Tommee Tippee Prep Machine causing upset stomach? Advice for night feeds/bottle warmer

[mrsjturner90]

Hi!

Sorry - long post and first time posting as a FTM!

I'm looking for some advice..
My baby is almost 5 weeks old and for the past two weeks has only had two or three dirty nappies. I'm aware this can be perfectly normal but when I told my health visitor about it and mentioned that she has a painful cry at nights like she's trying to fill her nappy she asked me if I'm using a prep machine and told me there's theories that the hot shot isn't hot enough to kill the bacteria in the formula and can cause upset stomachs. She suggested making a couple of bottles from the kettle which I did and we did then get a dirty nappy, but another few days then passed without another one (note we also tried warm bath, tummy massage, bicycle kicks.. so may have been a combination of things, or it may have just been time to go!).

I looked in to it myself and found that the theories surrounding the prep machine are that they can cause constipation, but my baby isn't constipated as when she does fill her nappy it is the right consistency. I then read about infant dyschezia where a newborn basically hasn't learned to relax the correct muscle to pass a poop yet and will eventually have a nappy explosion and the symptoms of this sound exactly like what we're experiencing. The general advice is that this should pass in a few weeks when baby learns how to "go".

I said all of this to my health visitor and she said we probably haven't noticed the difference by only doing a couple of kettle bottles a day and to try not using the prep machine at all for a week. I'm a bit frustrated as I felt like she didn't really listen to what I thought (this was over the phone due to Covid) and I really don't think it's the prep machine causing the problems and it's really convenient for night feeds, but I said I'd do it.

I'm looking for advice on;

1. If anyone has experience of infant dyschezia
2. Or if anyone has experience of upset stomachs with prep machine
3. How I could use a bottle warmer for night feeds? I have a tommee tippee one but I'm soo confused - do I add boiling water to the bottles before bed then reheat just the water then add the formula? Would this be hot enough to mix with the formula? Or am I supposed to make up a bottle of formula with boiling water before bed then reheat it in the warmer? Help!!

Any advice here would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks! x

I found the prep machine upset my baby because the milk wasn’t warm enough. She likes her milk quite warm (warmer than average I’d say) and she brings up her wind/passes poop a lot better when it’s very warm.. I think that’s the problem with the prep machine IMO.

I make bottles in advance - technically you’re not supposed to but each to their own. I make up 24 hours worth, cool them immediately and store in the back of the fridge. When she wants a feed, I use a bottle warmer. I just fill it up with water, let it do it’s thing and keep testing the milk on my wrist until it’s warm enough.

I've never used a prep machine, but for my 8mo for night feeds (he still has two 3oz bottles per night 🙄) I boil the kettle, fill each bottle with 1.5oz of boiling water and put the rest in a flask which stays hot for 8 hours.

When ds wakes in the night I just tip 1.5oz of boiling from the flask into the 1.5oz already in the bottle and then it's hot enough to kill bacteria but not too hot for him to drink.

I used a bottle warmer for a while but to get it hot enough for the formula took forever so was up way longer than I needed to be.

Hope this helps x

I don't buy formulae and use the bottled milk (lazy I know but I Have twins and can't be arsed with the whole boiling water, letting it cool, powder Formulae faff)

Would DD drink milk at room temperature? We had the PP machine and it was fine however DS prefers milk at room temp or chilled. So sometimes I'd make one up but then wait 30 min to give to him. Odd I know, maybe as he was a newborn in a heatwave?

For night time I would bring up the little bottles of ready made milk and serve as they are (room temperature) and sterilised bottles I kept in a freezer bag once they had come out of the steriliser.

Also, could it be the brand that is not agreeing with DD? We started on Cow & Gate, DS starting bring up a lot of sick around 10 days old. I felt its consistency was really frothy (especially when made using the PP machine). Switched to Hipp and he was never sick after that. I know constipation and sick up are not the same issue but just wondering if you would try switching brands?

Good luck!

IME some health visitors are so pro-breastfeeding they talk about any formula/device like PP machine as if it's the devil.

We used the prep machine with DS (he is 4 now) and had no issues with him going toilet or any illness. DD is 3 weeks old and we are yet to use the machine as she is only having 3oz bottles and the minimum the prep machine makes is 4 so a waste for us right now but we will be using it soon. To make the bottles (day or night) we put 1oz boiling water in the bottle, add the formula, shake then pour already boiled water that’s kept in the fridge in a flask up to 3oz. Then it’s perfect temp for her and takes a couple of minutes and if anything is probably less time than the PM.

We used the perfect prep from 3 months until age 1 with no problems at all. Babies go through strange upsets and phases, once I’d read about the perfect prep drama it was easy for me to blame it on that, but changing to hand made bottles didn’t make any difference.

I’ve never heard of the theory relating to the hot shot not being hot enough, but if that was a thing then it would have been pulled off the shelves.

Night feeds if you wanted to make hand made, you could keep one bottle of cooled boiled water and one flask of boiling water, then just replicate the perfect prep. Formula, hot shot, cool boiled water.

Pre making bottles isn’t generally recommended.

IME some health visitors are so pro-breastfeeding they talk about any formula/device like PP machine as if it's the devil.

Nothing to do with BF vs FF and everything to do with safety, there are concerns that the hot shot is not hot enough to kill any germs in the powder, plus the pipes can get mucky.

Is premade formula an option for you? Just get it out the fridge and warm it up. I definately found it was easier on DS1's tummy but it is expensive.

I’ve never heard of the theory relating to the hot shot not being hot enough, but if that was a thing then it would have been pulled off the shelves.

Plenty of things that are unsafe for babies and children are still sold, cot bumpers and IKEA Malm dressers have killed children but are still sold.

I had a sleepless night with my twins last night and one seems to be going off breastfeeding 🤷‍♀️ just wouldn't latch on but then happily drank a bottle of ready to pour milk

So I spent the wee hours looking at the prep machines......what's the consensus? Worth getting it especially with twins?? I can probably get a resell one on eBay for £40?

I've never done formulae before as too many instructions but figured the prep machine would
Simplify things?

But then I like @Youvegotafriendinme suggestion about having cooled boiled water in the fridge ready to go and to add to 1oz of boiled?

@DaisyHeadMaisey Those things are specifically for “supervised sleep” but parents ignore the warning.

A perfect prep isn’t the same.

The health visitors advice doesn't make sense to me - if the baby had a bacterial infection from contaminated, incorrectly prepared formula, surely that would cause diarrhoea and vomiting, not constipation.

As for making them up I know it's not recommended now but I did it the old fashioned way. Emptied and refilled kettle, boiled it and left it to cool for 30 minutes to reach the correct temperature to make bottles, added the water then equivalent number of flat scoops of powder. Shook them well, then left to cool naturally at room temperature. When cool I stored them in the fridge, they can be kept for up to 24 hours. To warm up I used boiling water and a plastic jug (we had a flask that we filled with boiling water for going out).
I think it's so much easier than messing about making them as needed. And I know most people use the perfect prep machine but sorry to me that's laziness, you don't need a machine to make bottles in my opinion. I'd only ever make them the old fashioned way, regardless of what's recommended.

Your baby sounds fine the way they are. My dcs both went 2 or 3 days between poos at that age but it was still soft when it arrived so they weren't constipated.

We have used the perfect prep machine since DD was born and honestly it saved our sanity, it was the best thing we ever purchased and DD is completely fine. As long as you clean it it will be fine. And honestly boiling a kettle at 3 am when your kitchen is downstairs and freezing is not very nice and when your DD is crying because of hunger and you can't give the feed immediately is stressful.

@happymummy12345

I did think that but the new NHS guidelines is that you don't make up bottles in advance and should be made up for each use?

It's within guidelines and considered safe to make them up in advance if you make them with water that is over 70 degrees, chill them very quickly (in iced water) then store them in the fridge.
Making them with cooled boiled water has been against guidelines for well over ten years now. Some parents do use this method and their babies are fine, but that's because they were lucky enough not to get a batch of formula powder contaminated with harmful bacteria, if they had, the consequences for their baby would have been awful. "Sterilising" the formula with hot water eliminates this tiny risk.

@marti2

I've never used a prep machine, but for my 8mo for night feeds (he still has two 3oz bottles per night 🙄) I boil the kettle, fill each bottle with 1.5oz of boiling water and put the rest in a flask which stays hot for 8 hours.

When ds wakes in the night I just tip 1.5oz of boiling from the flask into the 1.5oz already in the bottle and then it's hot enough to kill bacteria but not too hot for him to drink.

I used a bottle warmer for a while but to get it hot enough for the formula took forever so was up way longer than I needed to be.

Hope this helps x

The water needs to be above 65 degrees C (far above drinking temp) to kill bacteria.

Use a flask. put the top on when its cooled to the correct temp. Mix with formula as needed. Keep it simple.

CMPA can cause long wait for dirty nappies, you could try a specialist formula for a day or two.

We had the same issue with straining and infrequent nappies but he’s much better at going now (14 weeks) and the dirty nappies are more frequent (every day and a half instead of every 3 days).

We use the perfect prep and find it super handy. I clean it frequently and change the filter as necessary. We found that it makes the bottles quite foamy and have a very windy baby so we make up the bottles for the day, cook quickly and put them into the fridge. This gives the bottle time to settle and the foam is gone by the time we heat the bottle in a bowl of boiling water and give it to him!

IME some health visitors are so pro-breastfeeding they talk about any formula/device like PP machine as if it's the devil

Exactly this. Same goes for ante natal services too. The midwives I had were refreshingly normal about life, rather than trying to ram BF down your throat.

Ive loved my perfect prep machine. Id say its worth it

@TrulyMiss

We had the same issue with straining and infrequent nappies but he’s much better at going now (14 weeks) and the dirty nappies are more frequent (every day and a half instead of every 3 days).

We use the perfect prep and find it super handy. I clean it frequently and change the filter as necessary. We found that it makes the bottles quite foamy and have a very windy baby so we make up the bottles for the day, cook quickly and put them into the fridge. This gives the bottle time to settle and the foam is gone by the time we heat the bottle in a bowl of boiling water and give it to him!

Doesnt that completely defeat the object? You could do all that just with a kettle! And this way you have the low temp/powder bacteria risk that is negated by using a kettle.

We have the prep machine for use during the day but it’s too loud at night and also can’t be bothered going downstairs in the middle of the night so instead in the evening we boil the kettle and leave the water to cool to the right temperature then pour that into a flask and then do a flask with boiling water in. We take these upstairs with a couple of sterilised bottles and Premeasured formula in those little pots and then basically replicate what the machine does (with slightly less hot water as it would be too hot). Not sure if this is the right way but works for us

@GBA123

We have the prep machine for use during the day but it’s too loud at night and also can’t be bothered going downstairs in the middle of the night so instead in the evening we boil the kettle and leave the water to cool to the right temperature then pour that into a flask and then do a flask with boiling water in. We take these upstairs with a couple of sterilised bottles and Premeasured formula in those little pots and then basically replicate what the machine does (with slightly less hot water as it would be too hot). Not sure if this is the right way but works for us

Again, not nearly hot enough to kill any bacteria in the formula. You’re risking giving your baby quite a bad tummy doing it this way. The whole of the water used needs to be above 65 degrees c to be safe.

Well it suits us and that’s all that counts!

I’m pretty comfortable that the hotshot kills all the bacteria. Thanks for your input though! 😉