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?

But when I was at university I learn't that boiled water, as in adding formula to boiling hot water denatures(kills) some of the proteins,
when I moved my dcs on to formula I had bottles of cooled boiled water in fridge, topped them up with boiling hot water so it was the right temp to dissolve formula and feed baby straight away

not a bottlefeeding mother then princess?

DH works for a PCT and deals with BFing statistics and believes this too. Both of us have worked for the Govt for many years and are all too aware of what they can do to boost stats. The PCTs get a certain amount of money for each BFing mother and that is why hospitals, HVs and MWs bully us into BFing, i know this for a fact therefore it is not paranoia.

I know i may have sounded a bit extreme but the lack of advice and support for FFing mothers makes me really cross. MWs and HVs are reluctant to give us any advice at all for fear of litigation.

Of course that is the safest way to prepare it but not the only way. There are posters here on this thread and other threads telling us that we must not store cooled water in the fridge - unless they are fully qualified microbiologists then they should keep their comments to just that and not dictate to those who are trying to do the best for their baby in the most practical way possible.

OK i am leaving now

my LO only takes comfort food and they dont do that in cartons otherwise i would use them so i am basically snookered!!

I presume she doesn't tell you how to breastfeed so I wouldn't say anything if I were you.

I can't believe everyone is saying this method is ok - there was a thread about this quite a while ago now, and when I admitted to making bottles how your friend does I got severely flamed! Isn't it ok to just make up the milks you need for the day with boiling water then keep it in the fridge so you don't have to leave the baby screaming each time while it cools down??

Summerbird I am afully qualified microbiologist

I was thinking about this today, and whilst I hadn't considered summerbird's theory about it being a way to nudge people into breastfeeding, thus boosting the statistics, I do think that there may be another reason, other than purely safety, for these guidelines.

I wonder whether it is a case of the formula milk manufacturers covering their backsides - advising a making up method that is OTT for most babies because they don't want to take the risk of the bad publicity and big compensation they'd have to pay out if a baby did get ill and die from this particular bacterium. In the same way that use-by dates on food are often very conservative, more as a protection for the manufacturers than the consumers.

Always do it the way described in OP, have done for 3 kids, will do for DC4.

Well, according to this thread, you ought to tell her she is doing it 'wrong'. You should tell her that she must 'zap' those 'potentially harmful bacteria' in her 'germ infested' milk powder before an 'infant fatality' occurs.

Honestly, can you lot hear yourselves? No wonder some ff-ing mothers feel looked on by bf-ers. Before you ask I'm exclusively bf my dd, but I would not presume to comment on someone else's feeding

Sorry OP, I'm sure your question was meant out of kindness and concern for your friend, but I can't bear the level of judgement implicit in some of these posts.

I don't think many people on here in favour of following the guidelines have made any statement on their own feeding method. What an assumption rek! Paranoia at it's worst!

I'd tactfully say something, very modestly as to not make her feel like your criticising her.

My DD had formula from 8 weeks old and while she was tiny up to about 4/5 months I was very careful to follow the guidelines, they're there for a reason. Even if the risk is tiny why take a risk??? She may not be aware she's not following the guidlines as midwives/HV can sometimes not to be very good about advising on ff as clearly they need to focus on promoting bf (in my experience).

It isn't that much of a faf, I would boil the kettle put the water in the bottle then stand it in really cold water to cool the bottle quickly. I'd get all this ready so while it was cooling I'd go and change DD's nappy as I alway did in the early weeks (night and day). Then once the change was done the feed would be ready for the powder which I had already measured out in a milk powder dispenser so I just had to pour it in, shake and then feed her.

Once she got a bit older 4/5 months I would prepare all the bottles in the morning so 6 bottles - put them in the fridge then when I needed a feed I'd get the bottle out heat the water to the safe temperature then add the powder, when out I just used a bottle warming flask thing. Never had a prob with it. Clearly not as easy as bf but it really isn't that bad and it's for such a short phase.

Fair point MoonlightMcKenzie, I have made an assumption about why people have used judgemental language. Nonetheless I stand by my point that it is judgemental.

When I finished breastfeeding and moved dd2 onto bottles that was how I made them up. The water had been boiled and cooled then I added the powder when needed. It was so much easier that way and she didn't get ill or come to any harm.

It's so much easier when you are out and about to be able to just mix it all together and start feeding rather than having to find somewhere to heat up water, wait for it to cool etc. It's also much easier for night feeds as well.

Its simple. You take 1/2 boiled water out. Add the powder to this killing the bacteria, then top up with colled water and feed straight away.

Or just take ready made!

Bloody goverment guidelines.

According to guidelines these days, I am shocked that my 7 year old ds made it through his first year unscathed. What with making up a whole days bottles and storing them in the fridge, adding formula powder to cooled water when out, and shock horror introducing solids at 16 weeks (as was the norm then) it's a miricle he is still here.

I did it like that with both my 2 after I'd stopped BF and if I use formula at any point this time then I'll do the same again. My 2 are stonkingly healthy as are all the other FF children I know who were given their milk in the same way. Guidelines are guidelines and a bit of common sense goes a long way.

I agree that common sense needs to be applied along with guidelines - but younger, vulnerable babies are more at risk of these bugs, and mothers should know this, and their common sense will probably allow them to do a 'work round' as their babies get a bit older.

No one has been judgemental, rek. No one has suggested talking direct to a mother with words like 'germ infested' and the only person to use the words 'infant fatality occurs' is you.

Dh and I worked out this morning that we made up approximately 4000 bottles between the three dses, and had not one gastric infection, despite using water that wasn't hot enough and storing a day's worth of bottles in the fridge.

That said, I think Tiktok is right - best to know the guidelines and apply your own common sense. It would help if the figures were available to tell us what percentage of healthy babies get ill, and what percentage actually die, due to this particular bacterium in their formula milk. That would make the decision far better informed. Personally I suspect that the percentages are vanishingly small for healthy babies, but can't back that up with facts.

Her DD is around 5 months old and, as cory pointed out, she'll be starting (unsterile) solids soon. So maybe it's not worth mentioning, unless I can see an opp to mention it in a light-hearted way without seeming accusatory. We're not super-close. We're from the same NCT group and meet up as a big group.

Rek, you're right, my post was made out of kindness and concern for my friend. I used the word 'wrong' in post title for brevity, (although I'd say 'germs' isn't emotive - it's a scientific description and there are germs in breastmilk too, which is why I follow guidelines for storing and using EBM) The reason I have said nothing to her is because I don't want her to feel 'looked down upon' by a bf-er, but then my quandry came in thinking if her DD got ill because she wasn't aware of the guidelines/why they were important she wouldn't really thank me for my politeness, would she?

It sounds like lots of you have not always followed the guidelines and your babies have been fine, which is great obviously, but surely the guidelines are there for a reason and based on wide-ranging studies? It would be really valuable to know the numbers of illnesses/hospitalisations per head of using the different methods so we really could make informed choices, otherwise your n=2 samples and common sense don't really help. Wasn't it common sense 25 years ago to put babies to sleep on their fronts before scientific studies showed otherwise? (not implying making formula from cold water is equal to risking cot death btw).