Bottle feeding advice

[Mumnetter1234]

Any tips around bottle feeding would be much appreciated. Baby due soon and have decided not to go down the breast feeding route but absolutely clueless how to go about bottle feeding.

Definitely get yourself a perfect prep machine! It does most of the work for you and a bottle is ready in minutes

I bottle fed from birth. For the first two weeks I used the ready made formula. I knew it had been mixed properly etc and wanted to wait until he was a bit stronger to move to the powder. That was just me though there is no science behind that!

MAMS bottles are good, as are the NUK ones. You can overfeed a formula fed baby (it's rare though) so always hold the bottle lightly. They will guide when they have had enough. Baby may prefer a certain teet to another. Can be trial and error. My little one hated tommy tippee

In terms of choosing formula - honestly they are all one of the same. Pick one you can get easily. Your baby may have a preference for one over another but they are pretty much the same.

I use aptamil as its readily available in powder and ready made.

Prep machine, serialiser, bottle with newborn teats, formula

Long time since mine were babies, but if I was doing it again now a perfect prep machine would be top of my list, as I've seen them in action and they are so easy. I chose a powder that had ready made cartons too and used both. I also fed lukewarm milk not hot so it was quick and easy when out.

My first was a hungry baby and would drink all of the bottle from day 1, in our ignorance we overfed her and with some helpful advice from the midwife started to record her feeds and amounts (and make smaller bottles). This also helped when sharing the feeding with DH and being sleep deprived.

Final piece of advise I was given when DC still appeared to e hungry was to use a dummy as it was the sucking action they wanted. I had been against dummies for years, but was desperate as DC1 was on the 99th centile, it worked at treat and we had no issues in giving them up when the time came.

1. Tommee Tippee perfect prep machine. Bloody amazing and buy plenty of filters. We don't have one this time as we have a boiling water tap but making up loads of bottles in advance is no where near as convenient as the machine!

1. Get some premade formula for the early days, especially since they drink such small amounts like 1oz, 2oz so you can keep it in the fridge and pour in to a bottle as and when needed. When baby starts taking 4oz, move on to powder and perfect prep machine (this is the minimum size it makes).

1. If using a steam/electric steriliser put the cooked extractor fan on and run it under that so it doesn't ruin your kitchen cupboards/ceiling. We have cold water sterilising with baby2 and I prefer it.

1. When baby gets older, take premade formula when going out and powder at home. Saves money having the powder for majority of feeds but the premade bottles come in packs of 6 and are so handy for feeding on the go. Saves having to carry hot water, cold water etc.

Hi sorry I know this thread is a bit old but I was wondering, the perfect prep machine can that only use Tommy tippee bottles? Or could you use the MAM bottles in the prep machine?

No you can use any :) just may need to move the height adjuster on it if they are bigger. I've used the MAMS with it before

Perfect, thank you so much for your reply :)