Bottle Feeding Questions

[Rob1n]

Hi all,
There was no question in my mind over whether I would be breastfeeding before baby was born, but it didn't work out for a number of reasons (which I have now almost finished beating myself up about), hence I am now bottle feeding but have no idea as I did no research on this before the birth.

The two main problems I am having are nightfeeds and going out. I am making up all the day feeds fresh and using ready to use cartons during the night. Please can anyone tell me what you do about making up feeds in advance? Why do lots of people obviously seem to manage doing this somehow, but the manufacturers are so reluctant to give advice/instructions on it? I have been told a couple of things but as yet nothing that I think won't compromise risk of making baby ill (through water not being hot enough etc...)

What would I do if I was going away for the weekend about sterilising bottles etc...? If I am going out for the day, do I just take some sterilised bottles with me even though they will be still a bit wet inside from the steriliser?
They had some ready to use milk in glass bottles with disposable sterile teats at the hospital - does anyone know if you can get these anywhere in a size bigger than 100ml?

Hoping there are some bottle feeding experts out there who can help me out!
Thanks in advance

OK you might have more luck on the food board, but what I used to do was to measure the water in the bottle, whilst the water was still very hot from the kettle, and measure the powder in a separate pot (you can get some of these in any supermarket, they are specifically for storing formula powder). I would put the bottle (s) in a bottle insulator and it would stay warm for a long time. In the middle of the night I would add the powder to the water, shake it a bit, et voila. Ready bottle. Hope it helps.

i do same as blueberry, put the water in the bottles and take the formula in the powderholder thing and add @ required time. i do the same @ night, not too much bother and it will work out a lot cheaper than using the ready made @ night.

i did same as blueberry and firawla, filled bottle with boiling water just before bed and popped in a thermal bag and powder in seperate pot.

avent do a great three section pot for trips out. i also found there thermal bag v good.

as for weekends away you can get microwave setralisers which seem to be pretty compact, but to be honest i always put the bottles in a saucepan and boiled the hell out of them for 5 mins. my 2 never had any ill affects from this and once they hit 6 months i put them in the dishwasher.

I will probably get lectured or something for this, but in the 8 months I have been FF my son, I have never, ever made a bottle with hot water. I think the guidelines are very stupid and impractical and unnecessary.

Do you really boil a kettle, wait 30 minutes for it to cool and then make up a bottle? While your child is crying to be fed? Really?!?!?!

I boil a kettle before I go to bed and pour it into a jug when I get up in the morning. I then make bottles from this through out the day.

For night feeds (which he still has on occasion) I fill two or three bottles and leave them ready in the kitchen and then measure the formula into them when and if he gets up. If they don't get used up during the night I use them the next day.

DS has never had a tummy ache or anything else from this method.

I also do not keep bottles in the sterilizer (when I was using one, I stopped when he was 6 months) after it has time to cool down. They were put in a cupboard. Well, still are.

If you do some reading you'll see that the actual likelihood of a baby becoming sick from a bottle being made up cool water is about 1 in a million.

That's a risk I am very willing to take.

All, you are perpetuating dangerous advice here. Formula powder is not sterile & has been shown to be contaminated with nasty bugs on many occasions. The likelihood of a baby getting ill when a bottle is made up with cold water is much greater than a million to one.

The op is doing things correctly, please don't undermine this. Those many people who do seem to be making them in advance may well be taking more risks than you (sensibly) feel comfortable with.

OP there is some good advice on NHS Choices here
It mentions that if you really have to make formula in advance you should make it up as per a fresh feed, cool quickly then keep for a max of 4 hrs in a cool bag or 24 hrs in a fridge, this minimises any risk.

I'm no expert but taking sterilised bottles with you for a day out seems very low risk. For weekends away try cold water sterilising in a tupperware container or similar.

I did exactly the same as Blueberrypancake. In fact dd always preferred milk at room temp. so I never had to worry about warming bottles.

For travelling, I had some microwave steriliser bags, or if in a hotel, I took a tupperware container and sterilizer tablets. You can fill the container with other stuff so it doesn't actually take up much room.

Lots of info on "breast and bottle feeding" section about this.

A good method I often see recommended is to make up a bottle with part hot water and part cooled boiled water, so, for example with a 6oz bottle, you would boil the kettle and put 4oz of water into a bottle. Add 6 scoops of powder and shake. (Though watch out for boiling water squirting from the teat). Take jug of cooled boiled water from fridge or cupboard, and add another 2oz of water. Shake again to mix - voila, formula at the correct temperature, and the powder has been mixed with hot water killing any bacteria in there.

You have to be very meticulous with your measuring with this - some people keep the cooled boiled water in baby bottles, measured to the correct amount to minimise any mistakes.

I also used the microwave steriliser bags when away for the weekend. You simply add all the items for one bottle in the bag, with water and pop in the microwave for a few minutes.

Like Tee, I found making up feeds and waiting for them to cool with a screaming baby just too much to handle. So I used to sterilise the bottles, add boiling water and then add the formula powder to the cooled water just before a feed. My DD was never sick. However I only started bottle feeding at 3 months. It might be more of a risk with a younger baby.

I do think if you are going to go against official advice it's worth having a look to see what the advice is based on. If you are making an informed decision and you decide as Tee did that the risk is so small you are willing to take it then fair enough. It's when people say "Oh well all my friends did this and their babies were fine" that I think it's a bit stupid to just ignore guidelines.

for going out, if you aren't happy with taking the pre-boiled water, you could always just take a sterilised bottle and a carton of the made up milk?

for every day use, i used to boil the kettle at the start of the day and fill all the bottles i needed with the right amount of water and then store them (lidded) in the fridge. I would then take them out as required, add the formula powder and warm it up to the preferred temperature.

I've always made bottles up with cooled boiled water and taken the powder separately. I then add freshly boiled water to the bottle to get the right temp. Saves all the faffing waiting for it to cool, esp in the middle of the night.

I often used cartons for days out, taking a sterlised bottle with me. You can also buy ready sterilised bottles from mothercare/boots if you're caught short, although it would be expensive to do that regularly.

FWIW, rather than buying one of those little pots for formula, I used once of the little 4ox bottles that came free with the steriliser along with the rubber lid.

I always used cartons when away from home, great in warmer weather when they don't need heating As DD got a bit older I relaxed slightly on the sterilising in that, once the bottles were cleaned properly and sterilised, I would assemble them lids and all and taken them off with me. I wasn't too fussed then if they were a day or two old.

You could always cold water sterilise if no microwave though, there are sterilising bags you can buy. Blimey, I'm almost getting nostalgic for this!

I always used cartons - for both home and away.

Much less stress.

Didn't you find that very expensive though doublebuggy? Plus when DS approached weaning he was regularly having a bottle and a half at each feed so that would've meant a carton and a bit with the rest left to waste?

I forgot to mention that I do use premade cartons when out and about.

BTW I'm an American and when I was in the US over Christmas I looked at the guidelines on their formula, which, as far as I can tell, is produced exactly the same way as here in the UK. Even the ingredients lists are almost identical.

Their guidelines say to only use just boiled water and sterilized bottles if your doctor says you should. And their powder formula is no more sterile than ours.

It was actually a battle to get me to sterilize bottles at all as they don't in the US. The only reason I ever did was because DS was in SCBU for the first 9 days of life and they were very strong in their conviction that I needed to.

But, really, sterilizing bottles is, IMHO, a false sense of security. Once it leaves the sterilizer? As soon as it hits the air? Its no longer sterile. Unless you live in a clean room.

Boundarybabe - You can buy 500ml ready-made cartons which can be put in frdige for 24 hours after you open them. So no waste.

And yes - obviously more expensive than powder. But we could afford it and it was so much less hassle. I am surprised that more people don't do this.

DTs were on 1.5 litres a day at the peak - thats £3 a day, £21 a week.

this thread may help

Ooops - sorry - at peak it was 4 litres a day between 2. Thats 1 litre each which is £2 a day = £14 per child per week.

I think its a bargain for so much less agro.

We used to boil the kettle, pour the water into the bottle and stand it in a big mug of cold water to cool it from boiling to quite hot. Then add the powder, and cool it further until it was servable. The whole thing took about 5-10 mins. Not idea but okay. DS was still having some EBM at night when he was feeding very often, so we got around it that way.

Also, we were using Hipp Organic. Once your baby is 6 months old and having follow on milk, they do ready made 500ml bottles, which are made in a different way and so can be stored in the fridge once opened for a day. This was good for night feeds. Out and about, we had a flask of boiled water and used to faff about with the powder, cooling etc.
If I could do it again, I would just use ready made formula when out/at night and not sweat the extra cost. But I know for some people it is a problem, and can work out more expensive in a way that is a bit of an issue.

Hi Rob1n,

Sorry to hear your breastfeeding experience didn't work. I had a very similar experience, and the lack of information, and mis-information around bottle-feeding made the situation much harder for me.

A lot of people who quote "official guidelines" don't quote the full guidelines. There is slightly more to it than the well-publicised "make every feed up fresh".

The latest DoH booklet, which you can find here: www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_4123619 contains a section (page 15) on feeding away from home. The guidelines are as follows:

"If you need to feed your baby away from home, it is safest to carry a measured amount of milk powder in a small clean and dry container, a flask of hot water that has been boiled and an empty sterilised feeding bottle. Make up a fresh feed whenever you need it. The water must still be hot when you use it, otherwise any bacteria in the milk powder may not
be destroyed. Remember to cool the bottle under cold running water before you use it.

Alternatively, you could use ready-to-drink infant formula milk when you are away from home.

If it is not possible to follow the advice above, or if you need to transport a feed ? for example to a nursery or childminder ? you should prepare the feed at home and cool it in the back of the fridge. Take it out of the fridge just before you leave and carry it in a cool bag with an ice pack. Use it within four hours, or if you reach your destination within four hours, take it out of the cool bag and store it at the back of the fridge. Feeds should never be stored for longer than 24 hours although this length of time is no longer considered ideal, especially for young babies. It is always safer to make up a fresh feed whenever possible."

With my DD I bought the pre-mixed cartons for night feeds, and kept a sterilised bottle to hand. I made all her day feeds up in advance and stored them in the fridge, as advised. And if I went out I took a feed out of the fridge in a cool bag.

Hope this helps,
Hugs
Artoo.

Hi,
Thanks for all your advice everyone - and thanks for pointing me in the direction of the correct board, I can't believe I never realised that was there.

Tee - I'm not waiting half an hour for the kettle, as you suggest that would probably be to much to handle! I'm going on the theory that the less water I have the less time it takes to cool, so I measure the water into the kettle (350ml) and leave to cool for 12 minutes. I am also lucky that DS seems to prefer his milk at room temp. so I just cool the milk right down after I have made it. He has been feeding roughly every three hours, so I get it ready just before I think he wants it, which i don't always get right, but I always change his nappy before feeding so that buys me a bit of time too if needed.

I've tried keeping the pre-boiled water in a botte insulator, but after two hours it was barely warm. I don't know if the bag I have got isn't up to scratch.

I've also tried the two thirds pre-boiled made up with fresh boiled when needed, but it just doesn't seem hot enough to me this way?

If it's done the other way around with the feed made up with just boiled water, is it possible that the water could be so hot that it also actally kills some of the vitamins etc... in the formula?

I also forgot I cold obviously just do cold sterilising or boiling when I am away from home and that I don't have to have a sterilising machine! Thanks for pointing that one out.

I have decided that I need to get a cooking thermometer (to check water still above 70 when formla added) and do a few experiments using all your sugestions.

For the time being I have a new challenge this morning - my water supply has gone off I have all the bottles to wash! marvellous. The joys of being reliant on utility companies and another guilt trip for me about how this wouldn't happen if I was breastfeeding!

Thanks again for all your help all.

Rob1n,

no more to add except please don't beat yourself up about not breastfeeding. It didn't work for me either (cue panic trip to a late night supermarket to get formula when DS was four days old and screaming his head off with hunger). The most important thing is that your DS is fed, and that is what you're doing. BF doesn't work for everyone and it isn't your fault.

All the best with yor little one.

hi robin,

i'm not a ffer but wanted to respond to this:

if it's done the other way around with the feed made up with just boiled water, is it possible that the water could be so hot that it also actally kills some of the vitamins etc... in the formula?

vitamins are unaltered by temperature. proteins may be (think of cooking eggs) but this does not change their nutritional value.

too high a heat could make it grim to eat texture wise, but nutritionally ok.

(i have a chemistry degree)

hth