Bottle feeds

[AmyG87]

Hi ladies.

I'm currently 39+2 weeks pregnant & wanting some advice on bottle feeding.

I decided long ago that I will be bottle feeding so please no judgement or questioning why I'm not breast feeding!

I have been told by the midwife that you have to make each bottle fresh & that you can't pre-make the bottles & store in the fridge until needed... I think that this is a new 'recommendation.'

I just wondered what you ladies actually do about this?? I can't see this working in the middle of the night whilst baby is screaming for a feed! My plan was to make some bottles up before I go to bed, store in the fridge, then when baby is due a feed, warm the bottle up - I have a Tommee Tippee bottle warmer that came with the steriliser.

My view is that if you aren't allowed to warm bottles up, then surely they wouldn't be able to sell a bottle warmer??

Thanks in advance x

Because Welsh the risk is small. IIRC all babies who died were premature and had other health problems and the number was tiny.

Not that that makes it any better for the families but it is worth knowing if you're considering doing this.

The number of babies killed due to cot bumpers is also tiny but that doesn't mean everyone should go and buy some. If it happened to you, it would matter that you were the one in a million, you'd know if was because you failed to follow the guidelines.

OK we had a perfect prep and had the tubs for powder so everything is premeasured.
Others I know just make fresh feeds and put in fridge then microwave for 30 secs -teat off.
Others I know have two kettles - one with previous cooled water and then one with the boiling hot water.
Or the ready made which was too expensive for me lol.
Good luck :)

Put in fridge til the need *

Welsh I'm not saying everyone should go and buy one, but it's for each person to decide what they're comfortable with.

I make up the bottles for the day with the correct amount of boiled water in them. When I need a bottle I heat it in the microwave to the correct temp for baby (not hot enough according to guidelines but neither of mine have suffered) then add the powder and shake well to make sure its mixed and there are no hot spots.

Yes we'd all like to make bottles up 'properly' but it just isnt practical when you are feeding on demand and baby is hungry. Once they are older and settled into more of a regular feeding pattern its easier to know when they'll need it and make it according to guidelines.

This is why I preferred bfeeding, it was way less faff

Was a pita from 6 months when we moved to formula

People aren't saying my child was fine so yours will be , someone asked a question and people have given them their experiences, dsnt mean to say OP is going to do the same

But this is exactly what they are implying, so I think it is only right to balance this by pointing out that there is a risk and just because the majority of babies are fine doesn't mean they all will be. It is definitely up to the individual to decide if the risk is worth the benefit to them, but if the only information for that individual to go with is "well my baby was fine" then that is not informed decision making.

Completely agree BF would have been easier. I get a bit cross that it's so difficult to find info on FF safely though. Antenatal classes didn't discuss it, none of the paperwork from the hospital included anything about it, the midwives that visited me at home didn't want to discuss it. It was only thanks to my HV that I figured out how to leave the house and FF! I'd planned to BF but ended up with a premature, jaundiced baby that wouldn't. I was discharged home without having bought bottles, steriliser etc and I found it really hard to get the info I needed. So I don't think it helps when people on here give out more bad information.

I don't follow the official guidelines but HV said I was doing it as safely as possible without following their advice.

I make enough bottles up to last 24 hours and store them in the fridge.

I use the little pots designed for taking formula powder out and about, and measure the powder for each bottle into the individual pots. It stops the scoop getting steamy and clogged up when tipping powder in over hot water numerous times.

Boil kettle.

Bottles already scrubbed and sterilised ready to use.

Pour boiling water into bottles, then tip the formula into each bottle from the individual pots straight away. Formula going into boiling water kills bacteria that might be lingering in the powder.

Put teats on, then unscrew and re screw teats to release any trapped steam.

Lids on, shake thoroughly.

Leave out on kitchen counter until completely cooled to room temp. Usually about an hour.

Store in the fridge.

If going out I take prepared bottles in a cool bag with an ice pack and flask of boiling water for warming them up.

I warm bottles up as required and use or dispose of them up within 24 hours.

I have two full sets of bottles so one is in use and there is always a clean set in the closed steriliser ready to use.

I do it this way as I find it quicker to warm up a pre made bottle up, rather than make each one from scratch then bring down to a suitable temperature. A screaming baby deciding they are hungry earlier than you expected isn't much fun!

It's not a case of being 'allowed' it's just advice on the current safest way to do things.

We live in a country where water is clean and we have access to adequate sterilising equipment, so I believe risks are minimal as long as good hygiene and sterilisation is practiced.

HCP and formula companies have to be strict on guidelines because some people can be slack with hygiene. Also some places it could prove very unsafe to use formula if they don't have access to adequate facilities to prepare it safely.

But it's nothing to do with sterilisation or the water quality. The harmful bacteria are in the formula powder itself, hence the need to use boiling water (or at least above 70 degrees) to sterilise the powder.

Welsh well said! Baby is 13 days old and I'm finding breastfeeding very difficult and stressful. No HCP will engage in conversation with me about formula. At parent craft we spent about 5 minutes of a two hour session on feeding when all they really did was tell us how hard it was to prepare the bottles. Now I'm in catch 22 of feeling baby isn't feeding properly but not wanting to risk bottle feeding and something going wrong there

doesn't it tell you how to safely make formula on the tin?

Make up with boiling water, cool quickly then store in the fridge for no longer than 24 hours.
My friend is a neonatal nurse and this is how they do it. If it's good enough for poorly babies then it's good enough for mine.

The advice is simply that... Advice.

Guidelines

It's up to us as parents to decide.

The advice is simply that... Advice.

Guidelines

It's up to us as parents to decide.

I combination fed my first and when making bottles we wold sterilise them all, and fill the bottles with boiling water. When needing to make the formula up *as we did it at night) we just had to use a little tome tippee cup thing, put in some boiling water, add the formula and shake into a paste, then at it to the milk and shake it up. The cup was also microwave sterilisation friendly (as were the MAM bottles we had.)

Might sound fiddly but it was all preared and properly sterilised, and the little bit of hot water made it the perfect temperature for feeding. Baby never had any bugs for many many months. It's worth making sure your baby's only sours of nourishment is correctly sterilised, especially as these days it's so easy and so many methods. I didn't actually realise that's what the perfect prep thing did, I fuss we were kind of doing a manual version of that!

Failing that, you can always use ready to feed milk which is already sterile!

How does warming a premade bottle take any bloody less time than making from fresh, especially if, for example, you left the kettle ready filled and the powder pre measured?? Or take everything upstairs with you including the boiled water in a thermos

Then finish making up with cool water to correct temp?

Or am i missing something here?

Arbrighton

A lot bloody less time when you have a screaming newborn who wants milk now.

Prepared bottle put in the warmer. 2-3 minutes. Job done.

Boiling milk takes a lot longer to cool down that it does to warm a cold bottle.

Thank you everybody.

I didn't mean to cause an argument, I just wanted to know what people currently do.

Yes it is probably less faff to breastfeed but I have chosen to bottle feed & it is a decision I am sticking to.

With regards to the bottles, it sounds like many of you pre make the bottles & store in the fridge which I what I intend to do purely for the night feeds. During the day, I will make the bottles as & when needed.

Thank you for your advice ladies x

Op if you can get dc used to room temp or cooler bottles it will save you more time. Make hot, quickly chill them and refridgerate. Id take a feed out in the day an hour or so before they would need it to take the chill off. Nights Id take a fridged bottle out and keep in on my bedside and feed wheb they needed.

Right, I haven't put this into practice yet (am due my first child in 6 weeks), but like you, I'm planning on formula feeding, and I've done a fair amount of looking into the best way of prepping things!

First off, the NHS guidance is to make up every bottle fresh, but the way they describe it is so faffy, that you might (if you were a suspicious person...) think it was designed to make formula as much of a faff as possible.

The NHS guidance comes from the WHO guidance, sort of. When you look at the WHO guidance is states that the absolute safest way to formula feed is to make up each bottle fresh. But it also acknowledges that it isn't always practical to do so, and that making them in advance is fine.

So I'm planning on making up feeds once a day, cooling them quickly, and then reheating them when needed. I was planning on using my tommee tippee bottle warmer, but when I tried it, I found it was RUBBISH and takes ages to heat bottles. So I'm using a microwave, which is officially not reccomended by anyone because apparently it can cause hot spots. However, if the bottle is shaken properly after being heated, and is only heated to warm the milk slightly, I honestly can't see the danger. Its unlikely that certain points, especially following shaking, will be at say, 37 degrees, and others at 80. So for me, a mini fridge next to the bed, with a microwave on top, should take the faff out, I'm hoping!!

I genuinely don't understand why anyone would choose to undertake this faff from birth unless a) medical reasons or b) bfeeding is painful/hard etc etc

I say that out of curiosity btw not judginess, as someone who ff

Hoppity I was open to both but reasons I leaned towards ff was

• boobs returning to normal more quickly
• not having to worry about bfing clothes
• being able to have someone else feed the baby
• not having to avoid alcohol

That probably sounds really selfish but when I had my DS I was determined to not be "just a mum" and do everything I did before. Looking back I put a lot of pressure on myself and I regret that.

As it happened we both found breastfeeding hard and so we switched, I did feel a bit guilty about it.