Preparing bottles in advance - advice??

[PotPourri]

Does anyone know whether I can fill bottles with boiled water and then just add the formula directly when required? It would save some serious tears at night when DD wakes looking for a feed, and it takes 5 mins to heat the bottle from the fridge. She is 7 weeks by the way. Is it safe to do it this way at that age?

Yes, you can. And I did. I never heated bottles. Just gave them at room temperature.

i did this for months, never did my dd any harm

Me too. Even had a handy little box for pre-measured powder that tipped straight into the bottle. Saved counting scoops when I was half asleep at 3am.

Yes, me too.

I have twin boys that were bottlefed from the start. We always filled the bottles with water and added formula when needed. Just left the bottle on the side! They are now 2, were never sick or anything. Also used to measure the powder out ready into the dispensers you can buy. Easy when you go out aswell.(Never heated them either, gave them at room temperature)

Yes its fine i always do this. If you leave the bottles ( of boiled water) at room temperature they only take about 20-30 secs to heat in the microwave. Of course you need to shake well and test as you usually do! If you don't like to use the microwave you can just add boling water to the room temp water.For example, 5oz of room temp water and 1oz of freshly boiled water and 6 scoops of powder make 6oz of milk at just the right temp for my baby.Kettle only takes about a minute to boil as you only need to put in the minimum amount of water. HTH

Oh good. Where can you get those dispensers? I haven't seen them in boots or anything? But maybe I didn't look hard enough....

They are made by Avent. Costs about £3 for a little plastic container - but they are very handy

Honestly don't heat the bottles - you don't have to and my ds never minded in the slightest. You just keep the bottles by the bed so they are room temp, not fridge cold, tip in the formula, shake and deliver!

So it's o.k to leave boiled water in bottles out of the fridge for how long?? (Do the bottles stay sterile?)

why not get the little cartons of ready made stuff for the night feed - a little more expensive - but so much easier - just don't open till needed and they don't need to be kept in the fridge - just in the cupboard.

I agree with Aloha, its much easier if you can get your baby used to milk at room temperature. mine is fussy about it though.....sigh
Cna i just go off topic and ask how you are Aloha? When r u having your baby?

Have to say the ready made cartons always made my dd a bit sickly, (only gave them once or twice).

KristinaM - I don't know when I'm having her now. Was going in on MOnday, but I have vile virus and don't feel well enough

I know i heard ....pretty annoying for you. i'm sure you are doing the right thing in waiting for a few days - lets face it, you wont get a chance to rest/recover much later.Look after yourself!
( Apologies for the hijack everyone)

Used to keep the bottles of boiled water for 24hrs when they were little. at 6months I probably kept them a bit longer

my dd2 has room temp milk - just put the cooled boiled water in the bottles ready to use and then put the formula in when needed.

My little formula container I bought from Tescos.

Weve done this since I stopped bfding. Each night I get 3 bottles of boilt water ready, add powder to the dispenser and then were all ready for the next day. Its much easier than making up bottles of milk and trying to keep them cool if you go out and then warming them up.

boiled water in bottles and dispenser with powder for me too. I leave it all ready to go for the babysitter and for DH in the middle of the night (in fact he sorts all of that out).