Bottle Making

[Jodi2325]

Hi All,

Can people please explain how they make their baby formula bottles from fresh?

How do you make bottles to store in fridge for night feeds please?

How do you use prep machine please? Do you use cooked boiled water and how much water do you put in? Do you empty water after every use? Is it right that milk feels almost cold? I haven't used prep machine yet due to opinions about them but wanting to know how you use them if so decide to.

Just assessing all bottle making options.

What do mums find best for night feeds? Also in day, my baby doesn't really stick to times so the way the back of the formula tin suggests to make bottles takes too long, and baby ends up being 'hangry' waiting for food.

Thanks

Perfect Prep, 100%. We had ours upstairs for the night feeds and it was a miracle. Ours did two DC!

It's so easy. You fill the tank with cold water (that gets filtered). Put your bottle under the spout and press the button to dispense some boiling water. Then you put your formula powder in (we measured ours out into those little pots you get, counting at 3am isn't easy!), swirl it around a bit and then press the button again to top it off with filtered cold water. Then it's ready.

They are fantastic, as long as you follow the cleaning cycles and only use the official TT filters.

Best of luck to you, OP.

I came here to say perfect prep too, people will tell you not to use them but my HV recommended it. Just make sure to change the filter when it says or baby could get sick but other to that, it's an absolute life saver, bottles are made in less than 5 minutes.

Just get the ready made stuff if you can afford it.

You can get ready made aptimil bottles that you basically just take out of a cupboard, shake and put into your babies sterilised bottle that has the teat. That for night feeds over perfect prep which can cause illness if not cleaned properly any day. Then during the day you can actually make bottles quicker if they are smaller bottles and you only half fill the kettle , so if you make a 150ml you can let the kettle cook for 15 mins, make the bottle up and put in a bowl under cold running water, will be cool in 5. Appreciate that is still a while but you can refill (always new water) and boil the kettle a few times and as long as you remember when you did it it’s all grand if they get hungry within about 20/25 mins of you boiling it then you don’t need to boil again.

Perfect Prep machines are risky. People will give anecdotes about how "it never did my baby any harm", but the plural of anecdote is not data. And realistically, people whose babies became ill because of a Perfect Prep machine aren't exactly going to shout that from the rooftops.

Also in day, my baby doesn't really stick to times so the way the back of the formula tin suggests to make bottles takes too long, and baby ends up being 'hangry' waiting for food.

But that's the safe way to do it. The reason babies want to be fed quickly rather than "stick to times" is that they're wired to be breastfed, and breasts don't need sterilising. It may be that the reason FF babies are likelier to get ill is that their parents don't make up bottles correctly, so I'd follow the advice to the letter.

The prep machine gave my baby such bad wind and reflux. The day we ditched it he was like a different baby.

I keep bottles of 5oz cooled boiled in the fridge. For feeds I boil the kettle and add 3oz to a fresh bottle, add formula and swirl, then add a bottle from the fridge and it's perfect temperature every time. Obviously the amount differs depending how much baby has but that's where we're at at the moment (8 months) and been doing this since 3 months old

I actually do know someone whose baby became very ill due an improperly cleaned perfect prep, loosely related to my husband

We use a UneeQbaby formula kettle. You fill and boil it then cools the water to 70 degrees and holds it at that temperature. Make up the bottle when needed and then put it in a jug of chilled water from the fridge to cool. For little bottles when DS was really young it would literally take a few minutes (as the bottles got bigger they took a little longer to cool).

For overnight, I would make up when we did the bed time bottle and run under the cold tap and pop at the back of the fridge. Warm up in a jug of hot water from the kettle.

We’ve never had any problems, but DS doesn’t seem to be fussy about the temperature of his milk either!

I prepped 6 bottles at a time using hot water. Cooled them, then stored at the back of the fridge. At night I'd just take a bottle up to bed with me and leave it on the bedside table. When that one was done I'd go get another from the fridge and leave it there ready to use.

Perfect Prep fan here! Cleaned regularly, use the proper filters and no problems here for either baby. It was a godsend with DS as he would often want a extra top up bottle after his big one and it meant I could quickly make up an extra few ounces.

I only ever made a bottle the proper way a few times and it was a nightmare waiting for it to cool. We use ready made when out.

We use a prep machine, I clean it regularly and as I have a condition that affects my coordination, trying to use a kettle in the middle of the night is a bit dangerous for me and I figured I m not use to baby if my hands suffers a burn. He won't touch fridge temperature milk so pre making wasn't an option for us.

Thanks. Can you premake bottles, let them cool for 10 minutes and put them in fridge for 24 hours?

NHS seems to suggest you can? And then warm up in jug of hot water?

We used perfect prep which is a god send for night feeds. I used boiled cooled water in it rather than from the tap. Once he started sleeping through I just make bottles up fresh as and when needed. Make it as per the instructions on the formula box and I just cool under a cold running tap.

@Jodi2325

Thanks. Can you premake bottles, let them cool for 10 minutes and put them in fridge for 24 hours?

NHS seems to suggest you can? And then warm up in jug of hot water?

Yes, you can.

When I had my DD 2 years ago the advice was not to pre make bottles so we used to do a bottle of plain boiled let it cool and then when she needed a bottle we used to use fresh boiled for a third mix in the formula to kill any bacteria and then top up with 2 thirds of the cool boiled. No waiting around and perfect temp bottle within a minute.

@ArtfulScreamer

When I had my DD 2 years ago the advice was not to pre make bottles so we used to do a bottle of plain boiled let it cool and then when she needed a bottle we used to use fresh boiled for a third mix in the formula to kill any bacteria and then top up with 2 thirds of the cool boiled. No waiting around and perfect temp bottle within a minute.

How do you store the cool boiled water? Thanks

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.

I bought a perfect prep and then sold it on. Hardly used it, because it only worked from 4oz.

I filled a thermos with cooled boiled water and made bottles that way.

I just used to let it cool on the side and then put it in the fridge. My DD was combi fed and only had milk once at night so that I wasn't doing all the night feeds. We used to do a bottle of boiled water in the morning and then it was more than ready for the evening. I think if I was full time bottle feeding I'd do the cool boiled for 2 feeds the feed before so that I always a feed in front if that makes sense.

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz

I prepped 6 bottles at a time using hot water. Cooled them, then stored at the back of the fridge. At night I'd just take a bottle up to bed with me and leave it on the bedside table. When that one was done I'd go get another from the fridge and leave it there ready to use.

This is what we do too. Nhs says 24h I'm the fridge, 2h out of the fridge for formula, so we stick to that. Mixed feeding, baby 7m and never been ill (she went thru a colic phase but ages ago)

How long do you cool before putting them in fridge? Thanks

Reading this does make me wonder why we have such poor breastfeeding rates, bottle feeding sounds so difficult done using the powder as well as expensive.

Breastfeeding is not without it's own challenges and expense though.

Oh definitely, we never got the hang of it sadly - but if it does work surely much easier than fumbling round kettles in the middle of the night?

We used the ready made formula (cow and gate). This was invaluable for times when DS was crying the house down as you could just open one and go. If you go with the fridge method you'll need to wait for it to warm up.

Ps we tried breastfeeding. Obviously it's easier and cheaper but not all babies take to it.