starting bottle feeding - advice about night feed warming - silly question!

[lu9months]

I am gradually moving over to FF after 4 exhausting months. trouble is, my dd is still feeding quite a bit at night, and wont take ff unless really quite warm. I have bought a bottle warmer but this takes 7-8 mins and think she will be well and truly awake by then, as will I ( I have been suffering from really bad insomnia - cant get back to sleep after a feed). if I ff at least I can sleep downstairs now and then and try and catch up. but has anyone got advice about warming milk in the night quickly to avoid baby and me waking right up?
thanks so much. I feel breast feeding is much easier, and I am stressed about bottles, but need to make the move so as to stay sane!

I know how annoying it is to not get the answer to the question you asked, but have you tried co-sleeping and continuing to breastfeed? I did this with DS2 and it was by far the easiest solution all round. He used to feed while I slept or dozed and I felt I got far more rest with this method than the bottles I used with DS1.

the only way i can think is to just use the cartons and warm it in a microwave.

it's still going to be a while though and baby is likely to have woken up properly by then

i don't realy think there is a simple answer to this one!

I found it was easier to change my own habits than the baby's though, so going to bed really early, getting dp to get them up in the morning and give me an extra half hour, getting someone to look after ds1 some afternoons so i could nap with baby...

What I did - day and night - was as follows:

Have powder measured out already so you don't have to fumble around with that.

Have flask of boiling water, and a bottle of cooled, boiled water.

Pour half the amount of boiling water into the bottle. Add the whole amount of powder. Shake well to mix. Then top the bottle up with cooled boiled water to just above the desired level if water - to allow for the powder displacing the water IYSWIM.

It only takes a few seconds this way, and avoids any risks surrounding formula being made up in advance. It alsi means that the powder somes into contact with very hot water, which is necessary to kill any possible harmful bacteria

HTH

We did the whole dashing downstairs for a bottle in the night, hated bottle warmer, seemed to get it too hot then had to wait for it to cool. Next time im either going to have a kettle in the bedroom to flick on while i pop downstairs for the milk by the time i get back it will be boiled, or im going to get one of those breville hot cups, (which i fancy anyway) it gives you boiling hot water in seconds. Tho when we first did this we did the whole making the bottles up cooling them and into the fridge. It wasnt till later we did the whole putting the bottles of cooled boiled water in the fridge ready for adding the formula as and when needed. A friend of mine doesnt even put the bottles in the fridge, different MW and HV advise different things so ive no idea what the current guidelines is for it now, probably changed a million times since i was a baby! Think next time i will just hope that the baby is like dd and sleeps through from being 6 weeks old!

Try a carton of ready made formula at room temperature. Your baby may well have no issues with it.

I've just gone from BF to FF too but am trying to maintain the night feed (if boobs will allow) for the simple reason that I couldn't work out the whole night bottle warming part! Could you get DH to give dream feed around 11 and them BF at the next waking? I remember my LO having a growth spurt around 4 months (she's now 6 mths) but it then got easier soon after. Failing that, keep the water warm in a flask and just make up from that.

TBH the whole making up a bottle is a mystery to me. I've just been adding formula to cold tap water and giving her that...is that really bad? She is 6mths and drinks tap water in her sippy cup.

i use a carton of milk at nite and heat it in the micorwave for a few seconds or pour boiling water into a pot noodle tub and sit the bottle in it- the pot noodle tub seems to keep the heat in and therefore the milk heats up faster

hiya. 1st time round i made bottles in advance and kept in tiny fridge upstairs alongside kettle and jug.flicked the kettle to half boil and stood bottle in the jug water to warm
with small feeds use lesswater so doesnt get too hot by time ready to feed.

am expecting to ff from start with this baby and was going to make up bottles in advance and do as above but apparently rules have changed.

cant afford ready made for more than first few weeksso as yet am unsure wether will make in advance and do as above or have a boiling flask by bed and pre measured powder to make up at night.

got to admit poss will use microwave to heat instead jug as have well got used to knowing how hot and how much you have to shake the bottle to avoid hotspots. if cold to start with that is.

Hi,

I only started formula post 6 months with DS because I expressed and bottlefed him EBM before that, and by that point he was sleeping through and not needing night feeds, but I used to take cartons when I went out. In the house, it was quite fast making up a bottle from fresh if I boiled the kettle, poured it in and added powder, shook it up and then stuck it in a big jug of icy water. I generally changed his nappy while that was doing. If you need to make bottles in advance the advice is to make it with near boiling water and then cool quickly in the fridge and use within 24 hours. This is better than letting the water cool and then mixing it with the formula (which would not kill any of the harmful bacteria in the formula powder).

lamby79 You need to use freshly boiled (only boiled once) water from the kettle that is above 70 degrees c. The reason for this is that the powder is not sterile, and some babies have become quite ill from some of the bacteria which lurks (salmonella has been found for example).