Bottle Preparations - Make there & then or make in advance. HELP!!

[mumsrthebest]

Hi Ladies, I know that the recommendation nowadays is to make the bottle up 'as and when'. My 6 week old daughter has been suffering badly with colic and therefore we purchased some Dr. Brown anti-colic bottles and started using Colief. To make the bottles in advance the instructions on the Colief packet says that you can make the bottles up, add the Colief (2 drops) and place it in the fridge. The milk can be used within 4 hours and must be used within 12 hours as long as it is kept refridgerated. So why can't milk without Colief be made up in this way? I know several people that make up the bottles for the day and leave them in the fridge. Does anyone else do this? if so have you had any problems with your child? I know that up until several years ago child care professionals said that making up the bottles in advance was fine. So what's changed? It does make life so much easier. Would appreciate your advice as once she stops Colief making the bottles in advance would be far more practical.

My friend was breastfeeding, so not having to worry about bottles, but jeez, the volume of clothing/washing (hers, baby's, bedding, muslins) it created was a job in itself. I once asked her if she really needed to change herself, until I saw it up close... God knows how you keep on top of it if you are sterilising, making bottles, etc as well. Glad you are past it Eggrules.

Thanks all. Good advice given. xx

To be completely honest I think the number of babies ill is extremely rare. Half of it is the formula companies watching their backs. I know lots if people either making the water up first or formula up first and none of their babies to my knowledge have been ill. Good hygiene is really important

It may be rare, but that isn't much comfort if it's your baby. This is the first google hit on the subject, talking about a baby dying in the US at the end of last year.

I understand that. However within the who guidelines it doesn't state that you can't use the cooled boiled water method. Current advice when I checked with midwife was not to pre make formula store and reheat. Also within that article it doesn't state how the formula was made just that the bacteria can be present within the milk.

It is incredibly rare yes, but the consequences can be so serious (fatal) it is worth doing anyway.

whenever suits your routine best

Well - did our first night with new fridge. She was not impressed by the cold bottles whatsoever ever :( she did have them but cried between gulps - suppose this means adding a kettle to the collection?!? If my budget stretched to it I would be bulk buying the cartons!!

Cazm2 - what do you mean the WHO guidelines don't state that you can't use the cooled boiled water method? They very clearly state that the water shouldn't be below 70 degrees, that precludes the cooled boiled water method.

The article doesn't state how feeds were made up, but the point is that, if the bacteria were present in the milk, cold water would not have reduced it to safe levels.

I will never understand why people are so defensive of the cooled boiled water method. There is is a safe way to pre-prepare formula feeds, but that means making up the feed and cooling it, not pre-preparing cooled boiled water.

If I prepare a bottle using the 70' method do you HAVE to put it in the fridge or can you let it cool down to drinkable temp?

Dd has a bottle at about 1am - I go to bed about 11ish - if I made the bottle and took it up to bed with me hot and let it cool down until 1 ish would this work?

Nearly - I think that the WHO recommendation is to discard any formula stored at room temperature if it hasn't been used within a couple of hours. I'm not sure about letting it cool slowly, but if you made it at 11 and cooled it to room temp, it should be ok for a feed a couple of hours later?

ninky in the night i did the half and half method, take two bottles up with you, one empty one with half the amount you need in it pre cooled. then take a flask with boiling water up with you wehn you go to bed, at feed time put the other half you need from the flask into the empty bottle, it should still be hot enough ie 70 degree to kill the bugs if you have a good flask, add the powder to this and shake, then add the pre cooled, pre measured water from the other bottle, so that you then have the right amount of water for the powder and shake, this should make it drinkable temp, you may have to doa few trials to see how much how you need to the cold.

for example 7oz bottle

i would have 4oz of cooled in one bottle, then put 3oz of hot from a flask into the empty bottle, add all 7 scoops of powder (that i woul dhave counted out in a little tub) shake an dmix, then tip in the 4oz of cooled water from the other bottle and shake to mix, this would give a 7oz feed at the right temp and the poweder has been mixed with the hot water to kill the bugs :)

What I meant is it doesn't state your not to do it. Someone also stated earlier follow the methods stated on your formula pack mine state a fresh feed to be made each time in some ways contradiction. Also leaving the water for 30 mins in a kettle I guarantee its below 70 when your mixing it. I think its great your giving people the link but being heavy handed and scare mongering people that do it other ways is wrong especially when people are getting the boiled water advice from health visitors and midwives. Who at the time you believe are giving you the best advice

It can't possibly state every way to not do it, it doesn't say don't make it up with iced water or orange juice but I doubt that people do just because 'it doesnt say so'b

However, it does state how to do it. Why not just follow the instructions? They're not written for fun, or to scaremonger. They're there because babies can get really REALLY sick if you don't follow them, it's that simple.

HVs and MWs don't always give out the correct advice - time and time again you see threads on here where some of them give out advice that's either bonkers or downright bloody dangerous.

But it doesn't need to directly say not to do it. Saying water must not be below 70 degrees is saying not to do it - 70 degree water= not cold. I am not scaremongering or being heavy handed to say that cooled boiled water is not the right way.

I agree it's not that helpful if formula packs aren't clear. But the WHO guidelines are pretty clear - making fresh is best, but if not make small batches of feeds and cool quickly.

Making a feed with cooled boiled water is a bit like crossing a quiet country road without looking both ways. It may be that only one car drives down it a week and you'd have to be incredibly unlucky that anything was coming, but it would still be sensible to look both ways before you cross - the risk is tiny, but the consequences if you are the unlucky one are incredibly serious. And those risks are easily mitigated by a simple step (looking before you cross/changing your method to making up and cooling feeds, not making up bottles of water).

I have not criticised people who have done it differently on the advice of a midwife or health visitor. I think it appalling that people are badly advised by people they should be able to rely on. But the fact that they were badly advised doesn't mean we shouldn't be honest that it's not a good idea.

I just find it amazing that who guidelines are not in the nhs guidelines and passed down if not following them is horrendous. It's not in my pregnancy book handed out by midwife at booking in either. Plus I still don't believe water cooled down for 30 mins is 70 to kill bacteria

It is in the NHS guidelines - see here. It covers it in quite some detail. Can't comment on the pregnancy book as I don't have one.

It's not that not following them is 'horrendous'. Most babies will be fine, most of the time. But sadly some will get sick, and a very small number may even die. For me, that would be too big a risk to be determined to store cooled boiled water, rather than 3 or 4 bottles ready made.

I can't comment on the 70 degree/30 minutes thing as have never measured it, but that's rather a different issue. That's about whether the method fulfils the criteria they set, not whether those criteria are important.

Cazm2 The Pregnancy Book (2009) - pp116-117 is about using formula safely, and how to prepare a feed.

P118 talks about feeding away from home, and says that you can either make up a feed at home, put it in the fridge and take it out with you in a cool bag with ice packs (but throw away within four hours) or take the powder out with you and then make up the bottle with water that is still hot which you have kept in a flask.

All I can say is that I am grateful to YoullLaughAboutItOneDay and Flisspaps for thier advice and observations and certainly did not find it heavy handed. I was mortified to find how badly misled I have been and grateful to have fallen across this thread.

Nearlycooked You shouldn't be mortified - like I said before, whilst I understand the intent behind the 'breast is best campaign' and plethora of information given to pregnant women, there should be more information about this given out about how to make up bottles safely during the antenatal period, rather than it being a page in a book which is never discussed, or left to HVs who whilst well meaning, may not give out the appropriate information.

I've certainly never been responsible for anyone buying a beer fridge before (much to DH's sorrow )

I totally agree with Flisspaps Nearlycooked (does that nickname need updating by the way - or does it not refer to cooking a baby ). You should not be mortified. The cooled boiled water method is the way a generation or two of women made up their feeds. It is so easy for this stuff to get passed down and into general knowledge and then followed, even if the advice has moved on. I agree that the information should be highlighted more in antenatal care/courses. It is the sort of knowledge it would be good to have squirrelled away at the back of your mind, even if you plan to breastfeed.

I think this whole issue is a bit like 'back to sleep'. I am from the generation of babies put to sleep on their fronts (though apparently I screamed blue murder until flipped over, so my mum 'broke' the guidance with me!). My mum followed the advice she was given at the time. Looking back, she is horrified that she was given such duff advice, but she was doing the best she could with the information she had available, so she has never felt guilty about doing it and no harm was done. What surprises me is when people want to continue to defend outdated method even if they know why it's no longer considered a good idea.

And just think, when you are done feeding babies, you genuinely will have a beer fried .

Fridge. Bloody autocorrect.

Lol! I think it will be a gin and tonic fridge!!!

And yes - nearly cooked is out of date!! The bun was out the oven 6 mths ago!!