Urgent help required re making bottles

[Vic75]

Please help... I am so confused re making up formula powered milk. Can I make feed and store it in the fridge until my baby is hungry? The SMA instructions say make it when you need to feed your baby but how do I do that when she is screaming for a bottle. It's impossible to feed on demand following the instructions on the tin. I have just made 3 bottles and I want to use them tonight (now) and tomorrow morning but if I follow the instructions I cannot do this. Please tell me how you all managed making and feeding milk. Really hoping I get a response ASAP as I am awake waiting and hoping to get help. THANK YOU

I remember being extremely anxious about this too OP, it gets better I promise

My preferred method with my first was to boil the kettle, leave to cook for the advised 30 mins and then transfer to a large thermos that I used throughout the day. I would then just prepare the bottles a little before he was due for a feed so they’d cooled to drinking temperature. Having read this thread I’ll probably use some cooled boiled water this time around to speed up the cooling process!

Good luck with your little one, I promise you it doesn’t stay this scary for long.

I used to fill a lidded jug every morning with boiled water and fridge it.

When I needed to make formula I'd dissolve the milk powder in 1/3rd boiling water from the kettle then fill to correct amount with the cold boiled water in the fridge as this split in temperatures worked for us and the kids

Instant milk at the right temp

We got a prep machine, £20 off Facebook marketplace which is a gid send. I didn't think you were supposed to cool bottles and then reheat as this can cause bacteria to grow

The advice we got from neonatal (4 months ago) is as follows:

Bottles can be made in advance and stored in the back of the fridge for 24 hours

Don’t reheat, take a bottle out of the fridge an hour before a feed to come up to room temperature

A bottle made up and not kept in the fridge (or taken out of the fridge to warm up) can be kept for up to 4 hours

A bottle that has been drunk out of can be kept for one hour

We used to make up 6 bottles in the morning, put them in the fridge, and take out the next feed’s bottle after finishing a feed - there was never more than 4 hours between them so it was fine.

Perfect prep machine! Or the little bottles of ready made formula served at room temp but they are expensive.

Another vote here for a perfect prep machine! This is by far my best baby purchase!

I used to have a second kettle just for that purpose.

I used to sterilize bottles, fill with x amount of water and put those in the fridge. I'd add formula and warm up when feeding was required.

From NHS:

If made-up formula is stored:

• in a fridge–use within 24 hours
• in a cool bag with an ice pack–use withinfour hours
• at room temperature–use withintwo hours

We did the same with GeraniumSwimwear as advised by SCBU.

Made up 6 bottles every evening -
Boil kettle, leave to cool for 30 minutes.

Add correct amount of water to bottles then required number of scoops.

Shake well to mix and place in a basin of cold water to cool for 15 minutes and sore in the back of the fridge.

Then just take out as required, shake and bring to room temp.

Highly recommend a perfect prep machine. Perfect temp bottle in 2 mins. If you cant afford the 90quid upfront you can usually puck up a bargain on facebook market place or similar for like 20quid ish. I was also stressing re bottle prep but honestly the perfect prep is ideal

I don't have little ones now but I visited a friend with a perfect prep machine. I was very impressed with the speed a fresh bottle can be prepared. It's like a baby coffee machine! Don't stress yourself out too much as long as you follow normal food hygiene advice baby will be fine .

When I had mine they advised making up each day's bottles and storing in the fridge. The instructions have probably changed because there's been incidents of people not storing the formula cold enough.

Again, perfect prep is your answer.

But in the early weeks we just used the ready to feed (and microwaved it a touch) - even quicker and easier than the perfect prep,

Another one here who uses the ready to go stuff. Also handy in little bottles I keep a load in changing bag and just chuck a feeding bottle in whenever we go anywhere

Another vote for the perfect Prep. It really is one of the best inventions of the modern age.

If you are making up bottles in advance, don't reheat in the microwave as it can cause hot spots which can burn.