Cold formula feeding

[BabyB19]

We have been making our babies bottles up by boiling water, measuring it out in bottles and having 4 made for through the day and then again same for the night. We don't warm the water back up when she is ready for a feed as she has always had it cold so we put the powder in the cold water and shake and that's her feed. It's super easy and she takes it no problem but a friend has told us we should be warming the water again before making it. Has anyone else done it our way or are we going to have to start heating them? It seems silly to make more work when she takes it cold?

Thanks for the helpful advice and comments, and a reminder to be kind for all the ones that have made me feel like shit this morning. I'm a brand new mum who's had a baby with no antenatal support in a global pandemic and I'm now trying to find my way doing the best I can!

It's not your fault OP, even lots of HCPs don't seem to know this.

OP you are doing great, ignore the OTT disinfectant brigade, and hope you are doing ok otherwise, sounds like you are doing a fab job under horrible circumstances!

@BabyB19 I don't think anybody means to make you "feel like shit". It's just a bit surprising that you would disregard the instructions on the tin.

FWIW I'm in the same situation as you, on mat leave with a young baby, and it's been really tough - I'm all for avoiding extra faff! Have you considered buying a Perfect Prep machine? Best purchase we made!

I read it that the op makes up 4 bottles with boiling water and allows them to cool.
Those of you laying into to op is really unhelpful.

OP, I used to make up 6 bottles at night. I would then cool them in the sink for 20 minutes and pop them in the fridge. I would then take them out as needed throughout the day.
I never reheated it for ds (i think once, when he had a cold I popped the bottle in a mug of hot water but he didnt want it!) I'm about to have another baby and if formula feeding, would do the same. If it went over 24 hrs in the fridge, I didnt use it.

I don't think anyone intended to make you feel like shit but you did need to be made aware that what you were doing was dangerous for your baby. There are instructions on every tin of formula.

Following the instructions on the box is best, the WHO has advice on their website too.

The whole point of using boiled water is to sterilise the powder. It can’t do that if you’re mixing it cold.

@saiditbetterthanme

I read it that the op makes up 4 bottles with boiling water and allows them to cool. Those of you laying into to op is really unhelpful.

OP, I used to make up 6 bottles at night. I would then cool them in the sink for 20 minutes and pop them in the fridge. I would then take them out as needed throughout the day.
I never reheated it for ds (i think once, when he had a cold I popped the bottle in a mug of hot water but he didnt want it!) I'm about to have another baby and if formula feeding, would do the same. If it went over 24 hrs in the fridge, I didnt use it.

That's not how I read it - I read that they boil water and then put it in the fridge and then add the powder to the cold water when it's time to feed. That is dangerous because it doesn't kill the bacteria in the formula.

I'm lazy so I made enough bottles for 24 hours with boiled water that had cooled for a few mins, and then put them in the back of the fridge. One of my kids liked it straight out the fridge, the other liked it warmer so I would microwave and shake well to get rid of hot spots. No way was I going to make a fresh bottle each time! This way worked really well for us and was safe as well. When out I just used cartons. This was 10 years ago I was doing this.

It is really important that the powder hits very hot water as its not sterile. The boiling water to sterilise the water, it's to sterilise the powder.

The OP said
so we put powder in the cold water and shake and that's her feed

This isn't the safest way to make them due to bacteria in the powder. You don't boil the water to sterilise the water but to sterilise the powder. It has been advice to use boiled water >70⁰C since my dc were small and my youngest is 13 now.

You'd be safer making them up as you need them with hot water and then cooling them before feeding or you could make them up and put them in the fridge and reheat when required. These are both safer than using cold water.

You need the just boiled water in order to kill off any bacteria in the powder. The instructions are on every tin.

Whether you feed the bottle warm or cold is up to you and baby but you should be making it properly in the first place.

Thanks again for the advice. Off to buy filters for the prep machine as we speak.

OP we use a tomee tippee perfect prep machine and this is a lifesaver! I highly recommend one!

Delving back quite some years once DC went onto formula I would make up 24 hours of bottles at once using sterilised bottles and boiling water plus formula, cool and put in the fridge. Then either take out the fridge individually to take the chill off prior to feeding or microwave/stand in hot water to heat. The exception to this would be if we were going out. Once made up formula needs to be kept chilled so we might have put one bottle in a cooler bad but if we were out for the day we would take bottle containing water plus powder separately but can't exactly remember what happened then.

One thing which strikes me now is that if bottles are being opened to add the powder for every feed at the time of use, regardless of the issues to do with the formula needing 70 degree water to kill potential bacteria, isn't that negating the point of sterilising the bottle in the first place? There's probably a what you do at home with ideal conditions - sterilised bottles, boiling water, fridge access and what you do when out which could cause some confusion.

I did bottles with dd1, read the guidance on the tin and looked up the reasons why that was advised. Make with boiled water, cool down under the tap.

Took minutes, and i have no idea why so many people are convinced that unboiled water is somehow dangerous for babies. The danger isn’t the water, it’s the milk powder - if you don’t add boiled (or at least over 70 degree) water to the milk powder, you risk some pretty nasty bacteria growing in the powder and not being killed off. You might get lucky 99 times out of 100, but you cannot guarantee “luck”, so why not stop risking your child’s health in a random lottery and make it properly? It bothers me that parents who say “oh we never bothered and we were fine” would never apply the same logic to not putting their child in a car seat, because they can see that danger, but not this one.

The ‘make up as on box’ isn’t always the same btw.

FYI aptimal and HiPP in Germany both say to make up at 40 degrees. You can see on their website and that’s what it says on the box.
The 70 degrees thing isn’t on any formula here.

www.aptaclub.de/en/products/milk-formula/aptamil-pronutra-advance-pre.html

This is aptimal, the exact same formula as aptimal sold in uk. Instructions states to add 2/3 of powder to boiled water that has cooled to 40 degrees. Shake. Then add remaining powder...

But even 40 degrees is warmer than fridge cold...

Prep machine was a good send with my second baby!

It does the 'hot shot' first, then you put the formula in when it's hot- that kills any bacteria in the formula,

Then the cold shot makes the bottle the perfect temperature for baby.

Much better to feed the baby warm milk as it's more comforting.

When I had my first baby we made bottles with hot water from the kettle, added the formula to kill any bacteria and then put them in the fridge (for up to 24 hours) then warmed the bottle up when needed.

I understand it's hard being a new mum. I was 21 with my first and it was a big shock. But it's super important to bottle feed safely and kill any bacteria as babies gut is so new and sensitive.