Room Temperature Formula - can I give this to a newborn???

[Annabellemary]

In the maternity home they provide formula (for those not breastfeeding) at room temperature for newborn babies.

When I take my baby home can I give him room temperature formula. Obviously when making the bottles up they will be made up with boiled water which in theory kills the bacteria (I think) so this should be ok, should it not? Any ideas? Am just thinking that it may be possible to save myself the 7 minutes of screaming whilst the baby waits for the bottle warmer to warm the milk.

Any ideas/thoughts/suggestions?

See £7 a week to me is nothing compared to the making bottles up/not making bottles up/heating bottles/cooling bottles etc. That is the equivalent to 3 pints of my husband's favourite beer and obviously (cough cough cough) he'll be staying out of the pub to help me at home with the baby

Anyway, i'm really sorry, I have got to go to bed now (like I said, baby due tomorrow and 1yr old up around 6.30) so i'll say goodnight and look forward to corresponding further with you lovely people tomorrow xx

So am reading this and getting all confused.

You boil a kettle of water and once boiled let it cool down for 30 minutes, then add the formula, then let it cool down enough for baby to drink?

Is that right? What a faff, what if you have twins and are making up 12 odd bottles a day, also what do people do in the night?

Am just curious having never made a bottle up before.

You fill kettle with fresh water, let it boil then make up within 30 minutes (else water is too cool).

the real answer is people with twins make up in advance (or those I know do) - but I'm always reluctant to answer that as got hammered for killing my baby on recent thread

Sorry, you have to make it up straight away because the boiling water kills off any bacteria inside the milk. If you make up a bottle with cool water then it can't do this.

Sorry about this so boil kettle pur boiling water into bottle, add scoops of formula, cool bottle down (how?) give to baby.

So you have to kind of advance plan so think going to need a feed at say 5pm so at 4pm make a bottle is that right?

The reason I am curious is I was thinking of giving DD3 one bottle a day at night and I've never made up a bottle before. If it's that much hassle maybe I won't bother. Expressing is a faff as well and I have to remember in advance if I'm going out to freeze enough for her

For example 7oz feed

Boil kettle, add 4oz of water to bottle.

Add 7 scoops of formula

Shake

Add 3oz of previously boiled, cold water.

Should be warm enough but not cold

thanks geordie

I've kind of been put off giving one bottle TBH I don't think it would be of any good to anyone

Run it under the tap or pop it in a jug with some cold water and keep shaking it to mix it about.

I would use premade formula in the evening as it is soo much easier. Not as easy as BF though.

You do need an advanced plan for formula but as others have said, guidelines change all the time. You really do need to use boiling water when you make a bottle to kill off the bacteria inside the milk to make it sterile. It's a PITA.

Sorry, I don't agree geordie.

Which bit dont you agree with?

Half boiling, half cooled.

But if you add the formula to the boiled water and mix then any bacteria are killed, you can then add pre boiled, cooled water, or once they are old enough (ds was 9 months) tap water.

Doesn't it turn into thick slop with bits of dry formula stuck to the bottom before you've added the pre-boiled?

It worked ok for us. Ds was BF til 9 months though, so we only used tap water. We never had the "I'm so hungry I'm going to explode if I dont get fed now" newborn type screams.

TBH I cant see another way around it if bottle feeding on demand.

If you are only adding half the water then it will go thick and you'll run the risk of having dry formula at the bottom of the bottle. When you add cold water later the formula which has not been dissolved will be less sterile.
If you do half water aswell and leave the bottle then it could go manky before the rest of the water is added (maybe).

I went from bf to cow's milk when ds was one. We used the odd formula feed when he was small as I was ill and very tired after he was born.

You can get kettles that boil water really quickly. I would then make the bottle up, close it up and run it under a tap. I'm not sure if you can put the formula in the bottle without water and put the boiling water in when you need it. The heat from the water should sterialise the bottle. Should take less than 5 mins.

We never had any problems with bits of dried milk.

I know that it isnt ideal but its a safe method of preparing a bottle almost instantly, as is running it under the tap.

With DD1 I used to make up the milk with boiled water - then cool under the tap to something more like room temperature as she seemed to prefer it this way. Always used ready made cartons when we were out (and sometimes in the middle of the night too if I was feeling too knackered to prep the milk).

She was always fine - then when we moved to follow on at 6months, you could make up the milk with cooled boiled water (aptimil anyway not sure about other brands). this was easy peasy and as Dd was always used to room temp, we never had to haul bottle warmers around with us or wait for milk to be warmed up.

Also my sis is a childrens burns nurse and says this is a very safe way to avoid burns which is common from too hot water being used with baby milk.

sweetkitty - I have twins. I combination fed until 4 months and now F/F.
I used to boil the kettle, make up the milks with just boiled water and cool in a washing up bowl of cold water then put in the fridge. When they were needed I used to microwave them. Yes, I know they say dont do it but I did. I only premade all the night feeds and then 4 bottles at a time, replacing the last two, during the day.
All this cool the water for x amount of time is really vague. What if you only boiled a mug of water and cooled it for (what is it 30 mins?) x as opposed to boiling a 4 pint kettle and cooling it. Surely the water would be completely different temperatures but still following the same rules?
If you plan (and I am not saying you should or trying to persuade you) to F/F Hipp do plastic bottles that you can reseal and would probably last 2 nights feeds. They are ok for 48 hours in a fridge.

Merly - it just sounds like such hassle, I honestly didn't know thats how it was now made up. I don't think I'm going to give one FF now as DD3 is 4 months now, BFing going well and have asked on here and those who have given a bottle found it made no difference to sleep, seems like too much hasse for nothing now.

It is a faff and I dont think your LO would sleep through on formula if they arent already. I didn't have much of a choice so had to put up with he faff. It got better with less bottles.
By the way, I am not saying what I did was right but it worked for us and the boys never got ill.

I used to make up 6 bottles of boiled water and then leave them on the worktop to cool.When needed I took a bottle,added the powder,shook it and gave it to ds2 at room temperature.With ds1 I used to leave the bottles(of water) in the fridge,take out as needed,add the powder and heat up before giving to him,but was then later told that the water didn't need to be stored in the fridge.
Both my boys were fine and I've no idea if guidelines have changed again,but by leaving them on the worktop,they were already at room temperature,so didn't have to bother heating them up,which made things alot easier.

I did the same Bubbaloo, started off with water on the side, but then switched to putting them in the fridge after cooling the water in the freezer!

You can download the Department of Health leaflet on making up bottles safely from here

Just to clarify -

you should make up bottles with water that is over 70'C - ie that has been boiled and left for no more than 30 minutes. Ideally you should use newly boiled water.

These guidelines have been in place in the UK since 2004

The guidelines were introduced because babies in Europe died from infections directly linked to their formula powder. It isn't a common infection, but it has an 80% mortality rate when babies do get it.

as an aside interesting that europe didn't change the guidelines given problems were found there (still advise using making up mineral water)

one word of warning re making up with boiling water - once its cooled and ready to use, open the bottle away from baby as sometimes the hot water creates pressure and you can get a little spray of milk (my poor dd has been sprayed like this on more than one occasion). its the ff equivalent of fizzing your drink can