Preparing formula abroad

[n13arw]

Sorry if this is a silly question but first time formula feeding as my first baby was EBF.

Our baby girl is on prescribed formula so we cannot use ready made bottles unfortunately.

We're going to Costa Adeje on holiday and the hotel have assured me there is a fridge and sink, microwave, mini kitchen area etc so I know we have the means to clean/sterilise bottles etc. it's the GF Victoria so bonus points if anyone has been there!

My question is am I able to use tap water and boil it (obviously) whilst abroad to prepare the feeds? Has anyone done this and has experience of it? I'm sure I read bottled water is not safe due to mineral content?

Thanks in advance!

yes absolutely fine to

probably cleaner than ours!

Hi
I boiled water, took a thermometer with me and mixed it with formula when it fell to 70degrees. and dependent on quantity, i kind of knew when it was ready for dd.

I only used Mineral bottled water as at the hotel they said the tap water wasnt drinkable.

There's info here on how to use bottled water safely for formula abroad https://www.fitfortravel.nhs.uk/advice/general-travel-health-advice/breastfeeding-and-bottle-feeding#Water

When I was abroad and formula feeding last year I used bottle water as there are baby safe brands such as Evian (Although pricey) and also laranjon and font Vella. It usually had a pic of a baby on the front if it’s safe for use for babies 👶🏼

Thanks! Really helpful, just googled - think we'll do this and just bulk buy when we get there! Thank you!

I would use bottled water and check the sodium and sulphate levels are at a safe limit.

If using bottled water to make up a feed, check the label to make sure the sodium (also written as Na) level is less than 200 milligrams (mg) per litre, and the sulphate (also written as SO or SO4) content is not higher than 250mg per litre

I stayed at the hotel. You technically can but a wonderful cleaning lady recommended I didn’t as they had a few parasite scares over the years. Bottled water is fairly inexpensive just boil that

Ah thanks so much for replying. Really appreciate it! We'll definitely use bottled water and check its low Sodium and sulphate.

How was the hotel?

Do You have a steriliser already?

We used the Milton cold water, so I bought a foldable bucket and then used that and took Milton tablets with us. Technically I used the tap water to sterilise the bottles and then would rinse the bottle with boiling water before using it just to remove any remnants. For the powder we used bottled water that the hotel provided and boiled it in the kettle like usual.

We have MAM bottles which self sterilise in the microwave, you do have to add 20ml of water to them so I'll just use the bottled water for that. Thanks for the tip though!

We brought the perfect prep and used that!!

It was really nice - the staff were so friendly and nothing was too much for my son when we took him as a baby.

There is bottled water especially for formula and babies in supermarkets.. ( had a picture of a baby on front) comes in huge bottles.. use that ( it's very cheap).

It's in all the canary Island supermarkets.

I went to costa adeje earlier this year on holiday and used a company that you can rent a perfect prep machine from and they also deliver bottled water suitable for using in formula as well. Company is called Travel 4 Baby and they were amazing, the stuff was in our hotel room on arrival and we were told to leave it there when we left and they would collect, made it all a million times easier would highly recommend.

Ah that’s great. Yes we used those until my ds needed 300ml bottles at around 5.5 months old and then we had to get the bigger non self sterilising ones.

Also we didn’t have a microwave in our hotel room so we would have needed the Milton option anyway.

I found those bottles really convenient though. If we went to a family/friends house we could use the microwave to reset them. If we were out and about then we just took multiple bottles.

Did you boil the bottled water before adding it into the prep machine? We are going in December and it’s all so confusing!

@ACtravel Hi I'm the OP we went on this holiday back in May. We just bought bottles water and used that. You can Google to find baby safe brands and some of them have a pic of a baby on the bottle. It's just to do with salt and mineral content I believe. No need to boil if you've got baby safe water.

You still need to boil bottled water to make formula so it kills bacteria in the powder. If over 6 months old you don't need to boil the bottled water if its for drinking

@dementedpixie the PP was asking if you need to boil before going in the prep, which no you don't.