ice then put at the back of the fridge.

I was beside myself for going against the recommendations but I spoke to my dr and did a bit of asking on here and was quite happy with the compromise.

fridge to go

I made up 2 bottles, and brought them upstairs in a Fridge to Go (very efficient cool bag, keeps stuff fridge cold for 8 hours), and warmed them up under the duvet or hot tap. Very useful for days out too.

The perfect prep machine is a life saver, I couldn't recommend it enough. When I'm not at home though, I fill all the sterilised bottles with boiling water then seal them straight away. As and when I need them during the day/night I just add the formula to them.

Perfect prep all the way!

Enterobacter sakizakii (the dangerous bacteria found in powdered formula and the reason we have to make formula up with really hot water, to sterilize it) flourishes between 6 and 46 degrees Celsius. If you're going to make bottles up in advance make sure your fridge is below 5 degrees for this reason and store the bottles in the back.

Just make them up store in back of fridge heat in microwave and shake

So easy!!!

Be careful to shake well though as the microwave can cause hotspots apparently. That's definitely true because I checked it on a physics forum ... and yes this baby is my pfb

Eldest is 5 and the advice was to make fresh each time. In reality I know no one who has. Even the midwife in hospital said I didn't have to be that strict. Her own view was it was mainly for the companies to protect themselves and she's also heard of a case of a baby becoming ill but apparently the parents had been sharing the formula with their neighbours. I don't know if that's true or not

Perfect prep machines were not a thing when I had DD, and came out towards the end of DS needing bottles.

If I can't bf this baby I will be investing in one

WHO advice is (1) best is freshly made according to instructions on can but (2) acceptable but slightly riskier is to make up according to instructions, cool very rapidly under cold running water and store in back of the fridge. Then heat in a bowl of hot water - never microwave.

Either way, the maximum time a bottle should be out of the fridge is two hours.

I always follow this advice, using method 2 for night time bottles, but it seems here that plenty don't. Up to you to decide.