Combined feeding, which formula is the "best"?

[hannahlouhoo]

Hi my ds is 8 months old and as he has dropped to only 2 feeds a day i cant express more than an ounce a day! He sleeps out once a fortnight at my mums so me and dp can have a date night(or watch a dvd at home and fall asleep by 9pm!). I had a large store of breastmilk in frezer which has now run out so i will have to send ds with some formula.

The question is - which is the "best"? I would hate to fall under the spell of adverts which at the moment is all i have to go on! Any help and no judgey advice would be great!

thanks

Sorry nappyaddict and tiktok have got crossed wires with you nappyaddict. DD1 has stayed loads at friends houses since I had a section and needed some help with her at first. No problems at all there. Sorry I thought you were talking about this thread and suggesting the OP shouldn't leave her baby iyswim
Tiktok sorry for being so aggressive its been a frustrating week

ok

no problem. what age was she when she started staying with her own friend's rather than your friends iyswim.

hipp is organic - heard it is good

but haven't used it myself. debate is still on as to what one in my house.

This thread has turned into absolute farce . ROFL at the crossed wires (sorry)

nappyaddict its a tricky one because most of her friends I know their mums iyswim or they are childminders. About 2.3mths with her best friend (and mine!)Not a sleepover as such, more a having dd1 to help out iyswim.

Hi guys thanks for all your info. i bought some cartons and tonight he has had a sma he drunk 9oz v. quickly! how do you make a bottle from powder? does it have to be hot water? i have been looking in supermarket today, found instructions v. confusing!!!

1. sterilise bottles
2. boil kettle
3. put cooled boiled water into the bottle to whatever oz you need then add powder. (I just put hot water into bottle and stand in a jug of cold to rapid cool, then add powder.) Don't add powder direct to the bottle of hot water because it makes the powder go claggy on the scoop iyswim.

If I am preparing several bottles I rapid cool all the bottles and store in the fridge until I want them and add powder as I use them (no more than 24hrs later)

hannahlouhoo here's some info pics etc down right hand side. it is the powder you are sterilising not the water

my suggestion is all milks sell the one feed cartons if your that worried about which one she'll like (all contain pretty much the same ingredients vitimens protines ect.) just pick up a few different ones and try them she'll soon let you know though i have to say there always re calling sma at my boots so i dont know if i'd go there but thats personal preference

Aren't you supposed to put the powder in when the water is 70C or more so any bacteria in the powder get killed or is that just for newborns?

The guidance is that the water should be no less than 70 deg C and this applies for all babies. The point is that the powder is not sterile, and this fact does not change.

However, the younger the baby the more vulnerable they would be to any infection, suppose.

And is 70C achieved 30 mins after boiling Tiktok?

Then what are the rules re. storing that milk for later use (say, if I wanted to give a bottle to MIL to take if she was having them for a couple of hours - is that bottle OK at room temp for 3-4 hours like breast milk would be?)

What I do is put one oz of boiling water in. Then add how many scoops of powder that you need (DS has 8). Mix it all up and then add 7 oz of cold water. The powder is hitting water above 70 degrees so is being sterilised but you also don't have to wait for it to cool down because adding the cold water afterwards means it is the perfect drinking temperature.

I can only speak from my experience about bottles and neither of my children have had d and v. From 6mths it isn't necessary for eveything to be sterile as they eat raw foods which are not sterile i.e. yoghurt, cheese, fruit and veg. It needs to be hygienic. Since babies crawl around the floor where people have walked with outdoor shoes on, not knowing what they might have walked through, babies are exposed to thousands of bacteria daily. Their immune system is better developed after 6mths.

boiling the water means that if any bacteria are in tap water it gets killed before its added to the powder. If you make bottles as you go along there is less time for bacteria to multiply and hence reduces the risk of GI infection.

I was told that formula needed to be made up with water that had been cooled for no more than half an hour - presumably this advice is to prevent the need for us to get our thermometers out every time we make up a bottle. The water needs to be above a certain temperature to kill bacteria in the formula.

I leave bottles no more than an hour at room temperature before disposing of them as milk provides a great environment for bacteria to flourish.

At night I do make up bottles in advance and cool quickly and keep in fridge or cooler until they are needed when I warm them again and feed to DD immediately.

Advice has recently changed and it used to be the given to make up 24 hours worth of feeds in one go and keep in the fridge.

I also use hipp formula and switched from cow and gate when I realised it contained fish extracts.

plink - if you use my method you don't even need to make them in advance for night feeds.

I use cow and gate cos it has a very handy spoon leveller included.

Hadn't thought of that nappyaddict. Doesn't the 1oz get very thick and lumpy though?

Will give it a try tomorrow - have already done milk for tonight. Mind you it will mean going downstairs etc and I have a little cooler thing with warmer attached which we keep in the bedroom and can get milk ready as soon as DD starts to stir.

nappy, your method may not be a safe one - mixing the formula in this way, with very little water, will not dissolve the formula properly, and if the formula is not dissolved, the bacteria will not be killed. The guidelines (to make up the whole feed with water that is no cooler than 70 deg C) have been tested to ensure sufficient bacterial 'zapping', and while parents can, of course, ignore this, they need to know that what you are doing is not the same as the guidelines method.

To answer the question about going to MILs with a bottle. I would sterilise the bottle and add water, put powder into the special inserts you can get to keep them separate. Let her add the powder (or just get a carton of pre made formula)