Does anyone make up bottles in advance?

[JenumGeranium]

I did this for my other 2 kids, but its all changed now hasn't it? Are you meant to make them up as needed? How does that work when the baby is crying for a bottle and you have to boil the water, let it cool down, make the feed and then cool it down more so baby can drink it? How on earth do you manage with night feeds?

Please help!

I made them up in advince for ds1,2+3 and DS4 until he was about 3 months.

No wI make them as I need them.

I boil the water and fill the bottles to 5ozs, when he wants one I add 2ozs of boiling water and the powder and shake.

Its the prefect temp for him.

At night, i take the 5oz bottle upstairs, with a flask of boiling water and a container with the measured milk and do it when he wakes up.

Easy peasy.

TBH I find this way easier then making them all in advance.

BTW, did you know that microwaving the milk zaps all the vitamins and goodness out of it?

That another reason why I changed the way I I did it all .

I did read an article of someone in Glasgow whose baby was ill from formula and the possibility that it was not sterile.

But what I wondered was how did she know that it was in the powder and not from her hands or her handling of the formula? How can it be proved that this was the case. Surely if it was in the formula from the factory then there would have been huge recalls and protests from people who use brand in question which I have never heard about?

Also I read that the formula companies didn't want to put new instructions on their boxes that water should be heated to 70 degrees as they were concerned about scalding, which they must see as a bigger problem than the possibility that the formula is not sterile if this is the case

This is my reasoning.

honestly
in a former life I was a food microbiologist
it's not sterile
Enterobacter sakazakii survives the drying process
quick link to a recent article - I can find more if you want

big fat WHO document

Thanks I'll have a look

LadyTopham - as I understand it, there's no evidence that warming a bottle in the microwave destroys nutrients in formula. Heating it to boiling point certainly would, but obv that's not advisable anyway!

Mears, our resident mumsnet MW has posted about microwaving it and it nutrualising the vitiamins etc.

Mears really knows her stuff.

She could tell me my skin was purple with green stripes and I'd believe her.

As I understand it, microwaving is not a good idea with expressed milk because it can denature the antibodies, but why would it destroy nutrients in formula - it doesn't in other food!

I used to make them up with water in advance, then heat the water, then add the powder. That might work to avoid killing the nutrients.

"Baby's don't know that they can have food and drink warm. They will take it at room temp."

• well you obviously don't know my children as they would catergorically NOT take it at room temp .

"IMHO if you don't want to make up each feed fresh, the next best thing is to make them up with hot water to kill the bugs and them store them in the fridge."

that's what I do - for starters I don't ahve the patience to be making up each feed as I need it, 2ndly I just don't have the space on my work top to have x number of bottles of cooled boiled water sat around all day

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also if the water isn't hot enough I've found it stays "grainy" - hot water completely disolves it .

I'm sure Mears does know her stuff, but on this one question I haven't found any source to support what she says - and I have done a lot of searching.

lazyemma, I've found mears post about it

Sorry, look at her post on Sun 13-May-07 at 14:21:09

LTH-thats a great idea(filling up with 2oz of freshly boiled).i'm going to copy you

QoQ-my dd2 and dd3 would not ever take room temp milk,even if they were screaming with hunger they refused point blank to drink it unless it was hot,despite me trying to give room temp milk from birth.

i used to make feeds in advance and store in fridge,then heat in boiled water for ds1,dd1,ds2,and dd2,but have left the bottles of boiled water on the worktop then added the powder and microwaved them for dd3.wish this thread was started 5 months ago.

diva, its not my idea....hatrick told me about it

yes, she says milk should not be heated in a microwave. This is because microwave heating can cause hotspots, as any fule no. However, the guidance she links to doesn't say that heating destroys nutrients, and I haven't found any source that does. We can do this all day if you like.

Just in cause you doubt me still:

from American Family Physician Journal 1993:

findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3225/is_n4_v47/ai_13664771

"Nutritional analysis revealed no significant loss of heat-labile nutrients such as riboflavin or vitamin C after microwave heating."

from "Nutritional effects of Microwave Cooking" - Lassen, A, Overson, Lars

www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do;jsessionid=7D45814D205513011373800D7B31F73C?conten tType=Article&hdAction=lnkhtml&contentId=1453972

"Several studies have shown that microwave cooking, if properly used, does not change the nutrient content of foods to a larger extent than conventional heating. In fact, suggests that there is a tendency towards greater retention of many micronutrients with microwaving, probably due to the shorter preparation time. Does not describe non-thermal effects. The main problem with microwaving is the uneven heating of the food, which has raised concern regarding microbiological safety. Microwaving infant formula and breast milk has become increasingly popular. The content of nutrients and antibacterial factors in milk are maintained unchanged provided the final temperature does not exceed 60°C."

the thing about hotspots - well, I use a little-known method called "shaking the bottle thoroughly" before I feed it to my daughter, which does the trick.

"well, I use a little-known method called "shaking the bottle thoroughly" before I feed it to my daughter, which does the trick"

LOL - me too

I have to say I'm sure the "loss of nutrients" thing must stem back from the days when it was thought that heating/cooking any type of food in a microwave "killed" the goodness from them

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I've read mears' link and I've read lazyemma's and it does appear that there's absolutely no reason why milk can't be warmed up in a microwave (other than the hot spot one and I found this to be just as bad with warming bottles in jugs of hot water, they still need to be shaken thoroughly before use plus the hot water is a hazard in itself when you've got a toddler around too).

I gave up warming in hot water after a couple of near misses with a jug of boiling water and a very sleep deprived mummy, once spilt on me and once almost on ds1 as I wended my way back from the kitchen to the bedroom. I decided that microwaving was safer.

I'm sure however that LTH is not the only person with the mistaken belief that microwaving zapped all the nutrients out of formulamilk.

I'm guessing that the newer bottlefeed preparation guidelines were a bit of a scoop for the pro breastfeeding lobbyists because if you stuck rigidly to those guidelines you would find bottlefeeding a major cause of stress due to having to make a bottle up fresh each time and wait for it to cool in cold water whilst baby screamed for food. I suppose the readymade carton market has boomed as a result so in the end the formula companies gained a bit of revenue to make up for an increase in those who opted for breastfeeding.

On the subject of the adding 2oz of boiling water to a cooled bottle of water, does this raise the temp to above 70 degrees ? If not then it has not killed off the potential bacteria in the formula, or am I missing the point here ?