how do you make up bottles (store in fridge till needed, or make up as go along) and best way of warming them up

[tinkisinthe3rdtrimester]

hi

i am 29 weeks pregnant

will be just bottle feeding this one
just getting orgnaized
with dd made them all up in the fridge night before heard there is new guidlines about doindthis and that u should only make up as you go along
was thinking especially with night feeds if you make up as you go along wont it be too hot how do you cool down?

yeah new guidelines say that you should not pre make them. What i do is make up bottles of freshley boiled water and store them and just add powder when i need to and then heat them up.

The formula must be added to boiled water that has not stood for more than 30 minutes. So you cannot add powder to cold water and reheat it.

You can, however, add (assuming 7oz feed) 3oz of boiling water, 7 scoops of formula and then 4oz of preboiled, cold water kept in the fridge which should bring it to the right temperature.

Unfortunately there is no easy way of doing it, there are a lot of people who still add powder to cold water/cooled water/microwave it to warm it back up but unfortunately there are babies that have died from this. The powder isnt sterile and therefore all bacteria needs to be killed by the boiling water.

If you wanted a quicker method you could try cartons for night feeds - expensive though.

HTH

Ang - that is against the guidlines - the powder must be added to hot (75deg+) water to kill bacteria in the powder.

To make 7oz I put in 4ozs of fresh boiled water, then when I need them top them up with 3oz and then add powder, perfect temp, also great when going out as I take a flask of hot water with me and I don't have to bother anyone to heat it up!

oh dear, this topic comes around all the time.

The milk powder isn't sterile and can harbour some very very nasty bugs which can be fatal to a newborn. The water needs to be over 70 degrees when it comes into contact with the powder in order to kill these bugs.

mixing with cold water and then reheating is about the worst thing you can do.

To the OP, you will be given a leaflet from your MW or HV which tells you what to do although when I switched to bottles at around 10 months my HV advised to make up the full quantity of powder with half the quantity of hot enough water (and so killing the bugs) and then topping up with cold.....for a newborn this cold water should be cooled boiled water but after six months tap water is fine.

well thats what health visitor told me. did it with both kids and nothing happened to them think there are far too many guidelines that are so unneccesary!!!

ang, i hate to say this but your HV is giving you advice contrary to that advised by the DoH.

however, your children your risk and all that, but you shouldn't really be passing on dangerous advice to other people

Ang - if that is what your HV told you then she should be pulled up as she is wrong, and giving out potentially hamful information.

Yes yes, we know its what you did and that it never did your kids any harm, its what most people did, and it never caused most kids any harm - unfortunately it did cause harm to quite a few newborns.

My parents never put me in a car seat when I was a kid - they werent around then - never did me any harm, - certainly doesnt mean I'm not gonna put ds in a car seat

I made it all fresh at the start and cooled down in a bowl of cold water. However then there came out the report about the chemicals leeching out of the bottles when the water is hot and left to sit.

After that I got into the habit of boiling some water, adding the formula and then topping up with cooled pre-boiled water.

some links for you

incinsistent labelling by manufacturers

from the NHS Healthy Start campaign

from the DoH

Ta Daisy

do you really think i would pass on dangerous advice to people knowingly!!! if i dont know any different!! Cheers guys!

now now ladies no meaness on my thread.
cheers for threads daisy

The OP asked for advice - you gave it - 2 people came on and told you that your information was out of date/incorrect. Fine, no prboblems - but then you came back and said " well thats what health visitor told me. did it with both kids and nothing happened to them think there are far too many guidelines that are so unneccesary!!!" Now by that you are saying that a proffesional has told you that this is the right way - its not.

I make up bottles with boiled water and store in the fridge until needed (i make up 3 in the morning and 3 in the evening so the are never more then 12 hours) I only add formula after heating water in the microwave and shake well. I have found that formula mixes better in warm water then cold.

thank you lizziemun as thats what i do and glad its not just me. i have spoken to two friends today who have just become new mums for second time and are completly unaware of these new rules and what they are doing is dangerous so this is obviously really badly communicated by health proffesionals.

Don't worry ang, you are not alone, I am on baby no 2 (she's 6 months old) and I had no idea of these very strict guidelines.

I make up bottles with boiled water, every 24 hours. I allow the water to cool and add formula powder as I need them. I don't store the bottled in the fridge, just keep them at room temp. I then do not heat them, not because I knew I shouldn't but because I just wanted DD to be used to drinking milk at room temp, not warmed, which she does. I can't be doing with the hassle of warming bottles up, esp when out and about.

I didn't have any idea of how 'dangerous' certain things are, I have occasionally added formula to cold then re-heated??

I must admit, I BF for 4 months so DDs only had formula from 4 months. I would have been more stringent if I was giving formula to a newborn.

I just feel that now that DD2 is 6 months old, she puts everything in her mouth, most of which is not sterile.

thank you luckypumpkin thats exactly what i do and my boy is now 4 months. just shows you how not everyone knows theses new guide lines and there must be hundreds of babies fed differently all over the world!

So...now that you both know how potentially dangerous this can be you are going to carry on doing it.

Oh well done you, that's great logic.

chill out!

It's potentially dangerous to cross the road, but I still do it everyday

But presumably you don't just step out in front of cars in the hope that they will slam their brakes on? Because this is the kind of risk you are taking here.

Now why don't you both run along back to Bounty where you both belong

Bounty??

so do you sterilise every single thing your lo puts in their mouth then Freddy?

If not, how can you possibly live so dangerously?