Making up formula - do you follow the rules??

[MumtoHarry]

We have just moved Harry onto formula and I am worrying about how I should make it up ... does everyone follow the new guidelines about making it up with boiled water cooled for less than 30 mins, and then let that cool enough for the baby to drink it (which seems a real faff - and a bit impossible to get the timing right if you are letting the baby demand-feed)... or do people make up the bottles of cooled boiled water in advance (and make up the feed with water at room temp)... or do people make the feed up in advance and keep in in the fridge?? I am probably over-thinking this, but it all seems SO much hassle to do it properly and yet if baby was ill because I couldn't be arsed to get it right I'd feel awful ....

lol, i can assure you that's how hot dd liked it.
thinking about it, i suppose the addition of the formula powder must have reduced the temp further but i never measured the 'after', just the 'before'. we kept it in the fridge, so it would have been cold.
dd does like her milk hot, though, she now demands it to be send back to the microwave and made 'HOTTER' if it's not been done to her liking.

lol just mentioned this to dh and he said 'no, you moron, we used to run it under the tap'. actually, i think after 6 months we added a splash of cold water... how soon we forget. she does like her milk hot, though. to my constant vexation.

MrsBadger good tip. (you have given good advice to me before iirc). "room temp" in our bedroom is rather chilly. So I either need to get dd accumstomed to milk on the chilly side (either cartons or prepared according to the guidelines obviously) or taking a carton to bed (!) would probably work.

Watch out for my thread next week (I can see it now) "help I have washed and tumbled dried 2 cartons of SMA with my bedding"

Not sure if this has been mentioned but the reason why The Department of Health recommend making bottles up each time you need one is because a few babies had salmonella and it was caused by formula being made up hours before.

At the risk of stirring things up even more..

Myself and all other parents I know have been told never ever to heat a bottle in the microwave.

When I was making up bottles (3years ago) that was a bigger crime than anything else. The reason was this method of heating creates hot spots and can scald your child

Judging by this thread midwives/health visitors no longer treat this as a hanging offence!!!

Yeah but lets face it, hotspots are only for idiots. I know it says don't do this on the packet but given the choice between Aitch's method or deadly bugs, I know I'll be choosing the micro method. And then leaving/swirling/checking/swirling again method. I have managed to use a Microwave for some considerable years without burning any of my family.

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is anyone saying add it to boiling water?
i'm not a person who sticks rigorously to rules when i can see that they are designed to catch, er, dummies... and the hotspot rule is one of those...
i wouldn't have trusted myself to remember to shake every time if i'd put the milk into the micro, having said that (i am myself a bit of a dummy) but i felt that the fact i was putting the formula powder in afterwards meant it was a given.

Oh I wish I hand't read this I heat mine for 35 secs in a 750 wat microwave how many watts is your microwave aitch?

actually i don't know, cos we've got a different microwave now and i haven't used formula in a year. time to get your thermometer out...

I've only got an ear thermometer!

I reckon 35 seconds in our microwave is enough as it's just hot enough not to be too hot for him to drink iyswim.

ah no, read on macduff. i got that bit wrong, it's so long since i did all that, i'd forgotten the fact we used to add a splash of tap or run it under the tap.

With ds I put boiled water into the bottles and left them at room temperature. I then added powder when the feed was due. I didnt feel so bad about doing that when I found this leaflet about bottle feeding.

The following comes from a WHO leaflet from 2007 (after new guidleines brought in):

What if I do not have access to boiling water?

The safest way to prepare a feed is using water that has been boiled and cooled to no less than 70ºC.

? If you do not have access to boiling water, you may wish to use sterile liquid infant formula.

? Alternatively, you can prepare feeds using fresh, safe water at room temperature and consume immediately.

? Feeds prepared with water cooler than 70ºC should not be stored for use later.

? Throw away any left-over feed after two hours.

The full leaflet is here - it is a pdf file:
How to Prepare Formula for Bottle-Feeding at Home

If you search long enough you'll be able to find an "authority" on the internet to support whatever method you use to make up feeds.
People don't have to follow the UK Dept of Health advice. But health professionals have to make sure you're aware of it, so if you chose not to follow the UK guidelines and your baby gets ill the DOH will be in the clear.

so are cartons of liquid formula sterile then? How do we know this?

Is the world health organisation not a good enough authority then?

the cartons of formula have been heat treated to sterlise them so arent contaminated like the powdered formula could be.

As well as giving general advice on feeding, the WHO issues specific guidelines for disaster-hit areas around the world. Earthquakes and floods may mean no electricity or other means of heating water for preparing feeds. Giving a baby a feed made with room temperature water is probably the lesser of two evils, the alternative would be to let the baby starve,
The UK Department of Health advice incorporates the WHO guidelines and makes them specific for the UK.

to be fair, seona, the question asked is 'what if i don't have access to hot water?', so it is presenting a rather specific set of circumstances. it's not like you don't have a kettle. i take your point that if you do find yourself without access to hot water then making up cold and using immediately will be acceptable, but the leaflet cannot be said to be advocating it as an everyday method.

I make up 3-4 bottles at a time to store in the fridge.

-Boil water and leave for 15 mins (as pack directed)

• Make up feeds
• Stand in ice cold water until cool
• stick in the back of the fridge

I'm not going to make up feeds with cooled boiled water as my health visitor advised - the whole point of using just boiled water is to kill bugs in the powder.

You don't use 100C water due to risk of scalding.

If you use boiling water to make up feeds, the powder sticks all over the scoop too, so you can't be sure you are adding the right amount.
Also the bottles have a habit of exploding when shaken.

I'm glad this thread has come up, I thought the using cool boiled water and making up as you go were the new guide lines, I will stick with what I know, and make them in advance.

I'm a bit confused about this thread now. I know the new guidelines say make up formula at not less than 70 degrees etc etc, but then the last secion of the World Health Organisation leaflet that Seona1973 attached seems to imply that the way I always made up bottles (and thought was now wrong) is in fact fine - i.e. that as long as the feed is going to be consumed immediately it is fine to add powder to safe room temperature water - which makes me wonder what all the fuss is about. That's the way that everyone I know prepares formula so I'm relieved to hear that the WHO seem to think it is acceptable.

Interesting as i worried about this too but now I just make them up in advance let them cool to room temp and stick em in the fridge.

We mums dont have time for that faffing!

Actually after reading the leaflet given in the link I am very confused too I was making them up in advance and putting them in the fridge but I have been using boiling water and leaving to cool and not adding the powder after.

Do the majority use cooled boiled water???? who has time to wait 30 minutes though?