Room temperature formula freaking out

[concernedkay]

My baby is one week old and I've been having trouble exclusively breast feeding as my milk hasn't come in properly yet. During my healing I've had trouble getting up and sitting down so my husband has been helping me with the night feeds. I didn't really stress to him what he needed to do apart from showing him how we sterilise the bottles etc and need to freshly boil the kettle each time. I had been adding powder to boiling water and cooling it down so I thought my husband would have been doing the same.

But he had given me room temperature bottles that he mixed straight from the kettle after it had boiled a few hours before and I am freaking out. He told me he had been doing this after a few feeds I think he read the back of the formula but seemed to think the importance was the water just had to be boiled. I myself didn't know that there could be really dangerous bacteria in formula powder and now I'm so scared that my baby has been exposed to a lethal bacteria and I can't sleep about it. Has anyone made a similar mistake or know of anyone. I'm besides myself with worry.

Cant comment medically but there can just be a risk of bacteria. It's not a certainty and it's only been a few bottles so any risk prob vvv low. If not vomming, fever, worse poo than usual id calm down this am, get some sleep and call mw / hv tomorrow to put mind at ease xxx

There's a risk, but the risk is relatively low, especiallyas it's only been a few bottles. If they had been contaminated, then baby would have been poorly quite soon after, so it's only the most recent bottles that will still be in babies system. Now he knows he can start doing it properly and the chances are nothing will come of it. Alternatively if he doesn't want to spend time boiling the kettle in the night, you could try giving the pre-made stuff.

Having said that, I'd be really annoyed that he did it correctly at first, then stopped. That suggests he new what he should do, but couldn't be bothered.

That suggests he new what he should do, but couldn't be bothered.

No it doesn't.

It means he thought he could take a short cut without understanding why bottles are made up in a particular way.

If your baby is fine please don't worry. Now you've explained why he can do them right from now on.

To give you another perspective…
In France (which is where I am), no one uses tap water for babies, because the mineral content here is not good for them. So you use Evian bottled water, no boiling, straight from the bottle. It is totally normal to do this & Evian has a special logo on the bottle to show you can use it for babies water. So you sterilise the bottle and then add the water, and then the formula, and mix. You can heat up as you like or not.
The risk is the bacteria in the water, not the formula. My MIL is a retired midwife in the UK and insists on this. She says the Tommy Tippee prep machines have fuelled this myth! No boiling here is totally normal and thousands of babies are fed formula like this. Not a single doctor, midwife, or any hospital staff have ever ever mentioned a significant risk of bacteria in formula powder- if there is any risk, this is absolutely minute. Formula is prepared under sterile circumstances and bottled water is also sterile at bottling.
There is every chance your baby is at a ‘risk’ so so low this is zero cause for concern. Assuming you aren’t leaving bottles in sunlight or using a manky spoon, have a clean worktop etc etc.
congrats on your baby! xoxox

I agree with @sjxoxo in that formula powder is already sterile and doesn’t need to be mixed with boiling hot water to make a baby’s bottle. It’s the water you add that needs to be sterilised by boiling- you can even let it cool for a half hair before making up the bottle. Even if there were “lethal bacteria” in the formula powder just adding boiling water from a kettle wouldn’t actually kill it. You’d have to rapidly boil the formula for 2.5mins to kill all bacteria (as I know from my wild camping/deployment days).

It is true there are rare recalls of batches baby formula because they’ve been contaminated with bacteria. But making the formula with boiling hot water straight from the kettle wouldn’t really correct that if it happened.

*half an hour (not half hair sorry)

I've never formula fed so I have a question - if you have to make it up with boiling water don't you then have to wait for it to cool to 30 degrees or so for consumption? Doesn't that take ages, what do you do with the screaming baby wanting their milk for 30 minutes while it cools down??

@DockOTheBay because you give the same amount each feed formula fed babies are much more predictable when they get hungry, so you make it up before they need it. Or run it under the cold tap to cool it quickly.

It's a few years since mine were babies but I always used preboiled and cooled water to make up bottles, as did most people I knew who bottle fed. I thought the boiling bit was about making the water safe. I didn't realise there was any advice against this (possibly they're wasn't back then), and my babies were fine. So it's certainly not a big risk. I wouldn't panic - just start doing it correctly in the future.

It is bacteria in the powder not in the water. You use the boiling water to kill any bacteria in the powder.

Don't worry OP with my first you used to have to boil the kettle then leave it exactly 45 mins then put in formula and then shake and put straight in the fridge. I used to make up 8 bottles in the evening for the next day. By the time I had my second it had changed to the boiling hot water and cool it down and make them individually not store them in the fridge.

It is a very very small chance that the formula is contaminated so baby will be fine. Many countries still don't have the same advice as the nhs on using boiling water.

The risk of dangerous bacteria being in the powder is still pretty small - insistence on using the boiled water is probably more about the company covering their arses on the off chance (just one instant of sickness would cost them a lot and be terrible for their reputation) than likely and significant risk. I’d still always use hot water to be safe, as the chance is there, but I really don’t think you need to worry.

OK we did this once or twice as both my husband and I thought this when we were out and about that as long as the water had been boiled before it was fine.
Figured out that we were wrong according to manufacturers instructions.
So now I use premade when I go out and we always did use the perfect prep at home.

Don't panic your baby will be absolutely fine a few feeds made that way will not make him ill.
My friend only ever made up bottles using preboiled water her baby is 5 years old now. Absolutely fine.

Where is that screenshot from? That says the opposite of all current public health guidelines in France 😂

Sorry it didn’t post the quote, my post was in response to @ItsSnowJokes x

@sjxoxo

I don't have a link sorry, but in the U.K. the risk is definitely in the formula, not the water. The water should be at 70° (which is why many kettles here have a 70° setting!) to mix with the powder.

the easiest way to make a bottle quickly is to measure the powder into one bottle and measure some of the hot water into another take note of the amount (best if you use the same amount each time!!). Mix the formula & the hot water, then measure the remaining required water in the other bottle and add it to the formula bottle. You soon get to know how much hot, how much cold makes the correct temp for your baby

it's important to measure the water properly as too much/too little water can make a big difference to the feeds over a 24 hour period.

@concernedkay try the above method. In the U.K. it's very much the formula that has the risk BUT try not to worry, it's a tiny tiny risk and your baby would soon let you know if they were unwell with it, if they're not unwell sharpish then it's ok. They won't be harbouring some risk that'll soonest when they're 3.

people make formula up incorrectly ALL the time & it's very very very rare for a baby to need the Drs let alone the hospital.

this thread used to appear weekly at one time!

The French have one of the highest rates of infant death from cronobacter sakazakii in the world, so don’t follow the Evian advice.

However the chance of serious Illness and death are tiny especially in otherwise healthy babies and especially if formula is made up immediately and drunk straight away. And by tiny I mean really really tiny as in even in France and the US where formula is routinely prepared in risky ways we’re talking single digit numbers of deaths each year (I believe France hit 12 one year). Babies who are otherwise healthy and not preterm are very unlikely to be affected and older infants almost never are.

So I wouldn’t worry unless your baby seems unwell.

Formula powder is never sterile (impossible to sterilise it) and has a surprisingly high risk of contamination particularly with salmonella, however very very few babies ever get ill from it even when it’s prepared in less safe ways.

We used to batch make the bottles with both DC the night before. Cool them in a bowl full of cold water and put them in the fridge.

This.

Don't worry, it's a very small risk and I imagine your baby would be ill already.

Thats is from the NHS guidelines.

That’s how they routinely make formula in a lot of countries- France, US, Australia etc. so I really wouldn’t worry. The NHS advice is safer because it eliminates the tiny chance of contaminated formula and now he knows, he can follow it, but no harm done. If you’re going to continue with formula feeding I’d really recommend a Perfect Prep machine, they’re fab.

If your baby isn't showing any signs of D&V then you can stop worrying I think. Just make sure your DH definitely makes up bottles correctly in future.

FWIW, I know people who formula fed their babies for months on end using cooled boiled water rather than using hot boiling water to sterilise to formula.

If it makes you feel better, I once found a bottle of 6-day old expressed milk in the fridge and took it out to make sure no one gave it to DD. I stupidly didn't chuck it down the sink. That evening, after the old milk had sat out on the counter for hours on end on a warm summer's day, my mum fed it to DD. We were horrified when we realised but she showed no signs at all of any issues. Mistakes happen all the time with babies and the vast vast majority of the time there are no consequences at all (apart from us worrying...)

Please try not to worry OP

I've FF both mine and those things happen. My inlaws and parents always offered to make bottles when they were around and I realised they were making the bottles exactly like your DH did. Baby was fine 😊

If you end up FF I highly recommend getting a prep machine. Life saving 😆 x

I used to fill all my bottles for the day with fresh boiled water and then add the formula when I needed it. This was in 2019 and midwife and HV said it was fine 🤷🏻‍♀️. It's how everyone I know who have FF have done it too.

I'll be using a prep machine this time because of having twins. It'll just be easier.

Then I'd heat the bottle in boiling water to heat it back up.