How did / do you feed your newborn in the first two weeks? (bottled feed mums)

[sdickinson11]

I have only just discovered that newborns drink very little milk (I should have had more common sense) so I wouldn't need to use my milk prep machine initially (I know it's very unrecommended by health professionals lol but I'm happy with using it)

So I was wondering if anyone has any tips on how to feed my newborn (when she arrives) the first two week feeds?

Would you suggest using ready made formula ? if so the ones with the teets already or cartons and using a sterilised bottle? any tips would be great as I'm absolutely clueless!!! Thank you :)

I just used to make up the bottle with formula and boiling water from the kettle then cool under a cold running tap. When it’s only 2 or 3oz it cools down really quickly. For the first few weeks we used the ready made bottles with the tests in the night but not during the day as it can get quite expensive using them all the time.

That is really good advice, thank you, I think I will do that then, maybe use them on night feeds and in the day just use the kettle!

If you are bottle feeding from birth in hospital you will need lots of the tiny bottles with you (you can buy them in big boxes from Amazon) as the baby will drink little but often and the bottles can only be open for a limited time before having to throw away (you will waste a lot). Note that the tiny bottles don’t come with teats so you will have to buy those separately from Amazon too. Once home you can mix small amounts of formula as required from powder. Good luck and congratulations xx

I used a bigger ready made bottle and just poured a small amount in a sterilised bottle

Thanks for this, can I check you mean these ones? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Aptamil-First-Milk-Starter-Pack/dp/B01N8P9ADQ/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=aptamil+ready+to+feed+teats&qid=1684942353&sr=8-1 as they do come with teets now (maybe a new thing if its the right ones) x

Just to add we keep hot water ready in a flask so we don’t have to constantly wait on the kettle (lasts about 6 hours at recommended temp) and make as required and cool in a nuby cool flask thingy

Yes those aptamil will be fine (mine were sma and didn’t have teats included). You will need a few box’s with you just in case. You are limited time wise once opened that’s all x

Probably a silly question but when using the small bottles in hospital do u heat them up at all or give at room temperature?

I used the tiny bottles

Readymade can be given at room temperature so it’s fine straight from the bottle 🙂

@Sunflower2023123 just give them at room temp. DD is three months and whenever we’re out for the day I still give her ready made room temp formula even though she usually has her bottles warm. I read somewhere it’s good to get them used to it as if they will only have warm milk and it takes them a long time to finish a feed, they can reject the rest of the bottle once it’s cooled down too much. Not sure how true that is but it can’t hurt to do a bit of both I suppose.

Aw fab thank you so much!

Thank you all for your help with this 😍

You have to heat powdered formula initially to kill the bugs/bacteria in the powder. Pre-made is already sterile

When in hospital they may provide the formula - worth checking to save you unnecessarily packing. We used the perfect prep from birth - even very young you get to know very quickly what their feeding patterns are. When out and about we always had a few cartons of ready made until we figured out what we were doing.

We used readymade at the beginning - I liked that it was already sterile and we didn't have to worry about how much water to add. When I've made formula with the kettle and cold water I always find it hard to get the volume perfect. We mostly used the 200ml cartons of readymade if at home and kept the rest in the fridge and the ready to drink bottles when out and about (so convenient it was worth the cost for me). Didnt bother heating it up or anything. We used the perfect prep machine once she was drinking close to 4 oz. The perfect prep with powder is probably still cheaper than the readymade even if you are discarding some of the milk though. I didn't bring any to hospital but then I had intended to breastfeed. The hospital supplied us with SMA ready to drink and teats for the first 3 days although I suspect they would want you to bring your own if intending to formula feed.

Just as a tip - we purchased another kettle so we could flick it on and leave to cool and it not be interrupted by someone making a cup of tea! Equally get one of those large sports direct mugs that every house has and put some ice and water in and cool
Down from freshly boiled!

We used the ready made bottles but without the teats. Poured what we needed into a bottle and saved the rest in the fridge - this way hardly any waste and it lasts 24 hours. The teat ones don't.

Yes I used ready made formula it's so handy and used the prep machine once she was feeding more. Prep machine is a godsend. I also kept buying ready made milk for when we were out and about as well

I used the Perfect Prep but just did 4oz then poured out half into a separate sterile bottle, cooled in tub of cold water and put in fridge for later.

If we were having another one I'd probably have more of the ready to drink ones with teats for the first few days at home. It's overwhelming enough to have a newborn at home after 3 days of no sleep in hospital and recoving from a C-section that we would have been quite happy not to have to bother with sterilising for a few days (they go through so many bottle if they feed every 2-3 hr). It's cheaper to buy them in bulk with and separate teats on Amazon than to buy those packs of 6 that you find in some shops.

I either used ready made formula or I did what pp did with 4oz in the perfect prep and saving half for later.

Used those little ready made bottle but both of mine were guzzling 4oz within no time so it was only for the first two weeks or so.