Bottle feeding when out - please advise!

[Craftycakey15]

I'm going out for several hours for the first time tomorrow since having my baby a couple of weeks ago. Please excuse my stupid question and hold my hand as I'm so nervous! I am going to take my thermos of boiled water and a pot of formula feed but I want to know how to quickly cool down my thermos of hot water ( as my baby goes from 0 to screaming for milk in minutes). Also do you have a special bag or container for the bottle? I don't have this, was just going to put in my changing bag.

Just make the bottle and it should cool down outside quickly. If indoors run under cold tap.

For small baby just automatically make bottle 2hrs after last feed and offer, rather than waiting until he's hungry

Ive got two small 300ml flasks, it takes planning but this is what I do:
Boil kettle with fresh water leave ten mins and fill up flask one.
Leave til completely cooled usually around 1hr, fill flask two.
I have my powder all ready in the bottle, pour say 2oz of the hot water then shake up then top up to 4oz or 6oz or however much you require. It's usually the perfect temp and ready to feed.
Yes it's faffy but it's instant once you are out and you don't have to go into any coffee shops to ask for water!
You get used to it after a few trips!

If you are in a rush to cool the water from the kettle I've decanted it into a clean glass jug then submerged the outside in cold water for ten minutes when I've been desperate!

You can buy mini bottles of ready made formula (was a revelation to me!) Big supermarkets or mothercare do small ones (70ml) with a disposable teat that you just screw on. Or most supermarkets / pharmacies/ biggish corner shops do larger ones (200 ml) that you decant into a sterilised bottle. My DD drinks them at room temperature so no need to warm them up.

Apologies if this is long, but it's a copy of an email I've sent to a few friends who've had questions re bottles, and as I found it all a bit overwhelming at first I'd written it down. Hope it helps...

The first bit is not so much about being out but will effect that so bear with me!!! It's about how long you can keep bottles for when you make them up - the box says use it within 4 hours if in the fridge i think, but if you put it straight into the fridge (bottom shelf towards the back) then it cools quickly and you can leave it longer. We went with 12 hours as a rule, I might do less for a little baby, maybe 8 hours at first, and then more as their digestive system gets stronger. Its only about bacteria growing, but its ok as long as its quickly cooled and kept cold, then just heated when needed. Our hospital maternity ward make it up every 12 hours for new borns so I figured if they do that then it must be ok!!

A couple of things which I’ve found so so helpful and has ultimately saved us money on premix formula are:

• Fridge-to-go: www.amazon.co.uk/223/dp/B0040AJP5W - this is amazing! It keeps bottles at fridge temperature for up to 8 hours, which means you can make up your bottles and take them with you, and they stay cold, so you don’t have to always use pre-mix when you are out and about. With one extra freeze block in it even kept stuff frozen for a 6 hour journey!! Very impressive! I can’t recommend this highly enough with bottles, as its saved us a fortune being about to use this and make up bottles. It's much better than standard coolbags. I'd usually chill them in our fridge whilst getting ready to go out and then pop them into the cool bag when leaving.

• Travel bottle warmer: www.amazon.co.uk/Tommee-Tippee-Closer-Nature-Travel/dp/B002L3TEN8 - Obviously if you are out and about and kept the bottles at fridge temp, the you may need to heat them up, my DS would drink at room temp but not chilled. Most places refuse to heat bottles up now, so you have to have your own.

I do what Snowman says. Pot of powder, pot of cooled boiled water, flask of boiling water, sterile bottle.

I buy the ready made mini bottles. Absolute life saver when out and about

The ready made little bottles are great. One small bottle will do two feeds for my 7 week old. I just take the requisite number of sterilised bottles out with me and decant the formula when time to feed. Once in a sterilised bottle the formula needs to be consumed within the normal 2 hours but the stuff in the premade formula bottle is good for 24 hours if kept cool once opened. They cost around £2.80 for a pack of four or 70-80p per 200ml bottle. My little one is happy to drink it cold.

As a one-off if you're a bit anxious then I'd absolutely use a mini-carton of ready-prepped formula. Keep at room temperature in your bag, cut the corner off when you're ready to use, pour into clean bottle and you're done (warm up in a cup of hot water for a sec if baby will not drink at room temp). For the cost of 69p it is absolutely worth it.

Thank you all so much

We can't use the ready mix aptimil first milk as we are on specialist formula

I always make bottles in advance and store them in the fridge. To hear them up I warm them in hot water. At home I use a jug, but I have a travel bottle warmer for going out- you fill it with boiling water and use that.
So much easier than having to take water and pots of powder.

I got the tommee tippee flask which allowed me to make it up with hot water then cool it down in the container that comes with it to put cold water in. Was a life saver.

I didn't like making them up in advance and taking them out with me unless she was going to be drinking it within 20-30 mins as you're meant to discard any bottles after an hour unless they're kept in the fridge.

Kel - how does that work when out though? As prepared milk shouldn't be used if out the fridge more than 1 hr

I would take a flask of boiled 'hot' water (or if in a cafe, ask for hot water), then put hot water into bottle (2oz for a 7oz bottle), add powder and shake, top up with tap water.

The tommee tippee flask is really good. The water stays really hot for over 8 hours and the way it pours makes it safer around little ones.

Thank you all so much x

I make dds bottle with a mix of hot and cold water (pre boiled and cooled)
So for say a 6oz bottle I put 3oz of boiling water, add ALL the formula, give it a really good stir/shake, then add the cold water and it's ready instantly

The hot water is solely for sterilising the powder so as long as it's all dissolved then this method is fine

(Obviously adjust to amount you need, dd is now on 8oz so I usually do 3oz hot water and 5oz of cold water)

I do the same as sunshine. Here's an example using a 5oz feed.
I take two clean sterilise bottles, put 3oz of cool boiled water in one and leave the other empty. I take a small 300ml thermos flask with boiling water in. At feed time I put 2oz of boiling water into the empty bottle, add all the powder and give a shake, then pour in the 3oz of cold boiled water to make it the correct temp :) so the powder is still being added to hot water to kill the nasties, and I don't need to worry about being somewhere that can provide a jug of water to cool the feed in.

Thanks!

I put the bottle with the boiling water in a kinda insultated bottle bag then just chucked the bottle with the powder in in my changing bag. If the water hadnt cooled down enough by feeding time i would just urn it under a cold tap for a couple of minutes.

Ask for a cup of ice water or cold water at a cafe and dunk the formula bottle in it - it will take less than 5 mins to cool.

Less than 5 mins from boiling that is. 2-3 mins from 70 Deg.

I kept a container in the fridge filled with cooled boiled water at all times.

When I went out I'd take a flask of he cooled water and a Thermos of boiling water. I'd use the boiling water to sterilise the powder then top up with cold water to the right temperature. Easy peasy

Make in advance, store in fridge for upto 24 hours, pop in an insulated bag to keep cold when out. We did this from birth and it's been fine. When out, we have a flask of hot water with us, and at home we use a microwave and shake it afterwards.