Not sure if I used boiled water for baby feed?

[JC1989]

Hey all

First night home with baby who is 2 days old. On the second feed of the night I can't recall if I used recently boiled water from the kettle or tap water. I remember warming up the formula in a mug with hot water so not sure if that warmed up the milk?

If it was tap water that was then warmed up, should I be worried?

Congratulations on your baby! Don’t worry about the water as a one off. Going forwards I’d recommend a perfect prep machine, total life saver. We used to take ours up to bed with us so didn’t even have to get out of bed to make a bottle.

Perfect prep would also be a good option. The early days with a baby are so hard and you need to set your life up in a way that's as easy as possible.

@JC1989

Thank you all for your responses. I think the risks/chances of anything is very low.

I will just to be safe boil water on demand going forward

We did this for ds. However the 10 mins or so it took to cook the bottle when it was bottle time and we’d misjudged it were always the longest 10 mins in the world. Once you get into a routine and work out how long baby needs between feeds try and get the bottle ready before you need it!

And you’re doing amazing.

@MoreAloneTime

Perfect prep would also be a good option. The early days with a baby are so hard and you need to set your life up in a way that's as easy as possible.

agreed! it was a real time/sanity saver for us

Honestly we bought a tommee tippee perfect prep machine and it's a complete life saver! No need to make in advance etc as bottle is made within 2 mins! Congratulations on your new baby!

I used to boil the kettle then leave it for a bit then fill a flask with just off boiling to make my bottles, I never knew the boiling was was to kill any bacteria in the formula (until a few years back) I always thought it was to make the water safe! This was 12 years ago before everyone had the Internet on their phones etc...

I thought the perfect prep machines had essentially been discredited because they don’t heat enough.

Ultimately there is so much conflicting advice out there OP, we kept bottles in the fridge for 24 hours as per NHS advice back then. If we were travelling we would take boiled water and instant formula or the sachets,

Other people make up every bottle from scratch, and so it goes.

This was a one off incident, your baby is highly unlikely to suffer for it.

Just to be clear, as the previous post from you implies that you are using boiled but cooled down water.

The water should be at least 70 degrees when you make the formula.. it’s not the water that’s the issue, the water must be hot to kill off bacteria in the powder. So yes, boiling the kettle on demand is the way to do it.

In your challenging situation with a very new baby I’d be tempted to go for ready made formula frankly, unless you’re really stuck for cash.

@Horizons83

Just to be clear, as the previous post from you implies that you are using boiled but cooled down water.

The water should be at least 70 degrees when you make the formula.. it’s not the water that’s the issue, the water must be hot to kill off bacteria in the powder. So yes, boiling the kettle on demand is the way to do it.

The advice we were given was to wait 20 minutes from the kettle being boiled to add to the bottle then the formula.

In relation to the bottle making machines, the advice we were given is they are not recommended by the NHS.

I'm going to get his bottles ready in the fridge for night time then dunk it in hot water to warm it up. Might take a bit longer but seems to be how it's recommended to be done.

Oh god it's such a faff. I remember several times where I'd boil the kettle and forget so have to then start all over again.

If you can afford to, I'd buy some of the ready made bottles for night feeds so you can just sling it in a feeding bottle and get baby fed without having to time anything and heat or cook anything down!

Cool not cook!

Seriously look at a perfect prep machine.....game changer and lifesaver!

Bottle machines are not recommended by the NHS and I’m very skeptical as to why. We used one and I would absolutely not be without it.

However, if you’re not keen to use one I also looked into kettles that you can heat to a specific temperature. 70C plus is about right. You can mix that with the formula without denaturing it then top up with cold, pre-boiled water from the fridge.

I was never comfortable pre-making bottles and heating them up is such a faff

Another one saying buy a Perfect Prep machine they are a lifesaver.

They are perfectly safe. They heat water to 70 deg which is hot enough to kill bacteria and as long as you run regular cleaning cycles (easy) and use the proper TT filters not cheap ones they are clean. The only thing I wouldn't do is buy a second hand one (as you don't know how clean it's been kept).

I've had two children and I loved mine so much that second time I bought two - one for the kitchen and one for our bedroom for night feeds. Game changer.

Your baby will be fine, btw. Congratulations.

No need to warm it back up before giving it to the baby - they will happily drink it at room temp.

Honestly, the less faff, the better.

Just wanted to say how lovely you are giving your DW the rest and taking charge especially after a section I know personally how hard it is. Well done you! 🥰👏🏻 secondly, myself and my partner had so many stresses over boil the kettle and feeding and a friend suggested to me the perfect prep machine. I was unsure at first so instead I used a tommee tippee flask, boiled the kettle let it cool for 20 minutes, filled the flask and that saw us through the night. We cooked the bottles down and whilst this took time, it took the stress off constantly thinking about the kettle. In the end I did give the prep machine a go and I'd never look back! So long as it's cleaned regularly and filter changed often it was a game changer for us and our anxieties around feeding. Hope that helps, sleep deprivation isn't nice but anything to help is always worth thinking about ☺️

*cooled

@JC1989 Yep, the 20 minutes is fine. Sorry, the way I read your message it sounded like you boiled the kettle and then left it for 2-3 hours i.e. you were always using boiled water in the formula, but it wasn't hot.

You may want to do what we did, a mixture of powder formula and ready made stuff. We used the ready made formula during the night, when we really didn't feel like boiling kettles etc, and then made the powdered ones during the day.

No idea if it's true or not but I remember my midwife saying that the baby was less likely to have constipation if the pre-made formula was used.