Cooling bottles (formula feeding)

[LongJohnGlitter]

A bit anxious about this after reading other threads - after I boil water, cool for 30 mins make bottles, I let them sit in cold water for about 30 mins before putting them in the fridge. Am scared now I am making perfect environment for bacteria. My baby boy is 8 weeks, perfect, healthy, strong, smiling...

I am on my own and if I accidentally let them sit any longer I start again, as tho making bottles in the first place isnt head wrecking! Pls reassure me 🤞

Sounds fine to me! I keep a bottle of water in the fridge to use to cool bottles down in which could make it a bit quicker if you are just using cold water from the tap?

I used to do the same thing
I also boiled fresh water each day and kept it in the fridge to cool down the bottle quicker.

You're supposed to make up feeds fresh each time. Keeping them in the fridge means bacteria can still grow.

I used to replicate a perfect prep by using a hot shot from the kettle to mix the formula in and topping up with cooled boiled water I kept in the fridge. Made it ready to drink straight away.

@Lockdownmummy @whyareyoulying that's good to hear! @ElectricEels there's no way I can make them up every time as I'm pretty much on my own. My mw said it's perfectly fine to make a batch and I do three at a time. My baby feeds every 3 hours, sometimes 2.5 hours. It's also wasteful to me to boil one litre everytime for a few ounces...

I was advised with DD they can be kept for 24 hours in the fridge but must be made with that boiled water (after the 30 mins) and not cooled boiled water. It needs to kill the bacteria in the powder

When you say after I boil water, cool for 30 mins make bottles
Do you mean you let the kettle cool for 30 mins before you make the formula? You don't need to let it cool for that long, still needs to be over 70 degrees.
I used perfect prep machine, or duplicated what they did I. E. Fresh boiled water decant into sterile container (usually some clean, sterilised bottles specifically for this purpose) and left that to cool. Then to make up bottle added hot shot (1oz boiling hot water) to the formula and mixed well, and then the cooled boiled water to to up to full amount (5/6/7oz etc)

Yes, I boil 1 litre of water, let that sit for 30 mins and use that water to make the bottles. Once the bottles are made I cool them in a pyrex dish for 20-30 mins. The mw also said they can be stored in the fridge for 24 hours but I only ever make 3

She also said it needs to be about the 70 degrees - 30 mins cooled - anything hotter kills off some of the nutrition and any cooler doesn't steriliser the powder....
I'm posting this on 'Parenting' but if there were a group called 'Surviving: the newborn weeks' I'd be in that one

Can you get a prep machine. Its make the bottle perfect room temp. It makes life so easier as they now say you shouldn't make bottle up before needed

@Augustbaby1990 my midwife and HV said to steer clear. If she hadn't made me nervous about them I wouldn't hesitate. Read on here so many women who have them but I tend to worry about bubs, who is perfect

I steered clear of a prep machine as well.

Throughly recommend one of these though
uneeqbaby.com/collections/favourites/products/uneeqbaby-baby-formula-kettle-with-built-in-thermostat

@Lockdownmummy that looks amazing! So you just set the kettle for 70degrees and make bottles up straight away?

Fair enough. It is safest to make them freshly though which is what I thought you were asking.

If you are low on space you can buy kettles that you can adjust the temperature of, we have a kettle that goes from 70 to 100 degrees and it has genuinely been a life saver. It also has a keep warm function, was about £80 but it was so worth it in terms of space saving.

@LongJohnGlitter probably the best 50 quid I’ve ever spent!

Takes about 15-20 mins to boil and get down to 70 degrees (there is a fan to speed it up but I rarely use it) then it holds the water at that temperature. I make bottles fresh through the day and chill with water from the fridge.

When he was little I could get bottles ready in 5 mins. Now he is on 8oz they take a bit longer to cool down!

@Lockdownmummy thank you, I'm indebted! I just bought one and it will be here Wednesday. Delighted!

@LongJohnGlitter you’re welcome!

I’m confused. I don’t cook them before putting in the fridge. I also don’t wait for the kettle water for 30 mins.
I boil the kettle and make the bottles up and put them in the fridge and use them within 24 hrs.
As far as I understand it the rule was to use the boiled water WITHIN 30 mins so it would still be over 70c and hot enough to kill the bacteria in the formula

I always let them cool on the side, never in water.
And 30 minutes is the time you should allow the water in the kettle to cool so it is the right temperature before making the bottles @ohidoliketobe
I always made them in advance and stored them in the fridge for up to 24 hours, its perfectly safe. The perfect prep is laziness. You don't or shouldn't need a machine to make bottles at all.

Depends on the formula. As an example, Hipp Organic cannot be pre prepared or stored in the fridge, it must be made fresh. Have a read of the instructions and see what your one states.

If you have a flask of boiling water and a bottle of cool boiled water available at all times then it’ll be easy enough for you to make up a fresh bottle when it’s needed, just pour enough hot in to kill any bacteria in the formula and fill the rest with the cooled water.

That’s a rude and offensive comment to the thousands of parents that use a perfect prep. Who cares if it’s “lazy”? Like raising a child isn’t hard enough without worrying about that

Its not laziness, stop being so judgemental. There are lots of things in life that aren't needed or necessary, however they make life easier so we get them. I for one recommend the machine OP. Not sure why you were told to steer clear, my midwife recommended it.

@Lockdownmummy haven’t read the full thread don’t know if it’s been mentioned but we recently bought a kettle from Amazon which can boil water to 70 degrees so saves you the half an hour of waiting there at least.
Don’t FF so haven’t got any other useful advice.

I think there is confusion here about waiting 30 mins for the kettle to cool. If you read the NHS advice on making up formula it says:

“Step 2: Boil the water. Then leave the water to cool for no more than 30 minutes, so that it remains at a temperature of at least 70C.”

So 30 mins is the longest you could leave it but you don’t have to wait 30 mins!

We make our bottles in advance in two batches throughout the day. We boil the kettle then let it cool, make the formula with some boiling water and some cool, then straight into the back of the fridge, along with the rest of the cooled water in case we need it. We discard this water whenever we make a new batch of bottles (pour it into our filter jug and drink it ourselves).

Interestingly the instructions on the formula can (Alula S26 Gold newborn) say to make it up with cooled boiled water, and the government advice (in Australia) says the same, and also that it’s best to make one bottle at a time. The lactation consultant who saw me in hospital after DD was born said to use the combination of boiling and cooled water but to make the bottles one at a time.

FWIW DD is 3 months old (uncorrected, she’s 6 weeks premmie) and hasn’t had any problems.