How do you make up your bottle?

[butterfly92]

Hi all. I am having my baby this week and really want to be prepared on how to make up bottles!! I dont have a tommee tippee machine as i spent the money buying an isofix which is more important for me.

I have heard various range of methods but the most common one is to make up formula beforehand so hot water, scoop formula, shake well, leave to cool down thoroughly and then put it at the back of the fridge and reheat when it's time to feed the baby. Is this okay? How do you do it otherwise? Thanks

Hi there
I personally have a Tommee tippee machine so at home I use that (it's amazing for night feeds, as they take 2 mins to make a bottle at correct temperature).
When im at someone else's house, I would make the bottles fresh and cool them in a jug of cold water. I've always been told not to store made up bottles.
With some brands of formula you can get ready made cartons which you can warm up by placing the bottle in some warm water, which is great for being out and about, which I've used occasionally.
When I'm somewhere which I know I won't have access to a kettle I take my tommee tippee flask full of boiling water to make the bottles fresh, then cool them as usual. I've got some small formula tubs which I keep the right amount of formula in for each feed.

Good luck! Hope all goes well

Hi butterfly yes that's what we do. You aren't supposed to, meant to make every feed up fresh but my dd goes from 0-starving in ten seconds and couldn't deal with the screaming while I made up fresh then cooled enough to give her. Try and do twice a day so that they haven't been sat in the fridge too long. Good luck with your little one x

I made up mine like that, the only top tip I would share is we have a spare bottle. /9

So scoops in the empty bottles (make a day up at a time of you have enough) then use the empty bottle to put the freshly booked water in. Shake and fridge until required. They take about 5 minutes to warm in a bowl of hot water or 30 seconds in amicrowave (shake well to disperse hot spots).

The extra bottle means the scoop for the powder doesn'5 get steam on it and get all claggy.

If you make them up in advance you can cuddle a crying baby while they wait for it to warm if you make it fresh it'/ harder to comfort them while you handle boiling water.
Good luck with your little one! Kxx

We use ready made formula. It's a bit more expensive but worth it as it's so easy! 65p a bottle and that 4 newborn feeds!

Posted too soon!

We don't warm our bottles either. Just room temperature is fine but we do zap them for 10 seconds to take the chill off them if they have been in the fridge. Warming bottles when out and about is a faff and both DCs have been happy with room temperature

I did scoops and half the amount of boiling water and then pre boiled.cold water from the fridge (kept in a sterilised bottle).
By about 4months I just used tap water for the cold water.

If your premaking with just boiling water you should flash cool them (run a cold tap over them) and refrigerate once they are already cooked.
For night times I took a cold bottle in a flask bag and left it on the window and then warmed it in a bottle warmer when I needed it.

You can make them up like the TT machine would. For example my DS has a 7oz bottle so I put 2oz boiling water in the bottle, add the powder and then top up with 5oz tap water (obviously you'd be using cooled boiled water).

We used to boil a kettle of water, let it cool for the required time (half an hour? It's been a couple of years), make a bottle up with it, then put the remaining cooled boiled water in a thermos flask to use in making subsequent bottles. Any unused made up bottle was treated like fresh milk, e.g. stored in the fridge, but discarded if not used in a couple of hours. I found that, after a few weeks, it became fairly easy to predict when my baby would be due the next feed so I could make a bottle in anticipation. I also found that having a store of cartons of ready made formula was life saving for those times you haven't been able to anticipate a feed, especially in the early days when things are a bit chaotic (and especially in the middle of the night).

Also I found the cartons (size of an individual, drink through a straw fruit juice carton) really useful when out. No faffing with powder, water etc when away from home. Just pour it into a sterilised bottle and job done. My baby was always happy with milk at room/ambient temperature.

Just make fresh. It's quick to do and safest. Once bottle is made you can run under cold water or stand in bowl of cold to rapidly cool to drinking temp. Bottle can be made and drinkable in less than 10 mins.

The tommy tippee machine are not recommended by the NHS or world health organisation. They both say it is unsafe. 6 oz of powder needs 6oz of hot to kill any germs. The machine uses only 2-3 oz of hot and then cold. This is not sufficient. Neither is the method of adding half hot and half cold yourself.

You can make the bottle up straight away from boiled kettle, they say don't leave it more than half an hour ( as it will obviously be too cold again), not to wait half hour.

I usually make up 6 bottles at a time.

I let the water boil, then wait 15 - 20 minutes. Do not leave it for half an hour, or the water might be too cool by the time you get to the last bottle.

Then I make up the 6 bottles, and then cool them rapidly in a container of ice cold water.

Once they have cooled, I still them in the back of the fridge. They can keep for up to 24 hours. Most articles say to do it only if you need to (like the link below) but you can do it all the time, people have been doing it for years!

www.unicef.org.uk/Documents/Baby_Friendly/Leaflets/start4life_guide_to_bottle_%20feeding.pdf

If we're going out and about, I just use the pre-made Aptamil bottles.

I pre boil water and let it cool. Then put it in the thermos. Have my bottles ready and milk powder in a dispenser already measured. when baby wakes just add the water and powder. Takes me less then the tommee tippee machine imo.

I agree with art - I'm really surprised at how casual people are about making bottles. Milk powder isn't sterile and although it's rare poor practice can lead to really unwell babies

I always just mimicked what the TT machine did.

Splash of boiling water in the bottle, powder in, shake, then fill with cold tap water in a ratio that made it lukewarm (obviously changes as the baby takes more ozs)

Really simple and easy.

Cathaka it doesn't sound like you're sterilising your powder?

I know a mum who used that method and her baby ended up in hospital with some gastrointestinal bug. Fed through a tube the lot. It's really dangerous. You're not boiling the water to sterilise the water- you're boiling the water to sterilise the powder!!

99% of water in this country is safe for babies to drink without being boiled.. Its the milk powder which is the biggest risk.

Sorry I missed out a step.
I add boiling water then the cooled pre boiled water.

We have twins so at one point I was making up 18 bottles a day.

I would make day feeds at 9:30am while they were napping and the night feeds once they had gone to bed in the evenings. I would cool them in cold water then store in the fridge and warm up in boiling water before each feed.

I would also recommend cold water sterilizing. It's quick and easy.

Make it fresh when you can - it's not too much of a faff. Put the bottle in a bowl of water with the cold tap running continuously - it cools in about 3/4 min (time I use to change nappy!!)
Boil kettle freshly, measure scoops out (ounces of water match number of scoops e.g 2oz = 2 scoops), lid on (properly or it goes everywhere!), shake and cool 😊
If your baby wakes often in the night make them up before (my rule was always 3hrs max and I would make the next feed each time I was up - and instead of cooling in a bowl of cold water, heat for a minute in a bowl of warm - you can also get a bottle warmer. I think they cost about £20 which does the job too)
For out and about make one before you leave and for longer trips I would use pre made formula ☺ or a thermos if hot water.

It's all really a lot easier than it seems - you will figure out what works for you and what your happy with!

Good luck ☺

*oh meant to add if using thermos of hot water for out and about pour some freshly boiled water into the feeding bottle with the milk before you leave to sterilise the powder - then top it up when out with water from thermos. ☺

I made up half the bottle with boiling water and all the formula I needed and topped up with cooled booked water kept in a sterilised bottle, was roughly half and half. Used to carry the cooled boiled water around with me and a flask of hot when out and about.