Formula Feed

[MrsBee19]

I've just been to the midwife and been told if you formula feed you can't prepare any bottles in advance (as in previous years) , they have to be made on demand and will take a good 30mins for each prep time (including kettle cooling)
I can't help but think this is a tactic to encourage breastfeeding.

Can anyone shed any light?
Thanks

Sorry that wasn't very well explained!

70C is a compromise. It will kill most of bacteria off but not harm the proteins and vitamins in the powder too much. Hotter and you risk compromising the milk, colder and you risk not affecting the bacteria.

If you pour the water into a bottle whilst boiling it will cool quicker. Likewise if you don't boil a full litre. 1litre cools at 1degree per minute. Less water will cool proportionally faster. 100ml in a bottle should only take around 3minutes to cool to 70 but it's a good idea to check the insulation of your kettle and bottles with a food thermometer.

Kri5ty I believe you're not supposed to use boiling water to make the bottle as the heat of the water destroys some of the nutrients in the milk, but allowing the water to cool a little first destroys fewer nutrients but still hugely depletes the number of harmful bacteria. I may be wrong though.

We never heated a bottle for DD if we were out and about. She either had a cold bottle or a carton. However I think that warming the bottle when you need it (with a bottle warmer, flask of hot water or a microwave) is reasonably safe if the bottle has been stored somewhere cold - the bacteria don't have the time to breed to dangerous numbers when you heat the bottle.

I think using boiling water may destroy some of the vit C, but this would only be an issue for newborns apparently.

Our hv said we could take a flask of water out with us and make a bottle up from that

ahh ok, so boil the kettle... measure out the water... put in a jug of cold water to coll (but not below 70c)... add formula, then put in a fresh jug of cold water until the correct drinking temp? Does that sound ok?

I can't breast feed, so i need to get this staright in my head! lol

Do the tommee tippee thermal carriers actually work? As i guess i could make a fresh feed up, and put it in there for when we are out and about.

And sorry for one more question... the cartons, am i correct in thinking they are safer? So if baby wouldnt take a cold one, i could just warm one of those up?

ahhh cool lovesicecream how long does it keep warm for? a good few hours? lol

Yes we have the tommee tippee flask and it's never been a prob, we use it for night feeds to and it's always above 70 when needed ( gave checked with thermometer before)

As far as I know cartons are safer, my sister used them all the time, works out more expensive but not too bad if your just using them while out

We've used it at night and even 5 hours later it's been ok

direct.tesco.com/q/R.206-9342.aspx?utm_source=GoogleShopping&utm_medium=GSF_NormalFeed&utm_campaign=GSF_TescoDirect&utm_content=206-9342 is it this flask hun? Sorry for all the questions!!

That's the one ! We use the plastic bit for cold water, it's a good price as well we paid 20, it's prob worth buying one and trying it out, you can check with a thermometer how long it stays above 70 for

ooo thanks so much!! I feel less stressed now! I wish i could breast feed it would be so much easier haha

one last question (i promise its the last one!) do you put boiling water in to the flask, or let it col to 70c before you put it in?

I put it in straight after boiling, we've got milk dispensers also from tesco that we put the right amount of powder in so it's easy to add to the bottle when your out and about

We have tommee tippee flask and use a per instructions, which is to use as a bottle warmer not to use to make bottles.

www.tommeetippee.co.uk/product/new_travel_bottle_and_food_warmer/

We take water in bottle (bailed and partly cooled) then put it in a little bag, and take the powder in a seperate dispenser adn when needed add the powder to the bottle and put pour the flask contents into the plastic cover and sit the bottle in it till it reaches the temp required.

We only use this system out and about, we make up 3 bottles before bed with boiled and part cooled water then make bottle and cool in cold water with ice packs till cool enough not to damage fridge then add them to fridge.
And warm when needed.

When DS was smaller (is 9 months now) we made from scratch until he was about 4 months then moved on to this technique.

Oh and shop around I got the full kit (flask kit) for £19.99 from kiddicare but that was just after DS was born so a while back now.

I think if you can afford to use cartons in the first few weeks it's a good thing if your worried, as the baby gets abit older if you do it from a flask or from the kettle I doubt everyone checks the temp every feed ( I know I don't) though it has been a worry for us especially in the beginning as the baby was 8 weeks early, you wouldn't know it now if you met him though!

Sorry me again, should have said we used cartons for the first few months when out then moved onto the flask.

Also the kit I got included flask, bottle holders and a couple of bottles.

www.tommeetippee.co.uk/product/new_travel_bottle_and_food_warmer
Link didn't work hopefully this will.

Your not supposed to reheat powdered formula though or keep it in the fridge, we couldn't use cartons in the beginning as baby was on prem milk that only came in powdered form, that's why neonatal mw and hv said flask when out and about, stays above 70 and is air right so bacteria doesn't grow

Air tight even

I have just been reading through the government guidelines on it, and it seems to suggest that the ODD feed pre made, kept in a fridge a warmed up is ok (once in while)... i may just do this as a back up.

For example make one in the morning and store it below 5c in the fridge, then if i am out, use the water from flask to make up fresh feeds, then if i am out longer than planned use the pre made bottle (which i will keep in a chill bag) and warm it up... but only in an emergency!

I know it isn't the ideal hence why we didn't do it when DS was newborn, but was given the instruction on how to do it by the HV, as she said that even though the guidelines are to make from scratch she is aware people will choose to do what is easier and she adds in how to make bottles in advance in her speech so if people choose not to follow the current guidelines they are still making the bottles and storing them in the safest possible way.

As for the flask I had no idea such a thing was out there will I found it on kiddicare so I just followed the maufacturers instructions.

www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/@dh/@en/documents/digitalasset/dh_063693.pdf

Page 4 covers making bottles in advance and what is seen as the safest way.

This is what the hospital did when DS was admitted at 5 days old with jaundice

I do wonder how they know which babies are sick from the way the formula is made up and which ones get Ill from poor hygiene , don't know how they are going to monitor it either as I know a few people who still make up bottles in advance but wouldn't admit it to their hv

So the department of health say if you have to you can store in fridge or use the flask method

I can only guess they might know from the bacteria present but I can't be certain.

Yes they do, which as I say is what the childrens ward did when DS was admitted. I took my own cartons as I didn't know what was offered but the nurse told me they premake feeds and they are date and time labelled.

As I said earlier the flask methos was new to me so I followed their instructions (tommee tippee) whether there are other methods I don't know but to be honest DS wasn't haven't a great deal of feeds a day when I started using the flask, so think it was only used a couple of times anyway.