Formula feeding out and about - temperature?

[whatswithtodaytoday]

I'd like to start feeding powdered formula while out, rather than using the pre-made bottles. My baby doesn't seem to get on with them too well, he often sicks them up and is less keen to eat when I give them.

However, I am baffled by the process. We use a Perfect Prep at home, so logically and following the advice of my NCT group, I intended to replicate the process by adding a 'hot shot' of water from a flask, mix with the powder, then add cooled boiled water to make up the full bottle.

I want to check how long the water in the flask stays hot enough so we can go out for a day, but we don't have a thermometer that goes that high (baby thermometer just says 'H' when I put it in, and bath thermometer only goes to 50 degrees).

Yes I'm paranoid, yes PFB, but has anyone managed to check the temperature of a flask and knows how long it takes to cool down? I'm about to buy a meat thermometer off Amazon just to test this! 🙄

You are hugely over thinking it. If after however many hours it's still above 50 on your baby thermometer then it's likely fine. If you are really bothered about though it just ask for some boiling water from a cafe to top it up.

Also cold tap water is absolutely fine you don't really need to use cooled boiled water unless they are tiny newborns.

I have this flask. It says it keeps hot water hot for 12-14 hours. I admit I haven't used a thermometer to check but I just add boiling water straight from the kettle and it definitely feels hot enough after several (say 8-10) hours I'd imagine most flasks are similar

Thermos Light and Compact Flask, Stainless Steel, 350 ml https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008F7O3FI/ref=cmswwrcppapiii_JJglDbNNCGFD

Advice is to use cooled boiled water until they're at least six months, preferably always. I might switch to tap water at 6 months as I know my friends did, but don't really feel comfortable before then.

If I used booking water from a cafe I'd have to wait 20+ minutes for it to cool down, as you do before you make up a flask. That means getting into a cafe and served week before he needs feeding - I was hoping for something fairly instant, as he screams very loud indeed! 😆

I'm just worried that I have no idea how long the flask will actually keep the water hot enough. It says keeps hot for 6 hours, but what if I put it in at 75 degrees and it falls to 60 by the end of the day? Then the powder won't be sterilised.

It's hot water you should use for as long as you make up formula. Tap water is ok as a drink.

You could make up a bottle of formula, chill it in the fridge and then put it in a cool bag with an ice pack and it's ok for 4 hours

I use your method with my 5 month old. I use a chilly bottle and so far we've had no problems. Been doing it for months now as have the majority of my ff mum friends (it's where I got the idea) granted I haven't used it 12 hours after filling it as we're home by then but 6 hours has been fine

I used a tommee tippee flask with ds and it keeps water hot enough for six hours. I put the water into the flask as soon as the kettle was done so it was as hot as possible. Then used cooled boiled/cold water from the prep to make up the rest of the feed.

If I used booking water from a cafe I'd have to wait 20+ minutes for it to cool down, as you do before you make up a flask.

That 'rule' is partly to minimise the risk of scalding yourself / giving a feed that's too hot. The advice is to leave it to cool for no more than 30 minutes, not you must wait that long.

I generally speeded up that process in an emergency by using water just off the boil, which is what you would get in a cafe anyway, or adding a small bit of cooled boiled water tap water to cool it down a few degrees slightly.

I stopped bothering with cooled boiled water at the point they were picking up things and putting them in their mouths, tap water in this country is pretty safe.

Why would you put 75 degree water into the flask? Just put it in straight out of the kettle and it will definitely be hot enough when you come to use it?

We do this all the time, we make ups bottle on the fly just using cold (room temp) water from a bottle we bring out with us, same at home as well.

Ahhh ok, thank you for the reassurance. I thought the hot water had to be about 70 degrees every time, as I read (while obsessively googling) that having it too hot will kill enzymes or something.

He's only four months at the moment so not quite at the crawling around putting everything his mouth stage just yet. Once he is I'll hopefully chill out a bit.

The hot water does need to be over 70 when mixed with the powder. You can quickly chill the bottles down once it's mixed and put them into the fridge for use over the next 24 hours.

Get ds used to drinking them cooler. No need to reheat.

I honestly wouldn't worry about it - I did to start with and it's ridiculous! We switched to powdered formula around 4 months due to baby having reflux and having to use the anti reflux formula. Doing it the 'proper' way, powder - hot shot - cold water, resulted in the powder sticking to the bottle. So we always put the water in first then the powder. Out and about - We just fill the bottle with water from the perfect prep and add the formula when we need it. Baby has been absolutely fine!

How long after leaving the house are you needing it?

If we go out and the bottle will be needed in up to 4 hours I make it up with all boiling water just before we leave. If I will need it within 2 hours I just pop it in the change bag, if its longer I use one of the thermal bottle carriers. By the time I need it we can just go straight for a feed, no faffing and mixing/pouring.

Apart from the fact this is how my mum and all my sister in laws have done it I just fail to see how something that has all the bacteria (of which the risk is minimal anyway) killed is going to suddenly be dangerous...NHS website says 2 hours at room temp is fine and it takes at least a hours to get to room temp in the thermal carrier.

Midwife was fine with this when I ran it by her.

We just fill the bottle with water from the perfect prep and add the formula when we need it

why? What do you think the perfect prep does to the water in that situation that couldn't be done by an ordinary kettle/ filling it from the tap? The point of the perfect prep is it heats the hot shot hot enough to hit the formula at the right temperature then add cooler water so it makes the bottle the 'perfect temperature' for feeding instantly.

Adding the formula at a later point completely defeats the object of the perfect prep.

Yes, I would make the bottles up in advance (but with boiling/70C water, rather than perfect prep) and keep cool while out with ice pack. That is the next best thing to making them up fresh and still minimises the risk of any bacterial growth, but with no faffing around with water and powder.

I'd rather make up fresh than lug an ice pack around! I'm hoping to go out for a long day soon, so probably 10am-6pm-ish.

@RoomR0613 - Fully appreciate that, although I don't appreciate your tone! If you read my message properly you'd see we have to do it that way as the anti-reflux formula sticks to the bottle!! I didn't know my child would need anti reflux milk when I bought the PP did I?!

As we have a PP why not use it?! It's quicker than a kettle and waiting for it to cool down!

I did read the bit about the reflux milk but it makes no difference? By later I was meaning 'later in the day' which is the bit I picked up on in your post, not later meaning 'Powder after water rather than before'

The point is that in the situations where you are adding the powder to the bottle as and when you need it when you are out and about there's literally no point even switching the perfect prep on. You aren't using the hot shot function which is the entire point of a PP so you may as well just fill the bottle with cooled boiled water from the last time you boiled the kettle before you set off.

This isn't a dig at people using perfect preps I was trying to point out that the perfect prep doesn't create water that's suddenly more safe to add formula to at a later point (as in later in the day, not the wrong way round).

I know it doesn't and I could use a kettle for those occasions we are going out but we have it, so we use it. The OP said she has one so might as well get the use of it.

I just used to pre-make the bottles in advance. The hot bottle I would use for the first feed (it would be cool enough by then), and I'd take a cold bottle which would be warmed up by the time I needed it later.

I never bothered warming bottles after they were about 12 weeks (breastmilk or formula) as I wanted them to get used to drinking it at room temp which seemed to cut down on a lot of temperature hassles.

Probably not how you're supposed to do it but I just filled the bottle with the amount of freshly boiled water I needed for his milk, stuck it in a thermal bottle bag and added the powder when it was time for his bottle. Who knows if the temp was high enough but it never caused him any issues.

I think you're over thinking it a bit OP, formula companies aren't going to sell a product that is inherently unsafe unless you follow their exact instructions. Parents would never leave the house if that was the case.

OP people are telling you what they do not what is safe or recommended. Would you drink cow's milk from the fridge that you'd carried around in a nappy bag all day? The water needs to hit the formula hot, you need to sterilise the formula not so much the water in the UK. Either use a contigo lockable coffee cup or a chillys bottle filled with boiling water before you go out six hours it will be very very hot. Then top up with cooled boiled water, or make the bottle up at home with water just off the boil and it'll keep in the fridge for 24 hours/on an ice pack for 2 hours and warm with hot water -this method is good if you're going to someone's house and you can put a bottle in the fridge when you're there. This is the advice from the NHS if you are unable to follow the instructions on the formula. I have a relative whose baby is always sick, formula fed, formula added to cooled boiled water, she's medicated OTC for reflux etc, yet when the baby's grandmother has her and makes her bottles up properly she isn't sick.

Probably not how you're supposed to do it but I just filled the bottle with the amount of freshly boiled water I needed for his milk, stuck it in a thermal bottle bag and added the powder when it was time for his bottle

This. If there's any bacteria in the powder it'll be mostly dormant and it's not going to grow if you give it immediately. I was told in hospital the perfect preps aren't recommended because they use a mix of hot and cold water. Far better to have cooled boiled water. Nowhere on the formula instructions does it say you need a hot shot to sterilise it.

The formula instructions say to use 1 litre of water that has been boiled and left to cool for no more than 30 minutes - this gives hot water over 70 degrees to sterilise the powder. Perfect prep isn't advised as the 'hot shot' may not give a large enough amount of hot water to sterilise the powder as it cools too quickly upon meeting the powder.

I have 3 boys who all have alternative formula.
I simply sterilise my bottles, pour in 4-5oz of hot boiled water then take a flask out with me and top up to how ever many Oz I need and then add the formula powder.
This way is perfectly fine the flask lasts all day long and was even recommended for me to do by a health care professional.
Try not to worry about things as much, aslong as the water is clean and sterile then that's all you need.

I usually make a bottle up with boiled water and keep it in an insulated bottle bag until it's needed (usually knowing it will be drunk within 2 hours). If we need to make a bottle up while we're out I take a small Ikea thermos of boiled water, a sterilised bottle and a formula dispenser. Once it gets to the point where it seems another bottle will be wanted soon I make another up using the boiled water from the flask and the formula from the dispenser in the clean bottle. I've never bothered taking cold water to cool the bottle down - I usually just ask for a glass/jug of cold water to cool it down if it's needed while we're out (or made sure to remove it from the insulated bottle bag to allow it time to cool down to a suitable temperature)