Are cartons of Aptamil considered safer than mixing up powder formula?

[MrsCravendale]

It is expensive but I am rubbish at making up the formula in time so LO ends up screaming the house down waiting for bottle and am worried about mixing feeds in advance due to the health issues...

Mw told me that they were safer - told me I should use cartons only until 6 weeks (I ignored her and did a mixture). I guess because they are sealed.

they are only safer if you mix formula really wrongly.

They are very expensive and you shouldn't rewarm any formula and i think the temptation may be there if you start getting through loads of them

powdered formula should be safe provided you make it up according to the govt recommendations, which unfortunately are NOT those often printed on the packaging.

The latest advice is that you need to use water that is 70 degrees or above - so you should make up the formula WITHIN 30 minutes of the water being boiled and then use the milk as soon as possible.

The way many people do it: boil water and then cool it, adding powder to cold water then just slightly warming it, is NOT enough to kill any bugs in the powder which is not sterile.

Cartons are heat treated and so are sterile when packed.

I used to make up 6 bottles at a time, using WilfSells technique, store in the fridge and microwave as necessary. We had no gastro problems at all whilst he was purely on formula.
And yes, I did use the microwave even though I did realise that microwave heating causes hotspots - the simple way to get around this is to shake the bottle and squirt onto the vein on your wrist to make sure it is not overall too hot.
The guidelines are written for the lowest common denominator. There are no health issues if you apply common sense IMO.

The way I've done it since lo hit about 4 months, is to fill the bottle using freshly boiled water, then when I need it, I stick the bottle in the microwave for 40-50 seconds to get it hot, add the powder, give it a bloody good shake, and then sit it in a jug of cold water for a minute til it's cool enough to use.

Before that I tried to follow all the rules but often mistimed it, and I was a bag of nerves when he was a newborn, and frequently scalded myself. The cartons were a godsend for when you're so tired faffing with a boiling kettle is just asking for trouble, and they are safer but obviously the expense is offputting.

I made up the bottles in advance and put them in the fridge, or boiled the kettle, filled a jug with the boiled water and let it cool, then made up bottles... just now and again it was a matter of boil kettle, make up bottle, stand made-up v hot bottle in jug of iced water while cuddling shrieking infant and trying to squeeze out one of the two or three drops of milk my tits produced per day....
I only used the cartons for camping trips and the occasional day out (most days out, made up bottles, put in coolbag).
DS never had a tummy bug till he was about 16 months and got norovirus. Common sense will do just fine, please don't be unecessarily panicked into spending far more than you need to.

It's worth having them in the house for when you're not organised. I only used cartons with my second child and found them to be far more convienient.

madamez, the issue though is current (quite recent) advice is not to use chilled water. It's not about tummy bugs but about serious bugs that we are not used to in the UK in unsterile milk powder.

winestein, agree with your last point totally. We've never had any tummy bugs here either (I also stopped sterilising at 4 months too, since he as chewing everything in sight it seemed pointless!)

Banana - I wish I had never sterilised. The lovly RTKangaMummy gave me the confidence to stop at (I think!) 12 months .

The concerns increased re formula make up after the death of a baby in Europe which contracted (I think) meningitis from the formula (somehow, I think - I could be wrong but hwatever it wasx it was rare and serious). It is acknowledged that such cases are very very rare, but the guidance shows how to make up almost totally risk-free formula.

I could not have survived making formula like that - I fed him pretty much on demand so there was no way I could have made up a bottle on time and so I could not have followed the latest guidance which has been developed to protect against very very rare occurences. I would have made a decision

Ok so given that dd certainly won't wait for boiling water to cool down, is it safer to make up feeds with the just boiled water, refridgerate (sp?) then heat a bit when needed.

At the mo I'm using JamesAndTheGiantBanana's method but couldn't say water was 70 deg.

eyeballs, yes that's the next best apparently. the guidelines are available on the dept of health website.

they advise to make up with just boiled (ie hotter than 70 degrees) water and to cool quickly, keeping them either in main fridge (not the door) or a coolbag with iceblock, transferring to a fridge ASAP.

I think other people have adapted the guidelines in other ways, the two most common being:

• microwaving premade bottles before use to above 70 degrees then cooling quickly in iced/running water

• mixing powder in smaller amount of boiling/just boiled water, than adding cold water as necessary.

I can't comment on the safety or not of these methods but they seem like decent compromises for people to make their own judgement on.

fwiw I have used the odd bottle of formula lately and have used boiling water but cooled it pretty quickly in a bowl under a running tap (only takes a few minutes) or with ice blocks in a bowl of water...

I think they have always said not to do the storing home made up formula in the fridge thing Eyeballs - but in my personal opinion I think that is to mitigate against anyone who might wash up the bottles with the dogs bowl and leave it in there for a few days before serving it lukewarm.

Banana's method seems to sensibly and practically cover all current bases in my opinion.

Wilf said it better!

LOL it's soooo confusing! DD goes from happy and smiley to screaming for a feed in the blink of an eye with no set routine or timing. I know from experience that trying to cool it down, although quite quick is long enough for her to get totally worked up so I guess it's all about doing the best you can in the safest way you can. Eek at dog's bowl!

Cartons a godsend for using out though.

I was oblivious to all this advice - DS is nearly 4 so with DD I just did the same.

I Either; made up all of the bottles for 24 hrs and stored them in the fridge (obviously a no-no now. or Sterilied bottles, put in the boiled water and kept them in the fridge to add powder when I needed it (which I then microwaved)

With DD I just kept the sterilised bottles in the fridge and used cartons. It cost about #16 a week which I realise is double the cost of powder but, for me, it was worth it.

In an ideal world we would all make up the bottles in the (deemed) "correct" way, but with twins fed on demand I can testify that it is nigh on impossible to do.

A wise MNer once pointed out that guidelines are just that, GUIDElines to guide and help us do the best. And I do agree that they are put in place to cover everyone, those with the most and the least common sense.