Preparing formula on the go

[Newmumsar93]

I have a 2 week old formula fed baby and I’m finding it stressful figuring out the best way to prepare formula on the go. There are so many conflicting bits of advise from NHS, formula manufacturers and other Mums.

Before having the baby I always thought that I could prepare bottles of formula in the morning before going out for the day and then warm them up as needed but my midwife says this is wrong. I’ve been advised one way to do it is by taking 2 flasks out, one with boiling water and one with cooled boiled water so I can make it the correct temperature… midwife also says this is wrong.

I bought the Tommee Tippee flask and bottle bags and on the instructions they are geared towards pre-preparing bottles at home.

NHS advises to just take out pre-measured formula and make it up fresh with hot water and then dunk bottle in cold to cool it but how would this work if baby is crying for a feed in public???

It feels like such a minefield and I’m at the point where I daren’t go out with baby because I’m scared I won’t be able to manage the feeding 😔 it’s so scary reading about bacteria from formula and it making baby poorly so I just don’t know what to do for the best!

Probably someone's already provided good options, but just in case, here's how we do it with 7 months baby:

I prepare all the bottles for the day in advance and store in the fridge for 24 hours. I know that's not ideal, but I have a very impatient baby who doesn't display hunger cues and goes 0 to 100 in 30 seconds, so having her wait 20 minutes for a feed is completely unreasonable (and we'd all gone crazy by now). I make them in the evening while husband is doing bedtime routine, that way it's a lot more relaxed than doing it with a screaming baby in the background.

When out and about, here's what I do:

-Out for less than an hour: feed at home, then leave

-Out for less than two hours: get bottle from fridge, warm up a little bit in microwave, turn bottle upside down to mix, milk is room temperature, not hot or even warm (DD doesn't like it warm). Put it in bag at room temperature, go out.

-Out for less than 4-6 hours: take bottle cold from the fridge and put in cooler bag with one of those ice gel things. It keeps it colder than the fridge would, to be honest, so I could probably keep it there for longer, especially in winter. When feed is coming up, find a cafe/restaurant and ask for a container with very hot water, warm it up and feed. Never have been told 'no', you can also feed in their premises. This does require just the slightest bit of planning. If I went somewhere where cafes are not available, I would take boiling water in a flask and a container.

• Out for the whole day: 1 bottle at room temp, 1 cold, then ready made formula bottles with empty sterilised bottles. I honestly couldn't be bothered to take pre-measured formula with me, then have to mix, etc. Travelling to a country where ready made formula is not available though, so I will have to measure formula powder in an empty bottle, then take boiling water in a flask and measure it with another sterilised bottle, then pour. That, or I take the powder in a separate container, which I do own, so might do that instead.

Never had any issues following this system. I was very overwhelmed with the rules in the beginning though, so I get what you mean. Can't wait for DD to have cow's milk.

Hi OP, I have a 12 week old bottle fed baby and when I had my other DC's 7 and 9 years ago you used to be able to make the bottles and take them out for the day, as advised by HV but as you say not now, how times have changed.

Having spoken with my midwife and HV I now fill the bottles, however many needed, with boiling water, normally 3oz and then let this cool, I then take a flask of boiling water and top up to 4oz as and when baby wants a feed. I also use the pots to pre measure the formula.

We have a fussy LO and she only likes warm milk so room temperature would not be tolerated by the queen which means that premade bottles aren't an option for us and the formula she likes also don't make the premade bottles! 😅

Honestly thought everything seems so different with number 3 for us but number 1 and 2 are absolutely healthy and are very rarely unwell etc so I couldn't have done anything wrong the first times around 😂

I haven’t read through all posts on this thread so sorry if you’ve already got an answer but thought I’d just share what we do.

We do the 2 flasks: one for cooled boiled and one hot. For the hot, we’ve got a Flaskie which tells us the water temperature (it needs to be over 70 degrees in order to kill any bacteria in the formula). We also have the tomee tipee formula pods, which are great. Don’t know why your midwife says this isn’t right.

So we pour 2oz of the hot water in a sterilised bottle, pop in the formula, shake, then top it up to the correct ml/oz with the cool boiled, shake and serve (check the temperature first obviously).

One thing to bear in mind is that you don’t want to use boiling hot water if it can be avoided as it kills some of the nutrients in the formula.

I hope that helps (and sorry if I’ve repeated anything).

@Newmumsar93 sorry forgot to tag you in the above x

I’m on baby 3 and for all of them I’ve just copied what the perfect prep does - shot of almost boiling water from a thermos (how much depends what size bottle you’re making), add formula powder, dissolve, rip up with cold water. No sickness or anything. Don’t see how it can be a problem as it’s just what the perfect prep does at home. Haven’t had a problem in 7 years.

oh god, it's probably wrong now but we used to take out bottles, portioned formula and a thermos of boiling water. We'd put in the formula, then a bit of boiling water, shake it to mix then top up with a bottle of Evian or water 😐

One DC on formula I got on a feeding schedule really quickly, so could make the bottle ahead of the next feeding time, also this fitted well around work and school runs. Just as well because on the rare occasion I used the premix bottles it made his reflux terrible and made him constipated.
The other DC never followed a schedule really, which was a nightmare. Most places we went had a kettle we could use in the early days, but also used premix a lot especially in the middle of the night. Thankfully that DC was fine with premixed and home mixed formula, as had a much less Sensitive digestive system to switching between the two.
So in my experience, either you get them on a schedule then can always make bottles the 'proper' way or you buy pre mix, which is more expensive but more convenient and doesn't involve so much faff when you're out and about or need to make a bottle quickly.

In case it's helpful, the feeding schedule was 6am, 10am, 2pm, 6pm, 10pm, 2am initially, then we dropped the 2am, and eventually the 10pm as well around the 6 months mark. I would make the bottles about 20 mins before each feed, and my partner did the same when I was at work.

It is a nightmare op but tbh the only real answer is to not follow all the rules. I'm on my 3rd formula fed baby, currently 3 weeks old. I make bottles up at home (3 at a time) put in back of fridge straight away to cool quickly. Then get them out when baby is hungry, run them under a hot tap to warm them. When going out I take an insulated milk bag and stick a freezer pack in which keeps the bottles cold until I need them. Followed the same method with all 3 and none of them ever got sick (as pp, it's very rare for babies to get sick from formula). I also used a prep machine for my second for a few months until it broke, again no issues. They really don't "harbour bacteria" as you only put clean water in them!

As pp, I do believe midwives make it purposefully difficult to "encourage" breastfeeding

@TheHopefulMum ah yes. The joy of having a baby that's screaming for a bottle but won't accept it if it's not hot enough for her tastes. Fun times 😂

For going out I used to buy ready made bottles. Yes, they are expensive but I was ready to sacrifice few quids for my own sanity.

I used ready made cartons in the early days for quickness.

Then onto the two flasks method.

My MW didn't have any concerns tbh.

I think I was lucky in that the guidance changed between my first and subsequent children so I took it all with a pinch of salt. I would make up with boiling water just before I went out and then it would have cooled to the right temp by the time they were hungry at baby group or whatever. Also used to take a spare sterilised bottle and a ready made carton in case I was out longer / they drank it all. They are expensive but only ever used them when I had to. At home I would make two bottles at a time and cool one in a jug of cold water and just let the other cool naturally. It normally worked out just right in terms of when baby was hungry.

Nuby rapid cool flasks are amazing
One flask is for cooking hot water down in seconds and it comes with another one to store hot water in
So I fill the hot water into the flask and take an empty cool one
When I'm out pour the boiled water into the cooling flask with the powder shake it and with 5 minutes it's at the perfect temperature for baby
Life saver with my second baby wish I had it with my first

nuby-uk.com/bottlefeeding-c4/baby-bottles-c51/nuby-rapidcool-baby-bottle-making-kit-p573

I’m currently pregnant with baby no1 and let me tell you this all sounds so stressful!! How can formula not be sterile? You’re taking it from a run which is sealed and putting it into a container (which I presume you also sterilise). Also if water is boiled it doesn’t become ‘unsterile’ when it cools back down!

Literally came to recommend the same thing!

Have combi fed both of mine. With my first we used the premade formula - this is the easiest solution by a long way, but yes expensive.

However my second has CMPA, so have no choice but to use powder and have also found all the guidelines and information hard to get to grips with. But the Nuby Rapicool are so easy to use, and have really taken the stress out of it. They are bulky though, and can only be used once in 3 hours which might be an issue if out for a long day.

The powder isn't sterile.

I just used to make up 6 bottles a time, everytime. I wasn't about to make bottles in the night while my baby cried for food.

Boiled the water, sterilised the bottles, mixed the bottles, left them to cool, then put them in the fridge. Always used within 24 hours.

If we were going out for longer than a couple of hours, I would take sterilised bottles with me in a sealed bag then use ready made formula.

I also had 2 amazing little storage cooler packs from tommee tippee that kept the bottles either hot or cold, depending. I use them for drinks cans now in the summer and they keep them so cold!

As soon as you open that tin it starts growing bacteria. That is why you can only keep an open tin for so long before throwing the rest away.

I have two of the Nuby Rapid cool flasks, which is generally enough for a day out if I time it properly. Also sometimes use the readymade bottles but baby is fussy with the temperature of these so they're a bit of a last resort. With my first baby I would take a flask of boiling water to make up the bottle and then cool the whole bottle down in a bigger glass of cold water but that was a faff that took ages. At home we use a Perfect Prep

You used to be able to buy tetra packs of ready mixed you put into the normal bottle, more convenient for occasional use.

It's a pain in the arse Iv got a 12 weeks old but am a second time mum so much more relaxed This time. I use ready made or the prep machine and il allow up to an hour before I use it in the warm pocket in my changing bag. Does my head in is just got used to taking nothing out with me with a potty trained 3 year old and now I'm back to this lol.

The ready to drink stuff is sterile (they can drink it at room temperature if you’ve got a baby that will drink room temperature milk. I don’t have one of those…), it’s the powder that isn’t. So the water that you mix with the powder needs to be hot enough to kill any bacteria that might be in it.

I’ve no idea why the OP’s midwife isn’t happy with a bottle of boiling water being used to make the majority of the bottle and then it being topped up with cooled, boiled water to make it a drinkable temperature. It’s very odd. The only thing to consider would be that if you were making 120ml of formula and wanting to use 80 ml of hot water and 40 ml of cold water then I don’t think you could put the hot water in, add the powder and then top it up to 120ml as you wouldn’t be taking into account the volume of the powder. So you’d have to have the 40ml pre measured.

Maybe that’s what the midwife is worried about?

Another vote for Nuby Rapid Cool flask. Expensive up front but makes life much easier making formula out and about.
I also don’t think there’s any wrong about using boiling water to mix formula and top up with cooled boiled water. That should be absolutely fine.
Also this is literally taken from the NHS website so you can store in fridge if needed

In theory the powder isn’t sterile but in reality the risk is very small and the hot water advice is mostly precautionary. Many other countries don’t advise the hot water method though the formula powder sold is similar. There would be a lot more babies getting sick if the formula was full of harmful bacteria but in very rare cases when it does happen it can be very serious so no harm in taking a precautionary approach. As one of the PP says the numbers of babies getting sick from
formula in the UK is tiny despite most people deviating from the NHS advice in some way.

The readymade formula is a nice easy (and very safe) option to start with when baby is drinking small amounts frequently. We moved onto perfect prep after that.

Ready made formula, make a bottle at home and warm it up or add the formula powder to already cooled, boiled water and warm if needed.

In my mind, the risk of burns to myself or baby was far greater than the risk of dodgy formula powder.

It's very easy to tie yourself up in knots over formula feeding. I always made sure that bottle were sterilised, formula was used promptly and my Tommee Tippee machine always had the correct filter in.

It's also worth remembering that babies in the NICU are given premade formula initially, but as their stay continues, you are able to make and chill bottles that will be reheated by medical staff overnight. Have a read on the formula prep guidelines for other countries too.