Tips for bottle prep

[Hope06]

Any tips or tricks for preparing formula powder?
Currently expressing and using ready made formula but looking to cut down on expressing to eventually stop so would be switching to powdered formula.

I know not everyone agrees but I picked up a barely used perfect prep from a friend of a friend and never looked back.

I combination fed, and used ready made or BF if out and about.

With a non sleeping angry baby the perfect prep took one headache away.

@moobar I have looked at a perfect prep, it just seems a lot of money for something that can be done with a kettle, though the easiness and quickness would be very tempting at 2am!

Very quick and easy. I think I paid twenty. With a new filter. Loads on Facebook selling sites. You can give it a clean before you use.

It's controversial but I also use a perfect prep...another way is to keep cooled, boiled water in the fridge. Use a couple of ounces of hot water from the kettle to kill off the bacteria in the powder, and then use the cooled water to top up the rest.... basically doing the same thing as a perfect prep machine but with less risk I think

I use a secondhand Perfect Prep too, cost me £13. My birth children are old enough for me to have relied on the kettle method but I now foster and the Perfect Prep has been a godsend.

You say it seems expensive for something that can be done with a kettle however that wait for it to boil cool for 30 mins to allow you to make the bottle then have to run it under a tap with a screaming hungry baby is not fun! BUY A PREP MACHINE!!

We’ve got two preps... seriously get the new model that beep would drive you to drink , I can hear it on another floor. It takes literally two minutes, my kettles barely boiled in that time, the new ones idiot proof as it literally reads you the riot act every time incase a granny is helping you make a bottle up.

Ds1 was bottle fed n we still use it over night while he’s teething and for his last bottle at night n he’s one. Ds2 is still feeding from me, expressed mostly for my sanity, but it’ll be used for him too eventually.

I wasn't keen on the idea of a perfect prep. We have a kettle that boils water then keeps it at 70 degrees. It means to mix a bottle I just pour out the right amount of water and mix in the powder. I then put it in a cup of cold water to cool and by the tome I've changed him it's good to go.

I do the same as @flibbledibble - use 50% boiling water to mix the powder then 50% cooled boiled water and its good to go immediately!

With ds1 i faffed around with cooling a boiling bottle down in a jug of cold water then making up loads to store in the fridge and heat on demand (back 4yrs ago when it was ok to do that) - both are annoyingly slow when u have a screaming baby!

Hey guys, I ended up getting a 2nd hand perfect prep! I gave in after it took me about 50minutes to make a bottle from starting the kettle boiling to feeding it to her.
Now I just have to deal with the insane amount of froth I manage to make in the bottle!

I wouldn't bother with a PP - boil water, add it to powder, leave it to cool on the side then fridge door after about half an hour. 30 seconds or so in the microwave and Bob's your aunt. I usually made a fresh bottle up straight after using one so I was always one ahead.

As for making them up I know it's not recommended now but I did it the old fashioned way. Emptied and refilled kettle, boiled it and left it to cool for 30 minutes to reach the correct temperature to make bottles, added the water then equivalent number of flat scoops of powder. Shook them well, then left to cool naturally at room temperature. When cool I stored them in the fridge, they can be kept for up to 24 hours. To warm up I used boiling water and a plastic jug (we had a flask full it boiling water for going out).
I think it's so much easier than messing about making them as needed. And I know most people use the perfect prep machine but sorry to me that's laziness, you don't need a machine to make bottles in my opinion. I'd only ever make them the old fashioned way, regardless of what's recommended.

Froth wise swirl it instead of shaking it, or keep a spoon in milton n stir it instead. Obviously wash the spoon before you put it back in but I dare say a few spoons in a mug would solve the overnight issue.

I don't really understand the pp machines... Could you not simply boil the kettle, and keep that water in the fridge. And then each time you need a bottle, boil the kettle, add an once or two of boiling water to kill the formula germs, then top up with the previously boiled, but now cooled water to make it the right temp? Would that not do the exact same job, but without the risk of mouldy filters, incorrect temp to kill bacteria, big expense, bulky appliance? Feel like I must be missing something?!

As a nanny, I do the method several posters have mentioned with freshly boiled water and cooled boiled water. I prefer it to a perfect prep, as you don't have the faff of filters and making sure the machine is clean, and also you can use more boiling water than the "hot shot" - which is one of the concerns about the perfect prep (that it doesn't use enough hot water to correctly sterilize the formula powder).example

If you use this method, an important thing to bear in mind is that you need to pre measure the cool water and not just top it up to the bottle measurements, for example, 6oz bottle - 3oz of boiling water, 6 scoops of powder, then 3oz of cold water. If you just too up to the 6oz mark you are only adding about 2is of water which makes the feed too concentrated.

I had to stop bf quite early on. Got a 2nd hand perfect prep on Facebook and it was the best thing I ever got. Perfect bottles every time exactly when I needed um. Only cost me £20 and I got a new filter for a tenner. Just finished with formula this week and sold it onfir the same price I paid. They really are a god send

We use the Perfect Prep and also struggled with froth which gave our DS a lot of trapped wind. If you don't shake it too vigorously (we swirled it or stirred with a spoon) then there's a lot less froth.