Can't deal with the constant formula making!

[anon1387]

My baby is nearly 2 weeks old and has been bf and ff due to jaundice (she's fine now). She favours the bottle so am making one every 2-3 hours as I need them like I was advised but it's killing me (am offering breast first but she usually has a meltdown)! I'm so tired and going up and down all night is even more exhausting, plus having to wait for the milk to cool down. I have tried her with refrigerated milk but she won't drink it. How can I make the constant feeds easier?

Buy the ready made stuff.

You can replicate the perfect prep machine and make bottles that are at ready to drink temp straightaway.
I boil some water in the morning, allow to cool and store in a clean jug in the fridge, when you need to make up a feed, boil the kettle and measure out (for 6oz bottle as an example) 2 oz of just boiled water, add your 6 scoops of powder, put on the lid and shake well. Then measure out 4 oz of the cold water in a separate bottle and add to the feed, shake well and check the temp before feeding.

Or, to make life easier in these very early days, you could buy ready made cartons for feeds during the night.

It's a lot more expensive than powdered formula...

What about buying the tommee tippee prep machine? Xx

Make 6 bottles with hot water. Blast chill them under cold water and once cooled, store at the back of the fridge. Warm one (or serve fridge cold) as needed. Use them up within 24 hours.

We only did 6 at a time as that's what the sterilizer held.

@NannyR

You can replicate the perfect prep machine and make bottles that are at ready to drink temp straightaway. I boil some water in the morning, allow to cool and store in a clean jug in the fridge, when you need to make up a feed, boil the kettle and measure out (for 6oz bottle as an example) 2 oz of just boiled water, add your 6 scoops of powder, put on the lid and shake well. Then measure out 4 oz of the cold water in a separate bottle and add to the feed, shake well and check the temp before feeding.

Or, to make life easier in these very early days, you could buy ready made cartons for feeds during the night.

Thank you!

I used to make them up before bed, chill them, take them upstairs with me in a cool bag and use a bottle warmer to reheat them although he started taking them cool anyway. He has lived to tell the tale before anyone tells me how it's not allowed!

Ready made is more expensive yes but maybe as a temporary thing or just for the night times. I formula fed and found my daughter slipped into a regular feeding pattern rather than crying for a feed so I knew when feeding time would be so could plan ahead and make the bottle up in advance.

@Aimzxo

What about buying the tommee tippee prep machine? Xx

Never heard of one until now. Will have to have a look.

It's not too late to breast feed more. Contact your local La Leche League or NCT for support.

Can't recommend the perfect prep machine enough!

Buy a perfect prep. Honestly they're amazing. If you can't afford one, use a credit card... They're that much of a game changer

Stop giving bottles, carry on with bf, just seek advice on how to make it working. When our baby was very close to treatment line we were told to give formula till 2 weeks, after 2 weeks bilirubin wouldn’t get into brain. If you are concerned baby is not taking enough milk- buy scales (20 quid) and do checks. Our baby refused breast until we removed dummy completely

As you are combination feeding you’ve still got the option of upping your supply and breastfeeding more or exclusively? It’s probably a more challenging route in the first instance but once established its far easier (I was far too lazy to faff with sterilising and making up bottles and temperature etc!).

If you’ve been offering predominantly bottles your supply may be dwindling which could explain her frustration but a few days of cluster feeding would up your supply (or expressing to up it - but again a faff). Personally I found it worth the short term pain as then for the foreseeable you can stop the bottle inconvenience & at night especially it’s so much simpler to just bf. No judgement either way, purely a practical solution! Good luck & congratulations

Is there a local breast feeding group or la leche group. They may be able to help with breastfeeding and combination feeding if that's the route you want to go down. I didn't know anywhere that would help me with breast feeding (midwife and health visitor thought I was managing great when I wasn't!) I would have found these groups a god send or just someone to talk to. I probably would have breast fed longer.
When I went to formula feeding I used the perfect prep! God send for those 2 hourly feeds especially through the night when baby is screaming for a feed! Xx

Get a perfect prep machine. They are amazing

Really recommend the perfect prep. I bf first DD but 2nd had to formula.feed and it was an absolute godsend. Got 2nd hand on Facebook and resold for the same price when we were done.

Thank you. Would it be a good idea to just spend the whole day bf and not topping up with bottles? I'd like to try but worried about the jaundice coming back.

The perfect prep machine will change your life. It makes life so much easier!

@anon1387 I would do that, just be persistent and if topping up just reduce volume of formula. Baby will stay yellowish for a few weeks, but after 2 weeks their brain is protected enough and you know them better to raise alarm if something happens.

Agree with pp midwives, doctors and HVs were rubbing on helping with bf. there is a national phone help line which I found helpful. Read on kelly mom about breast bottle confusion, sounds like it.

@20Alison18031 she's 3 days shy of 2 weeks. Will that make much of a difference?

Our HV said it was fine to make 24 hours worth in on go and cool them quickly then leave in the coldest place in the fridge for 24 hours max...did this with both! Then with first I heated in boiling water and second I microwaved !

Thank you. Would it be a good idea to just spend the whole day bf and not topping up with bottles? I'd like to try but worried about the jaundice coming back.

Personally I would make eliminating the jaundice my top priority - and at least with formula you know how much milk your baby is getting.

If you want to bf, yes, I would just bf. At 2 weeks, jaundice won't come back. The bilrubin is flushed out now. You just need to keep an eye on weight and make sure it's not slowing too much.

If you want to make bottles, you can make them in advance, refrigerate, and warm in boiled water (the whole bottle), takes like 3 minutes to do. You just need to figure out how to anticipate when you'll need them too. A bottle is fine at room temp for up to 2 hours. So if it's been 2 hours since last feed, make the bottle and cool it, you'll need it soon enough and it will be ready when you do. You don't need to make them when baby is already showing signs of hunger. For night feeds, if you have a partner, they should help. With my one who was ff, I never made a bottle during the night. Dh got up and did them all while I did the feeding.

But if you do want to bf, in my personal experience, having bf one and ff one, bf is massively easier. I found the bottle making, cleaning, sterilising, packing a days worth to go out, taking away for overnights a real PITA. In comparison, once we got that hang of bf (took about 3 weeks), it was so much easier to bf and a lot less stressful.