Leaving water in the rapid cool

[beigecolourpalette]

Hey,

I'm new to formula feeding as just been prescribed a dairy free one.

We have a rapid cool and I'm just wondering if when out and about I can pre-fill and then cool the nuby and leave the water in there until I use it, so that I have an entire amount ready to go? As I know how much the bottle ends up as once it includes the powder? That would give me more time to use it rather than having to wait another 3 hours, but just wondering if there's any reason I shouldn't do that?

Hi, I don't think you should do this as the water needs to be hot enough to kill any bacteria within the formula which it likely won't be if you keep it in the rapid cool. I think best option would be to put boiling water in a separate flask to be used when out as that should keep it hot and then just use the rapid cool at point of making.

And possibly invest in another rapid cool so you don't need to worry about the 3 hr thing x

@PeanutCat1 oh sorry I should have mentioned I take a hot water flask of water out too so I do a hot shot method! Key bit of info lol

I don't really understand sorry. You're saying you want to use a bit of the hot water from the flask to mix with the formula, then add cold water from the rapid cool? Why not just use the hot water and then the rapid cool will cool it down?

If you're going to mix it with cold water I don't understand why you'd need the rapid cool at all, you could just have 2 normal flasks (one hot, one cold).

@CustardCream0472 haha basically yes what I'm asking is can I use the rapid cool as another flask I guess. I already have the rapid cool so saves me buying another flask!

I mean technically you could if you're mixing the formula with hot water first. But I don't really understand why you'd do it that way?

I'm guessing you would put a bit of hot water and the formula in the baby's bottle then top it up with cold water from the rapid cool? But I don't see how that's any quicker or easier than just filling the rapid cool with all the hot water you need, adding the formula then transferring it to the bottle? Unless your baby is really young and you're trying to make 2 bottles from one flask? Which would make sense but that won't last long so you'd need another one soon enough anyway, but yeah I think it would work for now.

Not going to lie, this has really confused me haha

@CustardCream0472 hahaha sorry. So basically my thinking is if I am going out for the day, I have more bottles I can use it for if I've done a cool before I leave. As once I've used the first lot of water I can then cool down another lot from the hot water flask. Does that help it make any more sense? So for example Bottles 1 & 2 are hot shot from the flask and cooled water from the nuby. Then I refill the nuby and cool that and I have enough for another couple of bottles, rather than doing the specific amount for each bottle. So saves time too as I wouldn't have to wait!
My baby eats more often than 3 hours and I begrudge buying another when I do the hot shot method haha, so I'm trying to think of ways around that.

@CustardCream0472 haha sorry to come back to this again but I guess another way of wording my question is - can I leave the water in the rapid cool until I need it, rather than having to do the cooling part when I make the bottle.

Right I get it, so because you wouldn't be putting any formula in the rapid cool just water you could use it a couple of times without washing? So you wouldn't need to wait for 3 hours after it has had hot water in it for it to be ready to use again?

I think technically the advice would be that it should be washed and sterilised after every use, even if it's just had water in. But personally I think that's a bit OTT. Our health visitor said we shouldn't use the perfect prep machine though, which is the same as a hot shot really, and I ignored that! I probably wouldn't think twice about doing what you're doing, but I imagine it does go against the official NHS guidance.

Possibly a silly question & plz ignore if not relevant - but were you bf before? There is the option to cut out dairy from your diet and continue bf if you want to instead of switching to formula. My baby had CMPA symptoms and I had to research myself about this as my GP was useless despite visiting multiple times with alarming symptoms.

@FamilyStrifeIsHard2Bear not silly at all! I was/still am expressing as we couldn't do breast directly. I however cannot keep up with supply either physically or mentally - having to pump multiple times a day has been too hard as it is so I am weaning off of it slowly (now going to freeze everything just in case). On top of that I have PPD and going dairy free for me would mean going vegan, which is really really difficult for me, so my psychiatrist advised against it (before we were diagnosed with an intolerance, this is still when it was just suspected). So we did technically start formula last week which is when all his symptoms ramped up and we were finally diagnosed!