HELP! Formula advice

[thesunshinestoday]

Really struggling with the best way to make up formula feeds. Breast feeding wasn't an option and baby has been on ready made baby milks for the past three months. Have recently started using formula powder and it's such a long process

1/ adviced against the perfect prep machine by NCT and health visitor. Have read many stories about mould, hot water not been hot enough etc. not sure what to do

2/ making a fresh feed at the time- how is this even possible?! No regular feeding pattern and the whole process takes about 40 mins. Does the water need to cool down- what does up to 30 minutes even mean?! Can I use it after five minutes?

3/ have thought about doing a hybrid PP method- half boiling water- add formula- leave a few minutes and then add cooled down boiled water that's been in the fridge. How long can this be used? I presume 12 hours should be fine?

Do I just get a PP machine?! HELP!

Dd is 6.5 months and used perfect prep throughout. Love it. The mould issues are if they are not clean correctly I have been told

If you want to do it traditional way you can make it with boiling water and then place into a jug of cold water and it will come down but still take a few minutes

Personally the pp was the best for us

We used the Perfect Prep for both kids and they survived. Our whole NCT group who FF had them. At our reunion we all agreed it was the single Best Buy any of us who were FF had bought 😂
Never been advised not to use by a HV either. We just make sure we refresh the filters and keep it clean etc

Don't add boiling water to formula, you'll destroy some of the nutrients.

That’s nonsense.

Nevertheless, I’d get the PP. Worked fine for us, filter changed and cleaned at regular intervals, etc.

We’ve had a perfect prep and a baby brezza from day one, all fine. You must have spent a fortune in ready made milk. We have never made a bottle the ‘old‘ way.

I have a prep machine for over night. I do fill it with cooled boiled water and had no problems.
when going out I use premixed formula for ease.
if I’m at home for the day I have 5oz of cooled boiled water next to the kettle, then When it’s time for a feed I use two oz of boiled, mix with the formula and then add the 5 oz on the side to make a perfect bottle.
the other option is to buy a rapid cool flask and use that.

Just get a PP. Use it properly and it’s fine. My 3 month old is perfectly healthy on it. We even had 2 4 years ago for bro, one upstairs one downstairs 😄

Out and about I do flask of boiling water (but let it cool down a bit otherwise resulting bottle is a bit too warm to feed immediately. Believe it needs to be more than 70 degrees to kill the bugs). Put in however much boiling water the PP does for the oz you’re making up. Add pre measured powder. Top
up with tap water. Apparently should be cooked boiled but again all my babies have been fine with tap.

That’s nonsense

Is it? Why are the instructions not to use boiling water then? I'm off to Google!>>

We had prep machine and my two have survived - my DH was in charge of cleaning, flushing and filters and never saw any problems. I think a lot of the bad press was bad usage and incorrect filters if I remember correctly.

Use a perfect prep the guidance the midwives and health visitors have is outdated based on when they first launched. 2016 I believe. The first one did have mould issues if the filters weren't changed or if non tommee tippee ones were used.

The new ones don't have the same issue at all. Also the hot water shot burned my finger so it's definitely hot enough.

It's an absolute godsend been using it for 6 months and my baby is thriving. No issues at all.

I made all the bottles up the night before, then flash cooled and put in fridge. Pull one out when i needed it the next day

Thanks everyone! Everyone I speak to who is FF has a PP and says how amazing they are.

@MbatataOwl this is what I was worried about. But up to 30 minutes is so ambiguous! As if we don't have enough to do. I just about get through the day without having to think about how long I let boiling water cool down for!

@Simonjt yes we really have spent a small fortune. Ah well!

@Hopeful16 I think I would have to set a reminder on my phone! I always forget to wash the steriliser!

@Lazypuppy how do you flash cool? In a bowl of cold water?

Yeah either that or just under a running tap, then straight into the back of the fridge.

I don't know a FF parent who didn't have a PP. Absolute brilliant piece of kit. When I had DS the midwife told me they couldn't give me any advice on FF at all apart from look at the box for instructions.

Perfect prep all day every day.

I would definitely recommend getting the Perfect Prep machine. A few Midwives had mentioned them when I said I was planning on FF, 1 warned me of all the problems that came along with the PP including mould and babies being admitted to hospital with bad tummies etc, the other 2 Midwives said they aren't recommended but have/would have one themselves. My HV also said to me (off the record) that if she were to have a baby now she would definitely get one.
My baby is 13 months so we have just finished using ours and have used it from birth, I almost don't want to pack it away and put it in the attic 😩😂😂 They are a life saver at 3am haha! 😂 no faff waiting around for bottles to cool when you have got a screaming hungry baby!

Just use the prep machine, they're brilliant. Clean it regularly and use the official filters.

We used ours for around 18 months, absolutely no mould and the only time my son had a tummy upset before he started nursery was the day after his first soft play 😂

I’ve had 2 PP. Don’t know anyone bottle feeding that doesn’t have one. My midwife with DC1 said they couldn’t professionally recommend anything but did add that her daughter was using one!

We just make up feeds at night for the next 24 hours and keep in the fridge, pop in bottle warmer when needed or stand in a cup of hot water when out. I have a little insulated lunch box and ice pack I use to take them out with me, it's good for 4 hours. This is all in line with nhs advice for if it's not possible to make them up fresh...which in my opinion is most of the time! Making up in advance and keeping in the fridge for 24 hours was the official advice until relatively recently I think. I'd rather do this than use a PP...the doubt is about whether the hot shot is enough to kill the potentially dangerous bacteria in the powder, from what I've read Tommee Tippee claim it is but won't share their research with the NHS etc. But I do know lots of people that use them.

Oh and to cool them all quickly we put in a big tupperware of cold water with ice packs in it. Takes about 10 minutes.

I used to premake bottles for the day, quick cool and store in the back of the fridge. But that was before the PP was really a thing, I would absolutely have a PP if I was doing it now!

Nuby rapid chill is an alternative

Life changed when we bought the perfect prep. After reading that one article about mould we checked ours and it was pristine!

Also, not all formula can be pre made. Hipp organic states it must be used immediately.

We've used a perfect prep for dd who is now 5. And we're using one for this next one - it's the newer version and it's a bit better than the last one.