No boiling water or premades for baby milk

[tulus]

Hi
I have a 5 month old who is formula fed. We are on holiday in a hot country and there's been a power cut. My baby has her bottled sterilised with cold water and tablets but we couldn't get boiling water so had to use just bottled water not boiled and mix the formula in and feed her we can't find any pre made milk anywhere and I'm so scared using the water not boiled but I have no choice.
Will she be okay? I don't know what to do

Which country are you in OP? Some drinking water is fine and carries only a very small risk, others less so.

Have you tried any local pharmacies? Formula is (only) sold in pharmacies in many overseas countries.

Bottled water is fine, it's a low sodium one you look for.
Can you go somewhere local, like a cafe/restaurant, have a coffee and ask for some boiled water? Transfer to a water bottle.

In France and Belgium the advice is to use bottled water and not boiled so just because you are doing something different from UK advice isn’t dangerous in itself. I think you just need to check the mineral levels of the bottled water as some is too strongly mineraled for babies. Although if it is only one or two bottles I wouldn’t have thought it would be dangerous long term.

We are in Corfu! I researched and found the bottled water has to be under a certain sodium level. It says under 200mg p/l and the bottles display '2,24' so I guess that's 2.24?

We haven't tried pharmacies so will go and look in the town! Thank you. We did bring premade bottles but they all got used up during delays at the airport.

@tulus 2,24 is 224, you need to find lower

although really you need to get boiled, and head to pharmacies for formula

Please note I am no expert and really don't know the ins and outs of sodium issues, but in your shoes as a very short term solution I would 100% be using clean bottled water over tap water.

@Matchingcollarandcuffs
Oh no okay. Thank you. I did look but couldn't find any lower..so not sure what I should do in this case!

The boiling isn't for bacteria in the water so much as it is for sterilising the powder. Premade is probably your best option at the moment if you can find it.

@Esssa
We have driven for a couple of hours and haven't found any :( only 1+ premades

Using bottled water is fine, as it it cold, its a perfecrtly normal and usual way to make formula in other countries. Some places have a picture of a baby on the water bottle to show you can use it for formula. We were in France last weekend, we just used room temperature bottled water to make formula, British babies aren’t different to French ones.

Also don't forget your baby is nearly 6 months old and not a newborn. You are doing what you can in a horrible situation but I really don't think you need to be too worried about using bottled water.

People often wean at 4-5 months and food isn't sterile so their guts are much more resilient

Are there any cafes, bars or other accommodation where you could get boiled water?

In your situation I'd use the ready made you've found for 1+, presumably the power won't be off for too long and I expect the 1+ just wouldn't meet all their nutritional needs, but it wouldn't be harmful whereas not killing bugs in the powder formula with boiling water could be, and its only short term.

Crisis averted!! We found premades for 6+ months

Thank you everyone for your help

My kids were babies in the USA, people used bottled water there and didn't boil, pretty sure people in Britain mixed formula with cooled boiled water then too. I would not overly worry - feeding your baby is the important thing. Use table water rather than mineral water due to sodium content