Should I just buy ready made formula instead of powdered?

[PayingMyWayYouSay]

Advice I was given a while back was not to bother buying the powder and just buy the ready made stuff, as it's quicker, less fuss and not that much more expensive.

What would you suggest?

Thank you

Ready made is actually quite expensive in comparison to powdered. Ready made is fine obviously, a lot of people use it for night feeds or for days out. My dd wouldn't touch it though, even at normal bottle temperature. Dunno why!

I think it's quite a bit more expensive. I used powder and then used ready made for going out

I read in a leaflet from hospital that ready made formula must be consumed within 24 hours after opened in the refrigerator.

But it comes in a big carton, not just those little ones.

Will baby be drinking 1 litre in one day?

It's easier but it's more expensive and if your baby takes more than about 7oz at a time, you will have to break into another carton/bottle.

We also found the ready made formula was thinner than powdered, which ended up exacerbating my sons silent reflux. Thicker powders tend to stay down better.

It would work out a lot more expensive in the long run, when you think a tub of powder is about £10 and one carton is on average 70p you are likely to get about a weeks worth from a tub at the beginning depending on how much baby is drinking where as if baby drinks say 6 bottles a day you are looking at about £30 a week give or take

Cross post OP sorry, maybe have a few ready made but I would probably stick to powder unless money isn't an issue

Baby won't drink a litre in the early months but my son was on 7oz bottles x 5 a day (so roughly about 210ml x 5 = over a litre) by 4 months.

I thought formula would be worth the money to just get ready made as a screaming baby and having to make up formula from scratch seems trickier when you're adding extra time actually making the formula.

I think I may just buy the ready made for night feeds and trips out

Picking SMA at random, 1 litre of ready made is £3. The can of powder is £10 and makes approx 5.8 litres so £1.72 per litre, so almost half the price of the ready made.

Lots of people like the Perfect Prep machine if you want to make powdered bottles easily and quickly. Then maybe keep ready made for night time and trips out?

We used it for night feeds before getting a perfect prep machine. It was just too expensive to maintain. It is much more cost effective to buy the powder. I still buy those little bottles in for days out.

I will be using SMA (assuming baby gets on with it), and don't like the tommee tippee bottles.

Does the perfect prep machine work with different branded bottles?

I used the ready made stuff for approx the first 3 months - the large litre bottles and the small ones for trips out. It worked out about twice the cost of powder which I felt was worth it but once I started using the powder it was no trouble at all. If you keep pre-boiled water in the fridge you can use powder and an oz or 2 of boiling water topped up with chilled water and it's ready straight away. I used to weigh the water on my kitchen scales so it was accurate (loser!!).

Prep machine works with any bottles. We ended up using Dr Browns bottles for colic and have a prep machine.

We also use the smaller bottles of ready mixes for days out. The larger ones would need to be refrigerated once you had opened them.

We also used the tiny ones with disposable teats when she was first born as we could just open it, put a teat on and we were good to go.

It does work out more expensive but I always had some ready made stuff in, taking a carton on a day out or being able to feed ds straight away after a busy morning etc meant that it came in handy. Maybe get a bit of both and see what you find yourself using?

We have used readymade for both of ours. Costs around £30 a week, less now DD is in nursery and I'm back in work. It's more expensive but it suits us, so we think it's worth it. Good luck with whatever you choose.

If I remember correctly, the big bottles lasted 2 days once open and the small bottles one day.

We had the perfect prep upstairs in our room - kept the milk and sterilised bottles there too (steriliser in kitchen). The bottles that you want to be the least stressful are in the night/early morning so it made them much easier. In the day going upstairs to make a bottle wasn't a faff (I was up and down all day anyway).
We've always taken pre-made out with us but dd has never had over 7oz in the day (she's dropped Day feeds altogether now and has larger bottles of cows milk at bedtime).
But for holidays I'd definitely recommend pre-made individual bottles - definitely worth the cost to make everything easier.

We use Tommee Tippee and MAM bottles and the prep machine works with both.

Honestly, the prep machine is one of the best things we ever bought!

Ready made is a lot more expensive than powder. Plus I think thinner, my lb needed more oz of ready made than powder (we had to use cartons when we were away for a few days as the hotel had no fridge. And in laws made no effort to offer us to stay there, yes they have enough room).
And say for example he was having 6oz of powder, he needed 7oz of ready made.
Plus it's really easy to make up bottles. I know it's against what is recommended or advised now, but I made up and stored in the fridge. So easy. It also meant I could take the bottles out made, and all I had to do is take a bottle warmer with me to warm them up.
A lot of people have the perfect prep machine, but I hate the idea of a machine to make bottles and I don't think it's needed really.

I used little cartons exclusively for DS1. He had powder in nursery from
6m.

DS2 I'm using PP with mam self sterilising bottles at home and using powder when I can predict a feed out or ready to drink if he can't wait.

Although ready to drink is twice the cost per litre, it's more than that as you probably waste more by making up bigger feeds (at least if you're using the little bottles/cartons).

I've used ready made for both of my children even though it is more expensive. 1L bottles keep for 48 hours in the fridge and even with a new born, you would probably get through this with the amount of waste each feed. It won't take long to get on a schedule and you will be able to better predict the feeds and will probably get through 1L every couple of days.

I didn't like the faff of powder and just find the ready made easier. If it suits you, go for it.

We used both. The ready made was really handy for trips out or when he was being looked after by my parents etc and I didnt personally find the powder that much hassle in my own home.

Ready made doesn't seem to keep babies full as long as powder

As others have said it's more costly / guess depends if money is tight

We started off on ready made and at almost £4 per day for a litre it's costly at £28 a week so almost 3 times as much

A tub did last a week now at 3mths dd make a tub last 6 days so was £11 a week

Saying that it's fab for going out - night feeds

Perfect prep machines are good as long as instructions followed in using right filter and cleaning it

Or do diy pp by keeping boiled water in fridge. Add 1/3 of boiling water / kettle or flask and then add powder and shake well

I have a perfect prep. It's brilliant. Ready made is much more expensive.

I take it you are planning to formula feed, rather than it being a contingency plan? If I'm wrong and it is a contingency plan I bought the starter pack of 4x ready made in little bottles and sterile single use teats for 'just in case' - and thank God I did!

For going out I take pre measured cool boiled water, a thermos and measured powder and do a manual version of the perfect prep system. Works well for us!