Making formula bottles

[jessicakxx]

My baby is currently 2 weeks old and I've been using the tommee tippee prep machine since bringing him home. It's great as it makes the bottle in a few minutes at the perfect temperature, however my baby has been suffering with bad trapped wind and tummy ache and I'm wondering if the prep machine could be contributing towards this, as it adds a lot of extra air bubbles into the milk.

I don't shake the bottle as it suggests to, I only swirl.

My question is, if I wanted to try and make the formula not using the prep machine, what methods can I use? The thought of having to boil a fresh kettle of water at 1 and 4am and letting it cool for 30 minutes then running under water, whilst my baby is crying just seems like it's going to be an absolute nightmare.

Can you pre make bottles and leave them in the fridge and heat up, or even give the baby fresh out the fridge?

Thank you x

What milk are you using? Some get frothier than others.

I'm using Kendamil

I honestly found the whole thing an absolute nightmare. The rules change all the time and it seemed that my HV absolutely did not agree with pre-making and storing in the fridge but I spoke to lots of mums that did.

From what I gathered. Storing cool boiled water (on its own not formula) in the fridge for the day/night is ok in sealed bottles. You can then boil the kettle put formula scoops in clean bottle and add the same amount as boiling as the perfect prep (essentially create your own hot shot) then top up with cold boiled water from the fridge.

I used ready made bottles over night but I don't know if kendamil do ready made

Maybe try a different formula. Some are more bubbly than others. Or give your baby some infacol alongside a feed. I doubt it has anything to do with the machine.

Try decanting the formula into an anti colic bottle like mam which is meant to reduce the air baby takes in.

However I would add that windy babies are completely normal. Make sure you are stopping feeds regularly to burp baby and then continue feeding. Try cycling babies legs when led down to help them expel any wind.

We boil water and let it cool a little then store in a thermos for making up bottles. We then keep a pot of cold water in the nursery to put the bottle in to cool once it’s made up. It does still take a while, but not as long as boiling the kettle each time! I am doing combination feeding though, so am breastfeeding baby while the bottle cools - otherwise I would probably have invested in a perfect prep machine!

Infacol and anti colic bottles are your friend here. However you make the bottle it will be a bit bubbly.

Have you set the bottle stand high enough so that the bottle isn't too low down?

The advice is not to make bottles and store them in the fridge however almost everyone I know did this (myself included). Chill quickly and then warm for a few minutes before feeding babies. If you look at the guidance, it does say that bottles can be stored in the fridge for 24 hours.

Have you got good bottles? Don’t use tommee tippee they are rubbish.
Mam are good, or any colic ones

I doubt it’s the machine. Anti colic bottles, infacol and much more winding would be what I’d try first. The only way you’d eliminate any bubbles would be to use ready made.

Don't use freshly boiled water, even a small shot. Its too hot and will split the proteins in the milk. Using boiled water cooled for 30 min is best, or you could use freshly boiled, but with previously chilled boiled water added. So making the fresh boiled that bit cooler, then top up to what its supposed to be with the cold boiled.

We used the Mamia formula from Aldi - it’s much less frothy and bubbly than all the other branded formulas we tried.

We use the ready made formula though it is more expensive. I rate Dr Brown anti colic bottles.

We started on kendamil milk but it was ridiculously frothy and bubbly. Switched to aptamil comfort milk and 100x better! Also use mam anti colic bottles. Doubt it's the machine, we love ours

Probably not the fault of the machine. Don't make your life harder by replicating the machine with kettles, cooled boiled water etc.

You could try using ready made for a few days as this will not have bubbles. That would at least tell you whether it helped!

Thanks all!

We're using MAM bottles :)

@c307 that's interesting! I've just bought a crate of Kendamil ready made and 6 tubs of formula 😂 but I think I might try aptamil comfort like you said

We were also using colief but struggle with using it in the night due to it needing to be in the formula for 30 mins.

Back to using infacol from today.

Baby is also only going for a poo once every 48 hours. Can see him straining and in pain along with the wind.

@c307 just read about the aptamil comfort and it says helps with constipation. I've just ordered some from Morrison's coming within a couple of hours. Fingers crossed x

@jessicakxx I have a Tommee Tippee flask in which I store boiled water. When it’s time to make a feed I use that water and formula powder then cool the bottle in a wee bowl or mug in cold tap water. It takes about 5ish mines and meanwhile baby can be held if inconsolable or I put a lullaby or something on if she’s got a bit of patience in her, it distracts her for a few mins

It's not the Perfect Prep. It's the formula. Don't ditch it, it's honestly a life saver and doing it the old way is stressful and unnecessary. You can buy anti reflux milk which is thicker and less frothier.

We used Cow and Gate anti-reflux milk and it helped. It doesn't stop the wind but it eases it.

Thank you all x

Like others said, it’s not advised but we ended up making up bottles in advance, flash cooling then keeping them in the fridge until they were needed, we jus did it with nighttime bottles. DS was fine with it and it was so much more convenient. The other thing we bought which was a game changer was a Smart kettle which boiled to 70 degrees, the recommended temp for making bottles. That meant they could be made up straight away in the daytime and then just needed 10 minutes of cooling rather than the 30 mins plus with a normal kettle.

If it's digestive, rather than a lack of burping, can I suggest dentinox? You can add it to the milk and it really helped our son who had terrible, painful wind.

Dentinox in the bottle gets rid of the bubbles! Was recommended for my DS who was quite a pukey baby but didn’t have full on reflux

@iusedtoloveopalfruits1 I sort of think it's magic stuff, although I rarely see it mentioned here!