Who uses/used microwave to warm bottles (and who didn't?)

[CountessDracula]

Prompted by another thread - I remember feeling v paranoid about this when dd was first born until an Aussie midwife said that they all do it over there, even in the hospitals!

From that day on I used the microwave, and tbh everyone I know does the same despite the "hot spot" warnings. I do feel if you shake the bottle thoroughly and then leave it for at least a minute there is no issue.

So who did it and who used bottle warmers/warm water, and why?

I used to use the microwave - we had Playtex bottles, so the milk was in the little bags and you could feel right away exactly how hot it was, after a shake; mind you we never really made it warm, just took the fridge chill off it.

I think room temp formula is probably safe for even longer than a couple of hours, so long as it hasn't been sucked even once; if the bottle, teat and cap were sterile when when it was mixed there should be no bacteria there to multiply. Once it's been sucked there will be bacteria, and it should be used and disposed of ASAP.

JanH - good point about sucked/unsucked bottles, I hadn't thought of that.

With dd1 i haeted bottles in hot water until she was on cows milk then they went in the microwave. With dd2 i had a bottle warmer, complet crap, was quicker to do it in boiling water. With ds i heated them in boiling water until 10 mths when he went on to cows milk.
I wish i'd known sooner, that loads of people heated bottles in the microwave.

We never heated bottles in the microwave used a jug and hot water in the day and then a bottle warmer at night.

After advice from several midwifes not to use microwave.

And would also do the same if we had another.

I think you just have to follow your on instinct on this

After lots of trials and errors we have mastered the microwaving of opened bottles to 12 seconds.

But, we still have two 1 litre containers with boiled water for dd's bottles. To make an 8 oz bottle, I use 2 ozs hot boiled water and 6 cooled with scoops of formulae, and her drink is ready in under 2 mins.

I found it was always easier just to warm the water and then add the formulae. I think you could practice and time this for your own individual microwave ... as the timings are very different on each.

We stopped mixing bottles the night before long ago because I felt the concern was more with the bottle of milk staying out of the fridge unused if baby didn't drink it, and you would have to toss it after 2 hours. Then they advise you not to rewarm feeds. If baby doesn't drink the milk, you just wasted milk.

Another method was to fill the clean bottles at night with 8 ozs (or what amount you give) of boiled water and cover them. By the time you need it, it is room temp and not warming needed.

I still travel with 2 bottles of hot water and one with room temp water ready for formulae, whenever we leave the house with dd. The powder is carried in a separate container.

Sometimes I do fear I will make the mistake one day of pouring the entire kettle of boiled water into the can of SMA, that would be a disaster.

Oooh, Gen, you might - I pour it into the sugar bowl sometimes...better make sure you always put the lid on first!

Thanks for your email btw - will reply tomorrow (brain not in gear at the mo! )

I'm not sure that's correct about leaving bottles at room temp for hours. The water, bottle, teat etc may be sterile, but the formula powder itself certainly ain't! Bugs could multiply that way.

I bottle fed ds1, way before microwaves had been invented. I had a warmer from my SIL, which I threw across the room in frustration after about two feeds but I have no recollection whatsoever as to how I heated the milk after that! I probably didn't.

Re Coddie's Q about hot spots - yes, I've had one in hot milk and burnt my chops. There was no indication of it from the milk I'd already drunk or the outside of the mug until I had a mouthful of scalding liquid, ow, ow ow.

I nuked the bottles with lid off,I even (horror of horrors) renuked the bottle if it had gone cold.
Of course I wish I had never started warming but hey ,I prefer warm milk too!
My ds never had a tummy bug or got a scalded throat.

Thanks suedonim, I was dreading being the only one to sound like a teacher/policeman. Leaving a bottle at room temp for 2 hours wouldn't suit a young baby. Bugs enter as soon as you begin mixing formula, just from the air around us. If left for 30 mins, they don't have time to grow to any degree. After 2 hours, it wouldn't smell off, but you wouldn't give it to a young baby.

I always wondered why bottle fed babies were reported to be hospitalised by gastroenteritis so often - now I know. It really does need to be made plainer than the nose on your face, doesn't it? read the back of the jar of formula.
I wonder what happens when we touch on the hoary issue of levelling off the scoops? Perhaps people just guess and tip in any old amount?

Ah - I wasn't thinking about tiny babies - just about bigger ones who are a bit more robust. I was careful when mine were tiny, but more casual when they were bigger. They never got gastroenteritis anyway.

Sorry, Droile, I will never peddle such misinformation again! (I did always level my scoops though, miss - fill, tap, level-with-back-of-knife! But used to put in slightly more water than stated.)

I still use a microwave to take the chill of dd's milk, but I never did if it was a bottle of expressed milk - I think I read somewhere that the nuking would destroy a lot of the breast milk fabulousness. Re heating - I thought we did it because boob milk is warm, not because we live in a cold country. Gradually tailing off the heating now, anyway.

JanH

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Have just come back from Canada, and noticed that some of the baby food (jars, not formula - I didn't look at that) actually gave instructions for heating in a microwave, which isn't something you see here - or at least you didn't in the days when ds was young enough for baby food. So it does look as if guidelines vary from place to place anyway.

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Going back to what zippy539 said, does anyone know where you can buy formula in sachets? I used them with DS2, but I can't find them anywhere now - DD will only have a couple of bottles a week when I go back to work (can't get the hang of expressing AT ALL) and we aren't going to use a whole box in four weeks.

lydialemon, Boots has them....the sachets