enquiry about formula feeding. please help.

[confuzed90]

Basically my baby is 4 days old and I'm changing from bf to ff, due to complications. He is my 2nd DS, my first also had to change onto formula food.

My main question is- who prepares bottles before hand and stores them in the fridge? I did this with my first and all was ok but there's a lot being said now that this can be done and each and every feed should be made up fresh? I'm using SMA if that counts but midwife has said that bottles should be made instantly before feed. Who else does this? Or what do you do? I am a worrier as it is, and would worry that I'm harming my baby if I store in fridge. I know that with DS we stored them and used withing a certain time limit.

We make up 3 bottles in the morning according to the guidelines, cool and store at back of fridge for the daytime feeds. Then in the evening we make up 2 more, one for final feed and one for first thing in the morning and again store at back of fridge. DD 9 weeks now rarely takes an overnight feed anymore but I have a clean bottle and carton ready just in case. DD has been given bottles at room temp from the start to avoid hassle of heating up bottles. If you look up Food Standards Agency guidelines their guidelines for care settings say you can store bottles for a certain length of time in the fridge (I think it's 12hrs) but ideal is to make up as you go. We have found this method (storing in fridge for limited time) easiest for us without having to mess about with flasks. If I'm out and about I either use a carton or I take a bottle from fridge in cool bag with ice packs and use within 4 hrs.

Billy11 the rules don't change every year. The HCP in the Baby Well Clinic gave you potentially harmful information. Just because your DD was fine doesn't mean that someone else's child will be if they follow your method

The guidelines for formula preparation are based on the fact that formula made up incorrectly can contain bacteria (Enterobacter) which has caused some babies to die - we're not just talking about a bit of an upset stomach

I have to say I'm so sceptical about all the "new" guidelines ... They seem to change every year. No doubt next year they will be telling us to freeze the formula to kill the bugs and then microwave it to 890 degrees or something...

With dd aged 8 I made the bottles up the night before with boiled water (still very very hot) then cooled them under the running tap and then placed them in the back of the fridge.

I have a ds due in 5 weeks time and I will be doing that again, and relying on little cartons of formula when we are out and about.

I think you have to be pretty insane to be boiling up water, waiting for it to cool down and making up each bottle fresh at 2/3/4am. It's the sure fire way to insanity.

Yes I appreciate there are risks if you don't make them fresh but think how many people have always done babies bottles exactly the way I did them with dd and NEVER had any issues? You could have very harmful bacteria in just about anything you touch or use and pass that on to the baby.

I think as long as you are mixing the formula with boiling water (or 70 degs or hotter) and then cooling you've probably killed off as many bugs as you're going to whilst remaining reasonably sane.

Looneybun the WHO say that's a perfectly safe way to do it if you can't do it from fresh each time for any reason.

It's people not using 70c water (usually using cold water but sometimes still boiling) or not storing bottles in a fridge immediately or storing them incorrectly when out that causes the safety issue.

Hi

I can't see how you are supposed to make bottles on demand a lo isn't going to realise they have to wait for bottle to cool are they

The cartons are expensive though we got to stage where it would have cost us over £20 a week to feed him as he's such a guts

I make up 3 or 4 at a time and put them in fridge until needed, 1 min in micro on defrost as I couldnt get the bottle warmer to do anything other than boil them and he's happy. He's 5 months next week and never had an upset tummy.

Ahhh okay Flisspaps, thanks.. I thought the whole thing was they had to be done fresh? I'm even more confused than I thought then!

What Seventh said, and yes, it's preferable they're made fresh (as that reduces the chance of people using cold, previously boiled water from an earlier bottle or storing bottles somewhere unsafe like a kitchen work top or changing bag!) but it IS recognised that making them as a batch at 70c and then storing in a fridge is the next best thing to fresh and is sometimes necessary (and this method is shown in the WHO guidance)

I don't think anyone has actually linked to the current guidelines for the OP, so here is the NHS bottlefeeding leaflet with full clear pictorial instructions. This information is also contained in the NHS pregnancy book or NHS Birth to Five book if you have either of these (2009 editions are the current ones).

Here is the guidance from the Department of Health and Food Standards Agency for childcare settings that explains how to store feeds as safely as possible when necessary.

The only type of formula that is actually sterile is liquid ready-to-feed formula. It is required to meet the same tight legislative standards for the contents as all powdered formulas, so is no different in any other way. some areas recommend using only this type of liquid formula for very young babies and not powdered formula at all because newborns are the most vulnerable to infections and this type poses the least risk.