Formula Question

[lolabanola]

Hi, I am pregnant with my first baby and will be going on abroad quite soon after the birth, I want to take formula with me. Could anyone tell me how much formula the average newborn gets through in a week? The box is a 900g box.

I wouldn't take a box. It will be too much grief for you taking that and the bottles and the sterilising equipment. Not to mention you cant use bottled water to make up feed.

You can get prepared feeds- some are in cartons and some have teats attached.

I think I've seen them in asda.

Roughly though a box lasted me a weeks and a half.

Mine took 4oz every 4 hours. My friends took 13oz(yes, you read that right!) every 3 hours! I am not sure that there is an average for what you need to know (obvioulsy there is an average, it just might not be very useful!).

To complicate matters more, those ounces are fluid ounces of made up formula, not weight of dry powder.

Why don't you try breast feeding first and see how you go before fretting about formula? Sorry, I am not lecturing you, as I formula fed my son from a week old, but there were occasions like this when I wished we were BF.

My HV told me that you can use Evian to make up a feed. There are only three bottled waters that are not too salty, and Evian is the most widely available - after all it is what babies in Evian get in their taps! I can't remember the other ones. We used Evian to make up feeds when our bottles of cooled boiled water were emptied by the security staff at Leeds Bradford airport when DS was 10 months old. Not sure if bottled water is sterile enough for newborns.

Thanks for the advice ladies, Bikerun Evian is a good idea.

Really don't want to BF at all and can't take already made formula as will be away for about 2 months - will be easier to take the boxes.

My DS2 at just under 12 lb goes through a box in about 6 days, hope that helps. I would still recommend taking some ready made cartons for your journey and when you arrive, it really is so much easier. Also, it is total nonsense about not changing your formula once you've started, I've been to the Cow & Gate Comfort for colic and then back to SMA and my DS hasn't noticed, so you could check out the options in the country you are going to...

Many thanks for the advice cheeseytoastie, good idea about the cartons for the journey.

You would still have to boil the water, because it needs to be hot when it hits the powder, as the powder is not sterile. Not all countries have changed their official advice yet but I would want to be safe with a newborn.

Have a look at this website to see what brands of formula are available where you are going, and then you can stick with the same one - it would be a pain to start on one brand, go abroad and then find the one you know the baby settles on is not available.

Some of the links on that site are a bit messed up if you are having trouble finding the right country try clicking on a different country starting with the same letter as they group the results together on one page anyway.

IF you take cartons for the journey, make sure they are less than 200ml. This is the cut off for taking fluids through airport security. Thy made me open and taste ALL the cartons I took though, which rendered them useless. I think HiPP cartons are 200ml. The Heinz Nuture ones I took were maginally bigger.

As for switching brands. DS was on mostly Nurture, but would have HiPP when travelling (they do single serving sachets, but only as Follow On milk or Goodnight milk)and also quite a lot of SMA cartons donated by someone who had stocked up but who's DS didn't like it.

thanks for the link Bertie, typically the country that I want has no text on it! I do know they sell aptamil so was going to go with that one straight from birth.

Can you post parcels of formula ahead of you? Is there anyone in the UK who can post parcels to you once you are out there?