Formula feeding on the go!

[Bambam2019]

Hey all!
My baby is almost 12 weeks, formula fed on aptamil anti reflux.
We use the prep machine to make up feeds (purely for convenience). Due to lock down we haven’t really been able to go anywhere, so if we did go out for a walk I would just time it around baby’s feeds. However now things are opening up we can see friends, go to classes etc.
Today I am meeting family outside a restaurant about half an hour before baby is due a feed (he feeds about every 3-4 hrs, times each day vary depending on what time he wakes up) so will really need to feed when out.
Can I make up a bottle as normal with the prep machine, put a lid on it and take it out in a thermal bag?
He won’t take pre made formula in the cartons.
Or should I just offer him a feed early just before we leave? (Will be about 2.5 he’s between feeds..
Thanks 😄

Simplest would be to just feed early, but you'll still need to figure out feeding on the go at some stage!

You can take up a premade bottle with a lid on, or if you might need to do multiple feeds you can pre-portion powder into pots and take empty bottles. No restaurant is gonna refuse you some hot water to make up the feed. If it's the cool temp he objects to about the premade ones you can also ask restaurant for warm water to stick it in before you feed.

If I was meeting someone when DS was due a feed, I’d make it up just as I was leaving the house and then feed him when I got there, once made up it’s fine for (2 hours I think but I was a precious FTM so if it was going to be more than 30min-hour I’d make it while out). I used to take a flask of boiling water to make feeds while out and about.
My DS also wouldn’t drink the ready made!

I use to take pre portioned formula an empty bottle and a flask of hot water. 8 years ago food/deink outlets woulsnt give me hot water to make a feed for healthy and safety reasons for baby. I'd ask for a jug of cold water to cool bottle down

The Perfect Prep doesn't get hot enough to sterilise the formula, so I wouldn't want to make it and then leave it sitting around for any length of time, only if feeding immediately. I'd do one of the following:

Make with boiling water about an hour or so before the feed, bring in thermal container. If too hot to feed when it's feed time (test on your wrist), ask for some iced water to cool it down.

Make with boiling water a few hours before the feed, cool immediately under running water and chill in fridge, bring in thermal container, feed cold or ask café for warm water to warm up or bring a thermos of hot water to warm the bottle.

Take a carton of ready made and feed at room temp or ask café for warm water to heat up or bring a thermos of warm water to heat up.

Is it all brands of ready made he doesn't like? It's OK to use a different brand of ready made to the powder you use.

Have you tried warming the pre-made stuff? Pour into the bottle and sit it in a jug of hot water for a few minutes before feeding works for DS. If you’re still isn’t having any of it then I’d suggest making a feed in advance using hot water from the kettle. The PP is fab but needs to be fed immediately due the temperature of the finished bottle.

I would just use the ready made small bottles. You can do a homemade prefect prep method on the go but it’s the faff (I had to do it with DD1 as she had specialist milk), you have to take bottle, premeasured formula powder, a flask of hot water and a small bottle of premeasured cold boiled water. It was such a faff.

Once you’ve made up a bottle it should be used within 2 hours.

I never warned milk they got it at whatever temp the boiled water had cooled
Also you can buy ready mixed formula that you just pour in

I used to have little containers for formula and would just bring the bottles with water. When dc was due a feed I would just empty the formula into bottle, shake and was good to go. I would change feeding routine for a day out.

@Mammymar

I used to have little containers for formula and would just bring the bottles with water. When dc was due a feed I would just empty the formula into bottle, shake and was good to go. I would change feeding routine for a day out.

This is not advised. The reason hot water is needed is to kill the bacteria in the formula.

Wouldn't not would. My dc never took warmed bottles.

@Thatwentbadly, thewater would be boiled and cooled from the kettle. The advise I received was to not make up bottles until they were needed.

I used to recreate the prep machine, so a Thermos with boiled water still hot, a bottle with the right amount of cooled water, and the formula in a pot. My Thermos allowed me about six hours of hot enough water (I tested it with a thermometer).

If it was less than two hours until the next feed I just used to take a made up bottle with me, but that was probably not ideal.

[quote Mammymar]@Thatwentbadly, thewater would be boiled and cooled from the kettle. The advise I received was to not make up bottles until they were needed.[/quote]
They shouldn’t be made up until needed but the a water should be around 70c to kill the bacteria. The instructions on formula powder says to boil the kettle and leave to cool for 30 min.

Here is the NHS info about how to safely make up powdered formula out and about

www.nhs.uk/conditions/baby/breastfeeding-and-bottle-feeding/bottle-feeding/formula-milk-questions/

Hey all
Thanks so much for the advice!
In the end I boiled the kettle and then lured it straight into a bottle and then when out added the formula from a sterile pot. The water was still hot enough as it was less than half an hour, and in the back of the tin it recommended no less than 45 mins. I put the bottle of water in a thermal bag too. He took it fine!
Roll on him just being able to eat with us and not having to worry about formula, although I’m sure il find 10000 other things to worry about then, too 😂

Poured, not lured 🙈

I used to take flask with hot and a bottle of cold water and then a container with powder.. right faff but it worked and eased any worries about water not being right.. 1 oz hot water put powder in to kill bacteria.. top up with cold.. give to baby..

Make up the bottles as usual but only add half the water - cool it etc.

When out add the other half of hot water.

You either take hot water plus measured powder or cold milk in a cool bag.

You don't take warm milk