Help - stupid mistake with formula

[Fondantfancys]

I’ve made a stupid mistake with formula and I’m in a bit of a panic. I’m not making enough milk to bf my daughter (she’s ten weeks old on Monday) so have had to increase her formula bottles. To help get through the night I sterilise a flask with milton then fill with boiling water, take it upstairs along with sterilised bottles and formula powder. When she starts storing in the night I make a bottle on my bedside table, put it in the ensuite sink with sold water to cool down, do her nappy etc then feed her when it’s cooled enough. This has been a solution what works well especially as my husband just sleeps or complains and just me no help.

This morning my older daughter came in (6) and then my baby started crying. I made a bottle and left in on the side, did her nappy, came back, bottle was cool enough and I fed her.

The panic now is because I’ve realised I never cooled her bottle because I didn’t need to, which means the water would have been below 70c and it’s meant to be higher than 70 to kill any bacteria in the formula.

I’m panicking thinking she’s guzzled a bottle full of bacteria riddled milk and she’s only almost ten weeks old which is still little and I’m not sure what to do.

Sorry for the typos - I’m a teacher and embarrassed at the mistakes! I’m rush posting as feeling so anxious and didn’t check my previous post for mistakes

Oh love, she'll be fine. All the sterilizing is a precaution. Boiled water is clean and the formula is sterile and the bottle was clean. It's a tiny risk. She'll be fine.

I'm not sure I understand. Presumably the water you used to make up the bottle in the first place was still boiling water from the flask rather than lukewarm? So would have been hot enough to kill any bacteria present.

The reason the bottle was cool enough to feed was because you left it on the side for a short while rather than putting it in the sink to cool, that's the only difference? If so, I'm not seeing the issue?

Thank you, I appreciate that. Rationally I’ve told myself I’m over reacting, I’m sure it’ll be fine, but I’m tired and I think feeling a bit rubbish as she dropped to the 9th percentile before we realised I wasn’t making enough milk bf, and now I can’t even make her the formula properly!

There are a lot of steps in the process of making a bottle that reduce he overall risk. Sterilising the bottle, the flask, boiling the water, making at the time, using the formula tin within 1 month. So if you do miss a step, in this case not use water that is warm enough (even though it has been boiled and is less than 24 hours old), means it’s a very small risk that bacteria can grow in a way that adversely affects your daughter. Keep an eye on her, she will more than likely be fine, if she shows any gastro signs, go to the out of hours GP.

The water in the flask had significantly cooled - it had been boiling when I filled it up approx 10pm, when I used it again at 6am it was much cooler water. The formula instructions said water needs to be above 70c and the water I used was definitely below that temp. The bottle was only left on the side for max 5 minutes, which isn’t long enough for it to have cooled down enough for a feed if the water was originally over 70c. I hope that makes sense!

Thank you - that’s true the other steps were done properly, just the water temp. I’ll keep an eye on her and hopefully all will be well.

If you mean that you used cool room temp water to make the bottle then yes that doesn’t follow NHS guidelines but bacteria bacteria in the formula powder is so incredibly rare that most countries, including the US, France and Australia, make bottles only using room temperature water. Think of the NHS advice like belt and braces. Not to say you shouldn’t follow it (although the kid I had in the US and all my French nieces and nephews are fine!) but a bacteria outbreak in the formula would be a news worthy event so you really have no cause for concern at all.

If, however, you mean you used hot water for the bottle then just let it cool on its own then that’s fine and meets all guidelines. The flash cooling is only if you want to feed it sooner or if you want to make a batch ahead, keep in the fridge then reheat later.

Whichever you did, not need to worry at all! Baby will be fine and you’re doing great!

Formula is not sterile. I totally agree with you that the risk is small in this case and especially as its a one off, but the whole point of using water above 70c is because formula isn't sterile.

@Fondantfancys, I've had two babies with feeding issues that I've had to top up, one on the 0.4th centile and the other 2nd centile. It's really crap. In the end, i actually bought ready made formula to use overnight - the little bottles of 90ml to start with, then 200ml, until I felt more confident. If funds allow, this could always be an option.

You and baby will get there! Make sure you are also keeping an eye on your MH, as speaking from experience, sometimes feeding issues can be a bit of a trigger for PND. You are doing great 💐

Thank you so much, that makes me feel better. Parenting is flipping hard work and I’m doing my best but get so cross with myself when I make silly mistakes like this and then I worry so much for my little ones!

Sorry for butting in but this is in active. You’ve said you’re not making enough milk - just checking that you know that the way to make more milk is to allow your baby to spend longer feeding, your body will respond and increase production. If you top up with formula your body will think it’s making enough and won’t increase production- it may well fall.

This is also true. Especially at night.

Sorry I’m rubbish at tagging in my
replies - I don’t usually post just read in these forums. We’ve tried the pre made bottles but have found they make her reflux worse and she brings lots of that milk back up compared to powder formula. Her reflux is terrible, we’ve tried lactose free, different brands etc. But I’m willing to give them another go as it would make night feeds easier!

Thank you for your advice with mh, I’m keeping an eye as I do feel sad about not bf her. My first daughter took to it so well, no problems, so having issues now is frustrating.

Don't worry OP. I went through this too. It's all the emotions and hormones over bf that make you over focus on preparing formula exactly correctly.

In reality the instructions they give you in the UK are belt, braces, duct tape and chewing gum. If you get one thing wrong there are lots of other safeguards holding things up.

Did you know up to about 2001 the advice was to make up a day's bottles at a time and leave them standing on the kitchen counter for 24 hours?

And in Germany/France even today the tins say to make up with water at 38 degrees Celsius. In America they make up with cold water straight from the tap unless the baby is under 4 weeks old. And they often make up big jugs and store in the fridge.

Formula is only very rarely contaminated. And if it is contaminated, you need a lot of bacteria to make someone sick, even a baby, unless they are newborn (under 4 weeks). When you make up formula and feed straight away, even if it was contaminated and even if the water was too cold to sterilise, the amount of bacteria in that bottle would be very small. Your baby's stomach acid and immune system can handle that. Obviously it's not something you'd want to be doing on a regular basis but as a one off mistake, it's really fine.

There have been outbreaks of illness related to contaminated formula in the US and in France in recent years and even though many people are making up bottles with much colder water and leaving the made up formula much longer before feeding, only a few babies got sick each time. Obviously that's still terrible - we don't want any babies to get sick from formula. It makes sense to be cautious where it's their main food source. But some of the US commentary was around the idea that it's possible the subsequent formula recall posed more harm to infants than it prevented because it led to a nationwide formula shortage.

Please don't worry - your baby likely didn't have any problematic amount of bacteria in their milk.

There are some good books and resources by Lucy Ruddle and Amy Brown about processing difficult feelings around feeding.

I was breast feeding her over night before and in the day, and by the evenings she was screaming and screaming and screaming. Then the health visitor said her weight had dropped and she was on the 9th percentile. We bought formula to help so I knew she was being topped up and she was instantly so much happier. I bought an electric pump to try and up my supply, have taken supplements, eaten and drank regularly, have eaten so much oats ha, and my expressed milk then went from 30ml to 60-90ml. Which was great but that’s overall from both sides, so I could pump for 40mins and make 60ml, that’s it. And it took a lot of work to make that, so my days and nights were spent trying to eat, drink, pump, over and over while also trying to take care of a baby and her needs, do the school run for my oldest, sort the washing, cooking dinner etc. Then my oldest also got chickenpox and I just couldn’t keep up so we’re mainly formula feeding with bf for comfort inbetween at the moment. My intention now the chicken pox are over my eldest is back at school is to pump more and get my supply back up but I don’t think it’ll be enough for her, and the formula got her back up to the 25th percentile in two weeks which is where she should be.

That’s so informative about the US and France and the process of making up bottles in other countries! It’s like a whole new world of formula is opening up !

You’re all so wonderful with this advice and have massively helped me to feel better, thank you so much.

I’m going to have a look at those books, they sound like they might be really helpful for me; thank you xx

But her baby lost a lot of weight when she did breastfeed and has reflux. Making bottles can also be a way of ensuring you are feeding your baby enough as you can’t see it with breastmilk.

OP, struggling with breastfeeding and not making enough milk, then your daughter to throw up any milk you have produced is hard. Knowing the exact amount you are giving them through formula is really important for your metal wellbeing when you’ve had a baby with low weight issues. It didn’t stop the reflux but it did make it slightly better but we used kendamil and the MAM bottles, that was the best combination for us. We also used gaviscon but not on every feed, we would use gaviscon on ready made milk because it was just so thin. It wasn’t perfect but DC gained weight consistently. Our DC was so much better when we started weaning them but reflux started to ease about 4 months - so you’re over half way there with any luck.

You can also look into a perfect prep machine. The NHS guidelines don’t recommend it but as a PP said the NGS guidelines are belt and braces approach. If you follow the cleaning guidance on a prep machine, along with the guidance on sterilising and a tin being open less than a month, all of it helps to reduce the risk to a very small amount.

Thank you, that’s really helpful advice, I might try those bottles and milk brand. The bottles have really helped me feel less anxious knowing how much milk she’s getting compared to bf her, I was gutted when her weight was falling. I was bf her all the time and even my mum was shocked when her weight started to drop as I wasn’t going out apart from the school run, I was just at home doing jobs and feeding her. I have thought about a prep machine, I’ll just have to watch my anxious feelings if I feel I haven’t cleaned it properly. At least with bottles I know they’re scrubbed and sterilised !

In reality the instructions they give you in the UK are belt, braces, duct tape and chewing gum. If you get one thing wrong there are lots of other safeguards holding things up.

Exactly this, be kind to yourself OP- it'll be fine :)

Also I did combi feeding and loved the Perfect Prep. As long as you follow the revised instructions (to add the powder before the hot shot to ensure the water hasn't cooled below 70 before it makes contact with all of the powder) and you use the official filters and follow cleaning guidelines (sounds like a lot but it's not) then it's so much easier.

We have a prep machine and one thing i do to ease the worry is after each cleaning cycle, I make a dummy bottle up and test the hot water with a food grade thermometer. Ours is always over 70c (usually 73c) so it is an added reassurance.

There was a big report out yesterday about baby formula - it was on the BBC. But basically these guys are the absolute experts at independent advice. https://www.firststepsnutrition.org/infant-milks-overview

My Tesco food delivery will be here any moment and I’ve got a 6 year old hungry for breakfast so will bring this to a close now and start the day! Thank you so so much to you all for your advice and assurance - I’m very grateful and I feel so much better and calmer. Thank you and wishing you all a restful Saturday xx

You would still clean and sterilise your bottles (so again another step in reducing risk). The prep machines tell you when they need a clean and there’s a clean function on there but if you want to run it more frequently, you can. It uses one bottle to put the water in and takes a few minutes to run a clean cycle. When you are going out, you might the Nubi rapid cool flask helpful. You can use boiling water and it’ll cool the formula to a safe temperature in about 5 minutes. As you’re using Milton to sterilise, it’s easy to sterilise (it wouldn’t fit in our UV steriliser).

Ah ok, good to know re. the prep machines. I think I might look into them again then and my friend recommended the Nubi rapid cool as well, said it was brilliant! I’ll give that report a read too, I saw a headline on BBC news last night about parents being overcharged for formula but I didn’t get to watch the segment.

Tesco calls and breakfast is waiting to be made so I’ll have to reply later if anyone else posts! Thank you again to you all xx