Questions about the bottle!

[WindFlower92]

Hi all, hoping for a bit of advice.

Baby is just under 5 months old, and has been EBF. I'm thinking of introducing a bottle feed with formula once/twice a day as she's currently waking constantly in the night and I need a break!

I'm a bit confused about the process so here's a couple of questions:

1. How do you have to wash the bottles? Can I put them in the dishwasher, and do I have to sterilise them as well? Do they have to be washed before every use if they're sat around for a while inbetween uses, even when clean?

2. Which formula is best for 5 months old? Not sure if it's different for different stages. Not worried about cost.

3. How exactly do you make it up/store it safely? I know you have to boil the water and leave for a max. of half an hour, but how long can it stay in the bottle afterwards, in or out of the fridge?

Thanks in advance :)

Forgot my most important question! At 5 months, is introducing the bottle likely to disrupt breastfeeding? I really don't want to stop that at this point so how could this be avoided?

1. As long as your bottle is dishwasher safe, you can pop them in. Bottles should be sterilised before each use, and there are many ways to do this; cold water steriliser, electric steriliser or microwave steriliser. I have the MAM bottles which you can individually sterilise in the microwave, you don't need a separate steriliser. From my experience, bottles won't be sitting around long enough to be collecting dust, and if they are then you probably have too many bottles! I own 6 bottles and my son has 4 a day, if you're only going to be giving 1 or 2 a day, I'd probably only get 2 or 3 bottles. Bottles are only sterile while they're in whatever sterilising equipment you are using.

1. Different formula suits different babies. We started on aptamil and had to switch to cow and gate. You can use stage 1 milk from birth until they're on cows milk/alternative.

1. Once you've made up a bottle, it will keep for 2 hours. It should be discarded 1 hour after you've began feeding baby. You can keep milk in the fridge for 24 hours and just heat the bottles up as you need them.

I don't breastfeed, so can't speak from personal experience, but I would imagine 1 or 2 bottles wouldn't affect breastfeeding.

1. dishwasher then sterilise, do enough for 24 hours at once
2. it’s all much of a much, go with whatever is easily available at your nearest shop, Hipp is good if you want organic
3. get a perfect prep machine or even ready made if it’s only 1 feed per day

Just a warning though, if you haven’t yet introduced a bottle of expressed milk then it might be easier said than done to persuade a 5 month old to take one!

Sounds like you're in the pits of the four month sleep regression. Formula is no guarantee of sleep. It can make sleep worse as it's harder to digest than human milk so can give babies pain.

Formula can cause problems.
Or it may not.

Your body will hopefully regulate to produce less milk if your baby accepts formula. Your baby may love the bottle because it's easier to take more and so develop a "bottle preference" or they may be absolutely fine. Look up "Paced feeding" to ensure that baby doesn't overfeed.

There's no "best" formula. They all have to contain the same essential ingredients.
Aptamil are the most expensive and the market leaders. They are no better than any other but the packaging is space age so screams "science".

Stage 1 all the way.
There is literally no reason to feed anything other than stage 1. Stages 2 and 3 were created simply to get around the advertising laws saying it's illegal to advertise or promote formula for babies less than 6 months.

Dishwasher.
Sterilise before use
Make up formula properly. Don't use a prep machine as the "hot shot" is inadequate to kill the bacteria in the powder.
If money really isn't a concern then for one bottle a day I would simply buy readymade.

Discard any made up formula after 2 hrs or 1 hr if the bottle has been drunk from.

Making up bottles to fridge is a dangerous and outdated practice. The risk is as the bottles cool they spend a lot of time in a "dangerous" temp where bacteria multiply. If you insist on doing this then you need to rapid cool. Place the made up bottle inter ice cold running water until the formula is cold and then fridge it.

Bottle wise. Lots of breastfed babies are pickles at accepting a bottle. Try a REALLY cheap teat. Like an ownbrand from a supermarket. It's a lot more flexible so more similar to the nipple baby's used to.

Reading this post with interest as expecting DC 2 soon. I ebf with my first and she completely refused any bottle. With DC2 I hope to both bf and bottle. So glad you asked all them questions as they are what I'm not clear on.
With regards to whether it will affect your bf. It shouldn't do as bf is now well established if anything you may find it hard to get your DC to accept a bottle. My DD also seemed to hate the taste of formula. The tiny bits we got her to drink she spat out. I got told to use slow flow teats. As with faster flows the baby may start to prefer the ease of how much milk they can get from one suck if that's makes sense. Not sure if that is more relevant to very young babies.

Thanks all - a lot of information to take in! @SpaceDinosaur I'm thinking of using formula just so DH can take her for a bit in the evenings, as by the time he's home she's feeding more than in the day!

To those who have said I might have the opposite problem and she might not take a bottle at all...eeeek! I know this could be a problem but I'd rather that than HAVE to go with the bottle instead of boob if that makes sense! No point making things more difficult for myself in the daytime when it's just me and breastfeeding is quicker and easier.

Thanks again!