cows' milk - can i leave it in a bottle out of the fridge overnight?

[olivo]

dd 21mo, still has a bottle in the morning as soon as she wakes up; usually, i make it up (formula) before i go to bed and leave it out till the morning. we are nearly at the end of the formula, which is no longer made, and i wondered if it would be safe to leave cow's milk out overnight instead. we have tried dropping the bottle and just having milk at breakfast time but she wont take it and i'm not prepared for her to drop that amount of milk yet. she will only drink it room temp so even dragging myself downstairs as soon as she wakes is a bit of a faff.

any ideas? TIA

I'm afraid I wouldn't want to feed my DD milk that had been left out over night, especially in the summer.
I go downstairs and heat some for her every morning before I get her out of her cot.
Is that really so much hassle?

I wouldn't leave any kind of milk out overnight.

I wouldnt want to drink left out milk myself never mind give it to my lo!!

Nor would I

How much milk does she have at other times of the day (if any)? At 21m if she's eating a balanced and varied diet she doesn't need milk in the same way she did as a tiddler.

Perhaps a coolbag with an iceblock in if you really can;t be bothered going downstairs?

give her a carton of ready made formula in the morning if you cannot be bothered going downstairs, drinking milk that has been out all night, getting warm, is a prime breeding ground for nasty bacteria and it would taste grim

i see you leave the formula out all night?

can you swap to a different brand?

or get a mini fridge upstairs and keep a pint of milk in there and warm it in a flask of boiling water

I've done it loads of time. My daughter is still alive and rarely ill. I wouldn't do it if it was extremely hot, but how often is that a reality?

I was quite obsessed by hygiene for the first few months but then got more relaxed. Had a big barney with a case at work where the local authority insisted a foster carer sterilised all bottles for the first year - even though the child was crawling all over the place by seven months.

Can you really leave formula overnight and it be fine to drink?

Leave it upstairs in a cool bag/box? Weather isn't exactly hot at the moment. Wouldn't leave it out personally, she will have to learn to have it cold or wait for it!

You shouldn't leave formula at room temp either, but the OP knows this really.

no, you really should not.

that is why the new rules for making up formula were introduced. to use freshly boiled water, hot enough to kill bacteria, and to be used immediately. not made up in advance, chilled and then heated .

formula is not sterile and warm milk or room temp milk is an perfect breeding ground for some really nasty bacteria

Mrs Badger - I made your shortbread yesterday. Still OMG gorgeous.

I've been leaving milk out for two years now, sometimes she wakes very early and if the bottle is by her bed she will stay in bed that extra half and hour and drink it.

I take the bottle out of the fridge when I go to bed, so it is out for about six/seven hours. Its in a bottle so there isn't much air getting in; I can't see how it will be boiling with deadly bacteria by morning - and it obviously hasn't been as she remains very alive and healthy.

The fact that she is three and still drinking from a bottle is another more shameful issue.

made up formula should be used within 1 hour so to leave it out all night is asking for a tummy upset!! The bacteria in formula breeds fastest at room temperature which is why it is advised to make each bottle up as required. If they are being stored for later use it should be in a fridge.

p.s. current guidelines are for bottles/teats to be sterilised until your lo is 1 year old regardless of crawling abilities (although I know there is a thread on here about not sterilising at all)

one of the few thing I am fastidious about is milk

i wouldn't drink milk which had been left out of the fridge all night

it can "turn" very quickly

But if your baby is crawling around on the floor, unless you are bleaching everything every half an hour, your baby is picking up dirt and germs and surely, to some extent this is a good thing? Why do you need to sterlise a bottle/teat in this situation? Of course you wash it, but I fail to see the point of sterilising anything for a crawling/walking one year old.

Why are the levels of child hood asthma and allergies raising so quickly? Isn't there a risk that this is linked to overly sterile living environments?

I'm not saying let them eat poo or anything but surely a bit of grime is ok?

there is already potentially bacteria in the milk, spero, that is the danger

am the least neurotic parent but am , like ruby, fastidious re milk and bottles and cutting grapes in half!

DD had two bouts of gastro that left her very poorly and skinny, and i would go out of my way to ensure she was not at risk of a virulent tummy upset via her milk

might be a teeny risk, but i would not take it

plus i have hideous memories of drinking room temp, full fat milk at school, it was boaktastic, no way would i give it to my children

Sterilising to 1 year? Crikey, things have changed since having ds, I won't be doing that! Way over the top imo. I stopped sterilising at 5 months I think.

there is already potentially bacteria in the milk, spero, that is the danger

am the least neurotic parent but am , like ruby, fastidious re milk and bottles and cutting grapes in half!

DD had two bouts of gastro that left her very poorly and skinny, and i would go out of my way to ensure she was not at risk of a virulent tummy upset via her milk

might be a teeny risk, but i would not take it

plus i have hideous memories of drinking room temp, full fat milk at school, it was boaktastic, no way would i give it to my children

I'm another non-fastidious parent, but wouldn't leave milk out - if I ever loose a beaker of milk in the day and find it itn the evening it's aways horribly off. Will sterilise bottles until a year or until she uses a cup (but nothing else - never sterilise cups and water beakers etc.). It's difficult to really effectively clean bottles, and the milk curds left are a breeding ground for bacteria. It's not a case of things needing to be sterile (i.e. no bacteria at all) - just killing off those that grow in old milk, and that can only really be effectively done with bottles by sterilisation.

sterilising bottles to remove environmental (and mostly harmless) bacteria is very different to the actual disease-causing ones that can be found in formula.

Cows' milk in a coolbag is safer than formula in a cool bag.

ok, bad mummy . I don't like milk at all myself so would think iti was gross at whatever temp! she's been having formula from beside my bed since......hmm, probably about 9 months; always assumed that since i made it up with hot water it was ok - obviously not.

i know i sound lazy not wanting to go down and mess around warming things etc, maybe I am, but sometimes it is quite early in the morning and putting her in bed with us, giving her milk sometimes helps her settle for a bit longer so we are not up totally with the larks.

after your wise words, am thinking i'll go onto cartons of ready made formula (was using cow and gate organic but no longer in production).

thnaks everyone, hadnt realised so many potential problems!

I am afraid I am another one who has had milk out for much longer than the recommended. My rule of thumb has always been 'would i drink it?' so if it has been left on a cold windowsill in december - yup, leaving it in our hot bedroom right now - nope (used to use hot water in bottles + powder method when she was littler and having more bottles at night - and I think we experimented with a coolbag).

It IS annoying going downstairs and having to warm up, but I wouldn't give her milk out overnight in this weather.

hipp do an organic formula
not sure if they do it in ready made cartons. although they do something in a ready made format...
you could always put it in a powder dispenser and take a flask of boiled water upstairs and mix it in the morning?