How did you do night feeds

[Nova324]

Hi,

Im 23+4 weeks pregnant FTM so might be a bit early for this kind of question but I'm trying to get myself as prepped as poss!
so we will be bottle feeding baby (please dont have a go at me for not BF) I understand it will be easy to make bottles during the day but wondering what everyone else did for night feeds?

I've read so many different things. I understand that the formula needs added to the boiling water to kill bacteria. so could i make these bottles up before bed and maybe feed to baby at room temp? i guess this would work for going out aswell?

another option I've seen is getting a flask of boiling water to make up during the night? I just worry about how long it takes to cool with a crying baby who will obviously be hungry

Thanks in advance for any suggestions

Perfect prep.

Get a perfect prep machine.

Perfect prep machine

Ready made formula for night feeds. Mine had it straight from the fridge. Job done

Came here to say what three others already have, perfect prep.

Alternatively, follow the NHS guidelines on making bottles for travel. Make them the night before and keep them on the fridge then warm them once needed.

For the first few weeks I'd be inclined to use ready made formula for night feeds.

Congratulations on your pregnancy!

There is official guidance (make bottles as and when needed and use water boiled once only and cooled no more than 30 minutes) and then a whole range of anecdotal advice on bottle feeding.

I did bf for the first 4 weeks and moved onto formula bottles after that so I can tell you what we did. Initially we made in advance enough bottles for the night and stored in the fridge. When baby woke hungry we went downstairs and warmed a bottle then fed baby in bedroom with lights off to encourage circadian rhythm to develop. It does take a few minutes to warm though. Some babies will be happy drinking cold milk some won't.

We then got a perfect prep machine which was a lifesaver as only takes 2 minutes to make a fresh bottle. We would have clean sterilised bottles ready and the powder measured out in one of those storage pots before bed.

If you don't like either of those ideas you can buy ready made formula and just keep it in the bedroom. Pour it into a fresh bottle on the bedside and feed. Same for going out and about. This can be wasteful at first as the bottles are usually minimum 200ml and your newborn will not eat anywhere near that amount to start with. It is also an expensive way to do it but that's up to you to decide.

I would not feed formula that has been sitting out of the fridge for more than an hour (unless a new sealed ready to eat formula bottle) and each feeding needs to be in a fresh sterilised bottle.

Hope that gives you some ideas.

Perfect prep.

We did use ready made at night for the first few weeks before he was drinking the minimum amount the prep would make (4oz?) as I don't like waste!

Perfect prep

Back in my eldest's day there was no perfect prep machine and prepping all the bottles back to the then standards was such a major chore it was a huge factor in trying to breastfeed the next ones.

I have seen these perfect prep machines, what an amazing invention!!! I would have one in the kitchen and one where you are going to do the night feeds!

Worth the money and presumably available 2nd hand?

Perfect prep! Love ours so so much ... literally saved us ... you can get them second hand just make sure you run a clean cycle every month/ before first use ( just google it loads of videos on how and it’s simple enough) and use the proper filters ... never had an issue x x

We made the bottles the night before, then cooled them by standing in cold water, and popped them in the fridge. Then reheated in a bottle warmer when needed. At the beginning we used premade bottles also which was a help in the early days, so make sure to get some in for emergencies!

Perfect prep. We had 2.
One in the Kitchen, One in the bedroom.
When Dd1 was born Perfect prep wasn't about then.
Nothing worse than a screaming baby waiting on a bottle😆

You can make up the night before, but can't leave at room temperature.

So make up say 3 bottles, with boiled water. Water can be boiled and used straight away, or up to 30 min max as should be above 70 degrees (no longer). add hot water then powder to bottles. teats and lids on. Swirl to mix. Stand in a bowl of cold water or sink filled with an inch cold water so they cool quickly.
Then place cooled bottles in the fridge.

When you need them overnight, can just stand bottle in bowl of hot/ warm water to warm a few minutes.

You can see guidance here from the world health organisation
www.who.int/foodsafety/document_centre/PIF_Bottle_en.pdf?ua=1

Mine has always preferred fridge cold milk. We make a big beaker (400ml) before bed (with boiling water of course, and flash cooled) and use that overnight without warming.

Read lots of perfect prep lovers, not sure it works for dairy allergy babies that need milk made up at weird temps though.

@Liland if you need to make up prescription formula with a perfect prep, you just hot shot then cooled water then powder. Usually you'd hot shot, powder then cooled water.

Ready made formula cartons and a couple of sterilised bottles upstairs, along with scissors to snip then open!

We used to wait until the dc was actually crying before getting the milk out too because quite a lot of the time they'd whinge a bit but then go back to sleep and I didn't want to waste it!

Another one that uses ready formula bottles, the 200ml ones are 24 hours with fridge storage so would do an entire day's feed with little to no waste. Luckily my son is happy to have milk straight out the fridge so I prep the bottles and put them in the back of the fridge to grab and go. It does work out fairly expensive if you exclusively use ready made, but at night it just makes life so much easier.

Prefect prep.

Bottles need to be made up with water above 70c but not boiling as this destroys some of the nutrients in the milk.

Once a bottle of formula is made up you have two hours to use or one hour from when the baby starts to drink it. You go by whichever is the soonest.

Perfect prep, I've had one for all three of my children (not the same one). The ready made milk is seriously expensive, if you work out the price per ml compared to the powder it's ridiculous.

When I'm out and about I carry a small flask (thermos do a 500ml one) of boiling water and whatever amount of cold boiled water I need in small sterilised bottles, the ones for expressed milk are perfect, then make it up the same way the perfect prep does. So for example for a 4oz bottle I'll do 1oz boiling water, add powder and then add 3oz of cold water.

Thank you all so much for your advice and suggestions! This whole baby thing is seriously crazy with so many diff ways to everything!!

Perfect prep for sure

We had 2 flask, one boiling water and one cooled boiled water.btake them up in a basket with the bottles and pre-portioned powder. Takes all of 30 seconds once you have the hang of it and also a great system for when out and about.

We bought a really big pump thermos and fill it up with fresh hot water every 12 hours & then keep sterilised bottle with cold water in the fridge and change every 24hrs - it was our answer to perfect prep after hearing horror stories about them that I couldn't forget - we then make up our own bottles on demand with a 70:30 ratio of hot to cold water as necessary

Hot kills the bacteria and the cold brings it down to almost perfect temp - you can play around with the ratios to suit, sometimes it takes a minute or so of running under the tap but never had any issues
Sounds long winded but it takes a couple of minutes - same as perfect prep

Also used those little powder decanter pots of the correct scoops of milk so in the night it was just a case of tipping it in

Another vote for perfect prep.. my HV recommend it & it was a life saver! You do need to keep it clean, regular flushes through & check the tubes aren’t getting too limescaled or any mould. But that’s not hard. We live in a soft water area so no limescale & in 12 months of use, never a hint of mould!

We live in a townhouse & our living room is on the middle floor so we chose to keep the machine upstairs in our bedroom. It was so helpful at nighttime to just have it there & it made no difference going up or down during the daytime to make bottles!

There is actually evidence against using the perfect prep machines as you cant be sure of what temperature the water hits the formula. This would mean you would be unsure as to whether the formula has been sterilised. I was told this at all 3 of my parenting classes. Sorry to burst peoples bubbles.