Formula feeding away from home

[Snickers94]

Hi all, my DD is nearly 6 months old now and I've always struggled with making up her powdered formula correctly when out and about.

We've used different methods but have settled on the flask of hot water from now on - my question is, how do you cool down a freshly made bottle when on a long car journey, or at the park, or anywhere where there isn't access to cold running water? My in laws live 2.5 hours away from us and we likely need to feed her in the car, is there an easy and sterile method?

Ready to feed isn't an option at the moment due to the formula we're on not having it in stock (ever!!).

Prepare a thermos flask of hot water and a second of cool boiled water then just add enough of the cool water after you've mixed the hot water and formula.

Make the formula as you would then in a separate flask i have the tommee tippee one with the plastic lid that you can sit the bottle in. Have cold water with lots of ice. You can then sit the bottle in there to cool it down whilst in the car.

Use a travel warmer but put cold water in the thermos rather than hot?

amp.direct.asda.com/george/baby/baby-feeding/bottle-feeding/tommee-tippee-travel-bottle-warmer/002657608,default,pd.html

I just pour boiled water into bottles then add formula from formula pot as needed .

I used the ready made milk when out, I took a carton & a sterilised bottle.

@Mano2020 @Lockdownmummy I thought this might be an option but wasn't sure if this was the quickest method, atm we use a prep machine at home so I don't actually ever need to cool bottles down. I may just do this though!

@lifestoooshort this is the method we currently use but I did worry it may not be warm enough to kill the bacteria once we get round to using it 😆 my brother used to just put cool boiled water in the bottles and add the formula when needed, don't think he even knew about bacteria in formula etc!

Look up the Nuby rapid cool. You would still need to have a flask of boiling water, bottle and your formula but it cools it down to perfect temp and conforms to NHS guidelines.

Once the boiled water has touched the milk powder it will have killed any germs. Then add cold water to bring it to the required temp.
The water doesn't potentially harbour germs, the milk does (though it's highly unlikely)

At 6 months old their immune system will be better developed as well. If they start weaning, they won’t be eating sterilised foods.

We always took two thermos flasks. One with cooled boiled water and another with hot boiled water.

So you'd put a small shot of the hot water to kill any bacteria in the formula and then top it up with cooled boiled water. Add more hot or cool water depending on what temperature your baby likes their bottle.

It's pretty much the only method that worked for us.

You can make up a bottle before you leave, cool it very quickly and then keep it in a coolbag/ in a bag with a little ice pack for.up.to 4 hours. The NHS say this is ok on their page about making up formula.

You do then have the opposite problem that it will be very cold, but my baby never minded that.

We also sometimes used two flasks (actually a cheaper version of the chilly bottle we got from amazon in 2 diff colours) one with boiling water and one with cool boiled water - covered the formula with the hot then topped up with the cool to the required amount, like a DIY prep machine.

Thanks for all the suggestions! We've tried the cool pack method but unfortunately my DD the little madam hates anything less than hot/warm milk and refuses to drink it 🙃

@CheesecakeHeaven

Look up the Nuby rapid cool. You would still need to have a flask of boiling water, bottle and your formula but it cools it down to perfect temp and conforms to NHS guidelines.

I have heard of the rapid cool but it takes 3 hours to be ready to use again and my baby sometimes wants a feed at random times! I don't want to get the full set since we already have a prep machine and it seems quite expensive

We would just take a bottle out with us. Stick one of those ice blocks in the bag with it. We never worried about it particularly after 6 months. For a 2 and a half hour journey this seems fine. I would take two bottles in a cool bag. One for the journey and one for when we arrive. So we don't have a mad panic when we get there to prepare the next feed.

Sorry. Just saw that madam won't drink chilled milk!!!!

@Snickers94 I actually use the pot part to cool bottles at home. Use water from the fridge and it only takes a couple of mins so you should be OK

If formula feeds are fine for 2 hrs after being made, and journey only 2.5 hours, then surely you can just make one up as you leave, wrap in towel and aim to stop to feed about 90 mins into journey?

@Caspianberg

If formula feeds are fine for 2 hrs after being made, and journey only 2.5 hours, then surely you can just make one up as you leave, wrap in towel and aim to stop to feed about 90 mins into journey?

To be fair, it's not exactly going to go bad exactly on the 2 hour mark either so would probably be fine for the extra 30 minutes, if baby even needs a feed in that time and doesn't sleep all the way

We have two chilly bottles, a larger one with cooled boiled water in and a smaller one with hot boiled water in. These last up to 12 hours I find. Just add a shot of hot to your formula powder in her bottle, shake it, then top up with cold. I’ve been doing that since DD was born and she’s 5 months now!

I wish I could schedule and plan her feeds like that, but I can't because if she's not hungry she just refuses to take the bottle or spits the milk out. This is why I call her a little madam! Happy as can be but seems to know what she wants and when she wants it

I also wish she would sleep but she does for about half an hour and the other 2 hours she just stares ahead, to the sides, and doesn't say a peep

@Snickers94

I also wish she would sleep but she does for about half an hour and the other 2 hours she just stares ahead, to the sides, and doesn't say a peep

Then you won't need to feed her, if she's chilled

@Snickers94 My DS took 7oz bottles usually. The perfect prep does 2oz hot and 5oz cooled to make the 7oz bottle.
I had little screw top bottles from my Medela breast pump from our first few months BFing and used to take a few with 5oz cooled water in then a thermos of boiling water 😊
2oz boiling into bottle, add powder and shake then add one of the cooled bottles. Comes out the same temp as the perfect prep bottles.

@girlmom21 oh no, when she's hungry she will go from 0-100 in about 5 seconds, but when she's not starving she won't take a bottle! She's always been weird with her milk. But then sometimes she doesn't want a feed at all lol - basically we need to be prepared for every eventuality!

I forgot but we did have a chillys bottle and I tried to make the bottle up in the car (it was parked) and guess who poured boiling hot water all over their hand by mistake instead 😭 scarred for life, no pun intended

I take a chilled bottle, and a big reusable coffee cup with two inches of hot water in. Then when I need to heat the milk, unscrew the lid of the coffee cup and sit the cold bottle in it to warm through.