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

I'm any event, the Op doesn't want to breastfeed, and that's totally her call. Us(and yes I've engaged with it too) debating, and people querying why not try breastfeeding is really wrong. People would go nuts if someone posted saying they wanted to breastfeed and ask for advice, and the response was to use bottles. Let's respect the Op's perfectly valid choice

Thank you Greyelephant x

Amy, I've just put in a request on Facebook to join a formula feeding group, it's called FFFAB (Fearless Formula Feeders and Beyond). I don't know if it's any good, but I'm hoping it will be a more tolerant place, and good for advice on brands, bottles and issues we might have.

Will have a look at this myself

Perfect prep next to my bed, pre made bottles whilst out and about. Not a faff at all really. Happy, healthy mum and baby.

Good luck to you OP x

Beside the bed, now that's a good idea!

To second what another poster said- no need to heat bottles if you get baby used to it. In hospital you use ready made bottles at room temperature, so why would you start heating them afterwards?

I went further and mine were drinking it straight from the fridge within days. I made up the next feed as soon as they had finished the previous; cooled rapidly in a tub of cold water in the fridge and got it out to use when they next wanted a feed- truly feeding on demand.

At night time I took a bottle or two up to bed in a cool bag with a freezer block - dead easy.

I would say that's actually largely down to 1) unrealistic expectations and 2) lack of proper support.

1. Unrealistic expectations are generally, in my experience, perpetuated by the people who are supposed to be supporting women. Very rarely are women given the truth about breastfeeding (and childbirth, and caring for a newborn, for that matter).

1. Lack of support: Yes, I keep hearing this. Any woman who is unable or unwilling to bf must be lacking support. Maybe the reason it requires support is because it's a really hard thing to learn to do? And maybe some women just don't see that it's worth the effort of learning? All those weeks of pain and sleep deprivation, connecting yourself up to a machine like a dairy cow... why? The health benefits are massively oversold.

The thing to bear in mind is that current health advice about freshly prepping each bottle takes into account chances of human error as well as evidence relating to the conditions in which harmful bacteria is likely to grow. As other posters have pointed out, prepping your milk with hot water, cooling quickly, refrigerating and reheating is a very safe way to prepare milk, with no opportunity for any harmful bacteria to grow. That's if it's done properly. It's good enough for hospitals and is the advice in many developed countries. But of course people can mess up the process at various stages - not cool the milk quick enough, not refrigerate properly, fridge not cold enough etc. So on balance, freshly preparing leaves less room for error. That doesn't mean the refrigeration process is any less safe if you do it properly. Which many of us can, easily, every time. Personally I think giving blanket advice against this very safe method of prepping milk without explanation or context pushes people into finding alternative methods that aren't quite as safe, because prepping every bottle freshly does just take forever and is a pain for many new parents. Making a hungry baby wait around 20 mins while the boiled water cools, as per advice, is a nightmare in my opinion. The choice is yours OP but if you find you are able to use the refrigeration method properly and consistently, and you find it easier and better for your life than freshly preparing (as I do), then you shouldn't feel worried that you're running some big extra risk, because you really aren't.

Maybe don't make up a fresh batch each morning in case it's been a terrible night and you're exhausted, but do it at lunch time /afternoon instead. That'll help reduce the risk of tiredness mistakes or running out.

I'm going to get coloured hairbands that I put t round the bottom of each bottle - ie Monday is yellow, Tuesday is blue. That way you know that you're not accidentally using an old bottle, and won't keep them for too long by accident.

We make a batch of bottles up on a morning and keep them in the back of the fridge.
DS has 4 in a 24 hour period so if there was 1 left in the fridge I would only make 3 so none will be in the fridge longer than 24hrs and push the oldest one to the left..DH and I know to always take the left hand bottle every time so oldest always gets used first, if that all makes sense!

We make them by using boiled water cooled for no longer than 30 mins then flash cool in cold water for 10 mins then into fridge. I've done this for 2 babies now with no problems but as another poster says that doesn't mean much, you just have to do what you're happy with.

First baby we started making them up as and when needed which was a right faff, cooling a boiling hot bottle takes ages when you have a crying baby.
Then moved back to the UK and saw several HVs who said I could make up the bottles in advance with boiling water and cool in fridge for no more than 24hrs, then warm as needed. Had midwives give same advice this time around. It's no faff at all now, whereas breastfeeding was a huge faff to me.

Homity I had unrealistic expectations because I kept hearing accounts like yours:
"no pain, leakage or embarrassment. And my baby didn't cluster feed". Support amounted to people who had also found breastfeeding 'easy' telling me the same which left me in a very dark place.

Oh, sorry OP - I couldn't be without our Perfect Prep. It does seem to mean that DS now refuses bottles that aren't warmed but we have a Tomme Tippee bottle warmer and warm ready made bottles when we're out.

If you try ready made, you can give it cold if baby will accept it - we never warmed it up so they didn't know any different and drank it fine. Same with expressed breast milk which had been stored in the fridge - was a revelation not warming it up and so much easier when out and about.

Hi, first off I'm certainly not going to judge you. I also chose not to breastfeed as I didn't want to.
The advice nowadays is to make bottles when needed.
However, I always made in advance and stored them in the fridge. My mum did the same with the 3 of us. My lo is absolutely fine. I don't believe there's anything wrong with doing it that way. I will do exactly the same next time, whether advised or not.
As long as they are used within 24 hours, there's no problem

I believe most people get round this by using the perfect prep machine. But personally I don't see the need for a machine that makes bottles. I'd never use one. I prefer to make them by hand.