so how do you bottle feed?!

[iamamummy]

i have a 10 week old boy and he was on the bottle from about day 3.
i am using aptamil milk for hungry babies.
i use cool boiled water out of the kettle and put the same amount of scoops as i do ounces. if he doesnt drink it all i keep the formula for 2 hours and discard if he doesnt want anymore and then make a fresh bottle when required. i use a jug of boiling water to reheat or a jug or cold water to cool.

my question is how do you do your bottles? i have heard so many conflicting things its confusing me!

my friend gets up in the morning boils her kettle and makes all of her bottles for that day, when they have cooled she stores them in the fridge and then reheats in microwave for 1 minute as and when required.

I do what your friend does except i don't heat them in the microwave, i put them in a jug of boiling water to heat up. If ds doesn't dink all of the formula I usually only keep for an hour and then throw away.

drink

I make up 4 bottles at a time (I can fit 4 in my steriliser!) with just the water and then add the scoops of powder when DS needs feeding.
He drinks them at room temp so no heating up required. Did the same with DS1.

Oh and I chuck away after an hour of being made up as well

I used to make them all up the night before. THey are ok in the fridge for 24 hours. I would ditch it when they were done as I didn't come back to a bottle until the next proper feed. Once they turned 6 months, I made up a pint (again, at night) in a jug and used it on cereal, in purees, etc, then the last bottle of the day was whatever was left, be it 3oz or 7.

i used to make them up in advance then reheat as we were using Colief. But have just started making each one up as required

because of the 70 degrees thing (recommended to kill the bacteria in the powder which isn't sterile) i now do this:

keep 5 bottles of cooled boiled water in the fridge and one empty bottle outside

when feed is needed i decant 2-3oz into the empty bottle and heat in the microwave for 45 seconds.

then add the full amount of formula scoops and dissolve in the hot water

add the rest of the cold water and shake - and have instant safe milk at the right temperature

have just started doing this at the suggestion of nappyaddict on here - it's great. night feed prep now takes under 2 minutes

when we go out, i now take a flask of just boiled water and use 2-3oz of that and top up with cold water

pinata - for my night feeds i take 2 bottles of boiled water up to bed with me, by the time ds wakes up for his first feed the bottle has cooled to room temp then i just add the formula to it - so from what i understand i should not be doing this because of the bacteria in the formula?

I do them individually. Boil kettle, make up feed within 30 mins of kettle boiling, allow to cool a bit or cool by standing in cold water if ds2 is getting impatient, then use. Also discard whatever hasn't been drunk within an hour.

If I'm out, at night, or first thing in the morning I use cartons.

I thought you couldn't use the hungry baby milk until 12 weeks plus?

yes, the bacteria thing is a small risk, as starlight says, so i just wanted to avoid it.

DD likes her milk warm, too, and i find heating and cooling take too long, especially at night - this is why i love the method of using a small amount of very hot water to dissolve all the formula, as there is then no risk of bacteria, and the topping up with cold water means it's instantly a nice temperature for DD to have

it's working really well - i am eternally grateful to nappyaddict for the suggestion

I'm a terrible mother then. Bottles of boiled water in fridge with little pots of formula measured out. Bung bottle in microwave until heated then add formula. Discard after two hours as stated on Aptamil carton.

Night time feed I take a bottle of just boiled water in an insulated bag which cools to correct temp for when needed. Same when going out or take cartons.

we stuck with the hassle of making them fresh each time, its a massive pain in the arse but I couldn't bear to risk it.

We used to keep 2 big tumblers of icy water in the fridge to cool the milk after it was made up. (Just letting the kettle cool for 30 mins meant it was still scalding).

We used cartons at night, sodding expensive, but was too neurotic to risk anything else.

you can make up all the bottles with freshly boiled water and when cool place bottles in fridge.

you can quickly cool bottles by running under a cold tap with lid on to remain sterile.put cool ed water in fridge

add formula when reqd (cant make up formula and water in advance) after adding formula to cold water heat by using bottle warmer or place in a jug of boiled water

avent powder dispenser means you can carry 3 pre measured feeds

fsa government advice

add the carton to the sterile bottle when you need it. the bottle is sterile and the milk sterile until opened and i dont know how long it remains sterile after opening