The best way to prepare bottle feeds for a day out?

[Shootingstar2289]

I'm nearly due with baby number 2 and plan to bottle feed (no judging please as I have a lot of meetings and appointments with my son who's got mild sen, so thinking it's best to bottle feed if my partner or family take care of her for a little while).

At home I'm going to prepare feeds, cool them quickly and store in the fridge then re-heat when needed. it's unrealistic to make a bottle feed everything your baby is hungry.

Anyway, my question is: what is the best way to prepare bottle feeds if you're out and about?

When I started to bottle feed my son, I used ready made cartons but these are pricey. Is there a safe way to do it another way?

I'm thinking either:

1. Buy a flask and milk powder dispensers and make a bottle up when needed. And take extra water to cool.

1. I've actually bought two Tommee Tippee insulated bottle holders. I'm not keen on making a bottle up before we go out. But I'm thinking that maybe I could:

Fill empty sterile bottles with water above 70 degrees. Place them into the insulated bottle carriers. Measure out the milk powder into dispensers before going out and then add the powder into the water when needed and cool if needed.

Any advice?

Look on Amazon for 'fridge to go' cool bags. They are only about £15 and they keep contents at below 5 degrees for up to 8 hours, which is fridge temperature. So you can make bottles, pop them in there and take them out all day, then I had a tomee tippee flask to hear when needed. Cheap, easy, and useful for keeping other stuff cold too. The cool bag even kept puree frozen for a 6 hour car journey!

Sorry, just reread the bit about not wanting to make them up before you go out - but guessing that's about keeping them at fridge temperature if you are ok to do them in advance af home. I was exactly the same and really stressed about it until I saw a post on here about what I suggested above. Sorry i didn't quite fully read that last bit before posting but hopefully this will help anyway.

I used to either use the cartons or prepare the milk in advance as you describe and take it with me in the cool pocket of the change bag (both dc used to drink it either straight from the fridge or at room temp so I didn't bother warming it up). My thought was that if it's been made with boiling water in a sterile bottle and sealed with the screw-on lid immediately, where are the germs going to come from? I used to keep the sterilised teats in a clicky tub until I needed them.

I used to give my youngest bottles at room temperature. Just took a bottle of boiled water n then added powder from a dispenser. She was always fine.

Fridge to Go was my saviour for going out and about with ff dd. I used to warm the bottles up by putting them down my jumper or in my pocket.

I took a flask of boiling water, tub with powder counted out then a bottle with some cooled boiling water and an empty bottle.

Pour hot water into empty bottle,say 3oz if a 7oz feed, add powder to hot water to kill bugs, then top it up with the pre measured, cooled water from the other bottle. Voila formula Ready.

You need to mix the powder with hot water.

I agree cool bags are good as well and cartons useful for emergencies, I always kept one in my bag just in case.

Only use cartons when out, powder at home?

I just take the ready made cartons to save hassle, 69p for 8oz size soo worth it imo!

Just wanted to flag up 'the science bit' as I'm a microbiologist.

Formula is not sterile, so must be mixed with boiling (above 70'c) when made to kill most of the bacteria present. But the water will not kill spore forming bacteria which will hydrate and slowly grow when water is added. Therefore the formula must be kept chilled or used within two hours to minimise risk.

Hope this helps, :) its good to know the reasons why we do stuff I think.

We generally made up a day's supply of bottles at one go and put in fridge. That's fine if you're only out for one feed since the formula is OK in an insulated pocket for a couple of hours, taken from the fridge. This method coped with practically all toddler groups, church activities, trips shopping and so on.

When going out for longer, it depended where we'd be - either took pre-measured powder for the next feed(s) (e.g. visiting friends where there will be a kettle etc) or ready-made cartons, with enough sterilized bottles in each case.

We always kept an extra sterile bottle and a ready-made carton in the change bag in case of emergency.

I would just use ready made for out and about. Ideally create a child who will drink room temp milk, mine never did but it would have been really helpful...