Advice on preparing formula

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We are mix feeding our 2 month old baby. We are having some issues with breast feeding with low milk supply and baby refusing to latch, but are getting help and trying to get him to breast feed whenever possible.

This makes it difficult to predict when we need formula. Either we prepare too much but baby has a good feed at the breast so
have to throw it away, or baby starts crying (he goes from 0 to 60 very very quickly) and we are playing catch up, mixing formula and trying to cool it down quickly. I feel tremendously guilty during the 5-10 mins or so when preparing the formula and am constantly running back and forth trying to comfort him, even though it never really calms him when he's hungry. We try to be super organised and speed things along with a thermos of hot water and ice cubes to cool formula down again, but occasionally run out.

I would love to know how other parents manage and if I'm missing something. How do you get formula ready to minimise the time baby has to wait?

That does sound tough. In the short term, whilst you are trying to predict things better, could you have ready made formula instead?

We used ready made.

Make up a big jug of boiled water once a day and stick it in the fridge. When you make a feed, do it with a small amount of hot to dissolve your powder and deal with the bacteria, then top up with cold. Voila! Bottle at the right temperature.

You can batch make your formula.

Sterilise the bottles, make up the feeds with hot water, cool in a tub of cold water and pop them at the back of the fridge.

Take a bottle out of the fridge when you start a bf and while sitting with the baby pop it between your thighs. Will take the edge of the cold off. If he fusses then the bottle is right there. And if he ends up not needing it, you can keep it out of the fridge for an hour or two so can use a little later.

Maybe make up smaller bottles too so only 4oz wasted max.

In your circumstances I'd use ready made. But I think with formula feeding you do have to accept you may be throwing a lot away. My DD is 4 months and still drinks lots at one feed and sometimes hardly any.

Or buy a second hand perfect prep machine because they are really really fast

Ready made for the first few months then a Perfect Prep machine. I prefer ready made for very small babies as the Perfect Prep isn't really perfect and tiny babies are more at risk from bugs.

Napqueen not supposed to anymore, you're meant to make them up fresh and chuck it after an hour

Whilst I agree it is "best" to make up feeds individually and use there and then, it isnt "wrong" to prepare, chill and store them in the fridge. It is advice or guidance to make as you need.

You can make them up and store in a fridge. It's just that making them fresh is the best practice. Read the WHO guidelines if you're not sure.

Ok, NHS guidelines do say though to make up fresh and throw away after an hour. They may just be guidelines/advice but OPs baby is quite small so might be better to make up fresh until they are a bit bigger

We got some nhs leaflets telling us to make it up fresh every time, and to refrigerate for travel only if no other option. It also says to add the formula to water, not the other way around, so we're trying to follow the instructions...

We do have "emergency" ready made formula for night feeds so we don't wake the whole building, but luckily he breastfeeds well when sleepy so I don't usually need it. It's too expensive for us to use regularly.

Do the bit of hot then stick your powder in, then top up with cold from the fridge. I used to do about an oz of hot to 3 of cold for a small bottle but you'll soon get the hang of the amounts for the right temp. I can tell you for sure that a 7oz bottle for DS is a smidge under 3oz of hot and the rest cold but yours might like it warmer or colder!

Talking about this with hubby now - he would rather spend 5 mins holding crying baby (who is always inconsolable) while waiting for formula to cool (in jug of cold water). I prefer to add ice cubes to cut this to about 2-3 mins waiting, but it's a faff getting the ice cubes out as they get stuck, so baby is crying for a shortet period but alone. 😢 Which is preferable?

Shove bottle into the freezer for two mins then shake well on removing?

Could you get a bouncy chair or something for the kitchen? I normally put DS in the pram while I make up formula. The cooled boiled water in the fridge does work a trick though, it's no different to adding ice cubes if you're worried about bacteria. DS has his own jugs that we sterilise between uses.

The ice cubes and jug of water are to cool the formula bottle in (rather than running it under the tap), but I think we might keep some cold water in the fridge permanently instead.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Sterilise and make up a bottle and keep in the fridge. When making use one oz less water than required to make usual bottle with full amount of powder. When baby needs the bottle boil smallest amount of water and add back in the missing oz of water from the kettle. Perfect temperature minimum amount of time to make. Bottles made up keep in the fridge for 24hrs so just make one at a time if you aren't using many.

I used to fill up bottles with boiled water once a day & add milk powder when I wanted to feed him & warm in microwave & shake to remove and hot spots. I would make one bottle up with boiling water before I went out in the morning & put it in the insulated bottle pocket in my baby bag & that did him mid morning but he wasn't a fussy baby tbh.

I've read about the need for boiling water to deal with bacteria in the milk but rarely did it, mostly because my friend's baby was in nicu and they did it the way I describe above (not sure how they warmed the milk - presumably not using a microwave!) so I never really "got" that one.

I would be inclined to have half bottles with water & make up as you need. I think it's a lot more risky to make up milk than to fill your bottles & add formula as you need it. If you do it that way keep the bottles at the back of the fridge then they are less affected by the change in temp when the door is opened. X

The NHS guidelines are based on the WHO guidelines. If you read the WHO guidelines it makes a lot of sense.
Best option - make fresh.
Second best - make with boiled water and store in fridge for up to 24 hours.
Third - make with cold boiled water and use within an hour.
This is official advice. I'm not making it up based on what I did or what some people say or anything like that. All 3 are safe.

Honestly ready made is fine. The NHS advice refers to people making bottles up in advance and then storing it.

The ready made stuff is sterile. It comes in little cartons or bottles.

Ice read the who guidance too, and make them up in advance. It's perfectly fine to do so, and it makes life much easier.