do you make bottles in advance..?

[Mummy2Freya]

I'm confused
Before dd was born my MIL bought me a bottle warmer, it was shoved in a cupboard due to BF.
Am now FF but everywhere i look the advice is that you must always make up feeds fresh and not make in advance and heat up??
So why are there bottle warmers everywhere? When I spend half my day holding a freshly made bottle under cold running water to cool it??

god knows if this is righgt but it swhat i do.i make up the water intothe bottles then put in the fridge.and just take out and add th powder then warm when i need them?

guidelines changed fairly recently. Bottles should be made up with water at or above 70 degrees centigrade otherwise the bacteria in the formula will not be killed off and can cause nasty tummy bugs.

I boil kettle and put the water in a thermos. As I pretty much know now when DD will have a feed I pour the water into a bottle and add formula about 30 mins in advance of feeding her. If I need to make an extra feed in a hurry, I pour 4 oz of boiling water into a bottle, add all the formula shake and leave for a couple of minutes and then top up with cool water. Bit of a faff but it means it is more or less the right temperature.

I think there are bottle warmers everywhere because a) its another thing to make money on and b) a lot of people make up cool water and then have to heat...

I also have a bottle warmer which I used with first baby. made up bottles night before and kept in fridge or carried around ice pack for bottle if out and about. Found it soooooo much easier second time just taking bottle with water and seperate powder. Havent used bottle warmer yet but Im sure it will come in handy- She is now on cows milk so if going out for day and want to give her bottle will need to carry ice pack and warmer again.

Its horrible isn't it all the confusion, my take on it was ready made carton forumlas

at the moment I'm trying to preempt feeds enough to cool naturally, but dd is a VERY erractic eater.

at night I fill a thermos and have premeasured powder ready to mix.

becka; I use the cartons when I'm out but....dd will only have Farleys which has been discontinued and is like gold dust

So if it's all about sterilising the powder, what is the problem about making up a batch of hot bottles and refrigerating appropriately, and using within 24 hours?

I don't get it.

I have to confess I do a mixture of fresh/batch/half and half/re-warm pre-boiled and bottled water and add powder, depending on what's convenient and how many bottles are clean.

Mrs Sprat, the hot water doesn't kill off all the bacteria for ever. It is safe to feed it to your baby fairly soon after making up, but the bacteria will start to multiply again while the bottles are cooling and stored in the fridge. HTH

I used to fill 3 bottles in the morning and 3 in the afternoon (so boiled water was never more then 12 hours old) and keep in the fridge.

I also reheated the bottles in the microwave(a 6oz bottle takes between 30 & 40 Secs) add powder and shake (i always found the powder mixed better in warm milk).

In water milk err read warm water.

Oh and we was given a bottle warmer when we had dd1 and used it about 2 times before it went in the bin .

It's so confusing. I used to fill bottles with boiled water, refrigerate, warm up when needed and add powder. Now, I make up bottles in advance with boiling water/powder and refrigerate. DD absolutely will not wait for feeds so making from scratch as and when is not going to work. Out and about I always use cartons which is wonderful in warm weather as I don't feel the need to warm them.

Yes in a ideal world you should make as you need but for once and for all a set of recommended instructions, in simple English for use in the real world would be much appeciated.

I always filled a batch of sterilised bottles with boiled water in the morning and then mixed them up as and when I needed them. I always warmed them in the microwave too but dd used to take milk at room temperature so it was just to take the chill off. I bought those sachets of formula to use when we were out and about and the bottle had generally warmed up slightly by the time it got used.

clear as mud!!

I always make up fresh. I use one of those pots specially for pre measured formula and it works well for me, but I am mostly BF

i will be doing exactly as i did for my DT's 4 years ago, boil kettle, pour into 12 bottles, add formula, refridgerate, reheat when needed. There was no way i was making up bottles on demand for two little mouths, especially when they went through the feed every 2 hours phase. The tin says to leave a boiled kettle for 30 mins to cool - don't know about anyone else, but my kettle was never COOL after 30 mins, so how are you supposed to make a feed when needed...who can leave there baby to scream for 40 mins waiting to eat?

My boys would go from asleep to starving in 10 seconds flat, no way they would have waited.

(hoping to breast feed this time, thus eliminating guess work)

neerly3; nope my kettle is stil scorching after 30 mins so I still have to cool it. plus i end up having to start the next bottle the minute the current bottle has been finished

bottle warmers still exist, but we always made up feeds fresh each time. I did use the bottle warmer to warm expressed breast milk though.

It is the biggest pain in the backside doing them fresh. I hated it!

Cooled boiled water into sterilised bottles into fridge. Add powder when needed and warm up in bottle warmer or stand in hot water. Ready in minutes.

For feeding on demand, and with the minimum amount of waiting/screaming, I think the best way, is to :

Fill say 6 bottles with half the water for the feed (ie if feed will be 6 oz, fill with 3 oz water)

Let water cool, put in the fridge

When needed take out 2 bottles, microwave one to 70 degrees (about 1.15 min in my microwave)

Add powder (can pre measure into dispenser for speed)

Shake

Add other (cold) bottle of water.

This will prob be cool enough to feed straight away, but won't take long to cool under tap, if not.

It is really important that the water is hot enough to kill the bugs.

But if you leave the boiled water to cool it would go below the recommended 70 degrees (as per current government guidelines). The water needs to be 70 degrees or above when the formula is added to kill the bacteria.

Knowing this I still have to prepare in advance: I boil water and leave for 30 minutes, knowing it still will remain 70 degrees or above; I then add water to 3 or 4 bottles and add powder; I refridgerate and then warm bottles to room temparature as and when I need to feed baby.

I prepare 3 or 4 feeds in advance which is used within 12 hours.

So though I follow the 70 degree rule, I am not doing very well with the refridgeration front as bacteria can still grow. However, I try and prepare 3 or 4 feeds only at a time.

Nothing is as ideal as preparing fresh per feed, but it's not very practical for many (and baby's need to feed instantly!.

Here's the up-to-date guidelines.

Dont know if anyone else has put this but this is what i do.

If baby is having (for example) a 6oz feed, i fill the bottle to 3oz with boiling water. I then put in 6 scoops of feed, shake it to mix it, then top up with 3oz of cooled boiled water that i've got in my fridge. Simple as anything and the feed is normally just about ready to drink.

That's what I do RG and it works really well IMHO. You just have to make sure you're adding enough cooled boiled water to compensate for the extra volume the formula adds.

Yeah exactly. I tend to do mine on my electronic scales as it measures liquid volumes in fluid ounces so i pop the bottle on the scales and add 3 ounces and hey presto!

RG that's a great idea - this way the formula is added to hot water which government now advises and yet you can prepare and serve it immediately by adding extra cooled boiled water which brings it to room temp and baby can have it NOW. Great tip!

Thanks RG think I'll give that a go, then perhaps my neigbours won't need earplugs during the 'water cooling' period

I just make up the formula with hot fresh boiling water and once I have put in the formula and shake it up (with a towel to protect my fingers!), I stick the bottle in a jug of water with ice cubes and that cools it down to the right temperature - only take a few minutes. I always make sure I have lots of ice cubes in the freezer!

Having said that, I went back to Singapore (where I am originally from) recently and EVERYONE makes up their formula by using the appropriate amount of cooled boiled water mixed with hot water to make lukewarm water and add the formula then. And NO ONE was worried about tummy bugs. I really have no idea why... Still, you have to do what you are comfortable with!