Formula prep

[2mummiestoArthur]

Hi there, my 9 week old son is bottle fed, am I able to obviously mix formula with boiled water, then add cooled boiled water to get it to correct temperature? And do I need to store the cooled boiled water in the fridge or can I leave out... thinking for night feeds?

Hiya,

Yes you can absolutely do that, that’s basically what a prep machine does. Adds a hot shot of water then tops up with cold filtered.

My DS was on anti reflux formula until recently and that’s how I made his milk up out and about too. I would make up a few bottles of cool boiled water and store them in the fridge and just grab one if I was going out, never kept it cool though just popped it in the day bag. I mainly stored in the fridge so it wasn’t out on the kitchen side more than anything.

Infant Nutrition Council says that if you add boiling water to formula you might destroy certain vital nutrients, meaning that the baby won't be getting enough of them. That's why it's key to cool the water down to 70 degrees before adding formula - and at this temp any potentially harmful bacteria will still be killed.

Basically, this is the prep instructions you'll see on the formula box (if you're in the UK)...

Fwiw, I used to use ready made formula bottles for night feeds as there was no way I could follow this process in the middle of the night. But it's more expensive, that's for sure.

Thank you, he's on lactose free milk, so he can't use the ready made formula unfortunately! They used to be handy when we were out and about too!

You can do this, but another perfectly acceptable option is simply to make bottles up a little in advance of when you need them, cool quickly, and store in the back of the fridge, or up to 6 (now 4 apparently) hours in an insulated/cool pack (only once chilled). Or if you're making less than an hour before the feed is due you don't even have to chill it - we used to make top ups about an hour before use and just leave on the side so that they were around the right temperature to feed when we needed them. If we had needed it longer in advance, we would have chilled it.

This can be a better solution for night time because of the fact that you're not trying to do more complicated calculations when half asleep. It's also quicker.

Remember that each step in making a bottle is just one safeguard against bacterial growth and contamination, it's not strictly necessary to do every single one but you should do as many as you reasonably can.

Preparing with clean hands, clean bottle, clean utensils
Sterilising anything which may have remnants of old feeds in (e.g. imperfectly cleaned bottle)
Minimising the time any formula is sitting around made up - max 24 hours if chilled.
Using hot water to sterilise the powder
Not keeping open box or tin for more than 4 weeks
Once made up, keeping formula out of the "danger zone" (between 5C and 60C) as far as possible - over 2 hours in this zone and it's a no go. (Cool pack/insulated bottle holder seems to be a grey area, but NHS says up to 4h with this is fine for pre-chilled formula).
Not reheating multiple times
Not reusing partially drunk formula (discard after 1h)

OK - so NHS now saying 4 hours for cool pack. I'm sure it used to be 6. Maybe I remembered wrong. Looks like their page was recently updated, so it might be new information.

Couldn't recommend a Perfect Prep any more for taking the hassle out of bottles. They're unreal! Ours lived up in the nursery until we dropped night feeds.

Does it definitely need to be boiling hot water you need?

When it comes to dairy free milk, for quite a few of them they absolutely can’t be added to boiling water and the water has to be cooled down to room temperature before adding the formula so even 70 degrees is too hot.

I don’t know if it’s the same for lactose free milk??