Should I tell my friend she's making up formula wrong?

[thenameiwantedwastaken]

Hi there. I'm exclusively bf my DD. Noticed one of my friends who formula feeds making up a bottle for her lo when we were out the other day. She added the powder to a bottle of cold water (boiled and cooled, I guess). From what I've read on here I think that's not what current guidelines say and that the safest thing to do is make up the feed with freshly boiled water, so as to kill any germs in the powder?

I didn't say anything at the time as I don't like to tell other mums what to do, have never made a ff myself and guess she is an intelligent woman who has read the instructions on the packet.

But now I keep thinking of her dc getting ill.

How can I broach it?

Her kids really won't get ill, I'm convinced of it. I did that for ds2.

You cannot physically do it the way they advise. You cannot make a newborn baby wait the 45 minutes it takes for the feed to cool from boiling to blood temperature. YOu can't always put them down and leave them to scream while you fuck about with the kettle - eespecially at 1am, 3 am 5am and 6.30!

On the other hand, government guidelines for a reason etc [wearisome sigh]

yes because its not made clear why you have to use boiling water so people dont realise you have to kill the germs in the milk powder

I use a couple of ounces of boiled water and then add cooled boiled water from the fridge so it comes out the right tepm to use straight away and the cartons if Im out

her child won't get ill. The guidelines change all the time. Between my first and third child the guidelines had changed but I stuck to the way I had did it first time around, ie make up my bottles at the same time and keep in the fridge and heat when I needed them.

I wouldn't say anything to her.

She isn't doing it as per the goverment guidlines. But they are only guidlines.

That is the way I did it for my 3rd (without problem). And TBH I think it is the way that many mothers do it.

Not worth broaching the subject I don't think as it isn't actually likely to be a problem. It would be more of a problem if she was making feeds up cold and then storing them as the bacteria which is in formula would grow. But if it is made up for an "instant" feed it isn't actually ahuge problem.

but these guidelines are in place because babies died not for fun. i'd never take the risk snd would always say something, maybe like how it is such a worry that the powder isn't sterile and what a pest it must be to add the water when it is hot.

Must have changed in recent years then. I did this 4.5 years ago with ds and he's still alive. I used to take water and powder out separately (they used to sell a container that you could measure powder into). Never had a problem.

You could suggest the way pippel does it, I did it that way too and it's pretty easy.

i did thi both times, everyone i know did
my friend was making a bottle at a time like it says on the tin and when her hv saw her and spoke to her and realised that baby was up 45 mins at night crying for a bottle she said why dont you make it with cooled boiled water and add the powder as thats what most people do and much easier

The guidelines don't change all the time. They have changed once, in decades, as a result of babies becoming ill (and in some cases, thankfully rare, dying) from contaminated milk powder.

No one has to wait 45 mins for the water to cool down - why would it take that long??? You can speed it up from this length of time, surely...and there are work-rounds like pippel suggests.

If this is a small or vulnerable baby, then there would be a strong case for saying something, IMO....maybe 'oh...is that how you do it? My friend X does it different. I think they've changed the way you're supposed to do it now, haven't they?'

It is a bit tricky, though.If she's a good friend, you can be more open, and say you don;t want to criticise or worry her.

can you not just make up the bottle with freshly boiled water before you go out and take it with you. its been too long since ive done it so i dont know if thats still ok.

Just use some full fat cows milk and be done with it.

tiktok - if ou have to boil the kettle, wait for a few minutes to cool slightly (you're not supposed to do it straight from boiled I don't think?) mixed it together and then faffed around under a cold water tap to cools it down sufficiently it takes AGES.

riberry, cows milk is not appropriate as a main drink for babies under 1

If I recall correctly, the babies that became ill and died were already frail (neonates, I think). I don't recall any reports of healthy strong babies being made ill by baby milk not made up with boiling water.

I formula fed all three of my boys, way back in the olden days, when it was OK to make up a whole day's worth of bottles at a go and store them in the fridge - so that's what I did, and all three of them grew up to be strapping healthy lads, and none of them got any sort of illnesses from the formula milk.

I would say it would depend on the age of the baby. If it's an older baby, then you wouldn't be sterilising their other food, anyway. But if it is a small and frail baby, I would try to drop something tactful in conversation.

mine are both still here and that's the way I did it.
I should think milk powder is a lot more sterile than my floor, germ ridden sicky toys, things brother gave baby to chew etc etc

why, in the olden days before microwaves, flash wipes and other such new fangled nonsense they fed babies who couldn't be breastfed by dipping the peak of a farmers sweaty cap into into goats milk and dripping it on in.

I made mine up and kept in the fridge for the day, and I even warmed them up in the microwave - DS2 and 3 most definitlye still here and healthy.

cory It isn't about sterilising. It is about killing the potentially dangerous bacteria that is fairly unique to milk powder. You can use a clean but unsterile bottle, but you MUST blast the milk powder with hot water to kill any lingering germs.

To add the potentially germ-infested powder to a bottle of cold water and then heat it up to body-temperature is that absolutely guaranteed way to maximise the potential for the bacteria to breed to harmful quantaties.

It's a very real and not particularly rare risk, - although thankfully with our healthcare system it is less so for our babies.

Having said that, I must see women do it every and I ponder whether to say something. I never have, but might slip it into the conversation with a woman who I have previously seen do it at a time when she isn't feed as a general 'isn't parenting hard' conversation.

When DD was in scbu (shes 3) we were provided with bottles (disposable glass ones) ready filled with sterile water to which you added the powder so they weren't following guidelines either. Glad I BF cos I would get everything wrong

I didn't say this is how you're supposed to do it....that was my tentative suggestion on what you might say to a mother!

People can please themselves - and they do!

But while fatalities from contaminated milk powder are very rare, gastric upset in formula fed babies is not very rare, and one of the causes is contamination from the powder.

Parents need to know this, IMO.