Formula feeding

[Smellybears]

So confused! First pregnancy, due very soon. My question is about formula feeding as I’ve read so many different ways and am seriously confused!
I was going to purchase a prep machine but have been advised that they’re a waste and to give making up feeds a try first and see how I get on.
Anyway, how does everyone do it? The whole waiting 30 minutes for boiled water to cool is swaying me toward the prep machine as I don’t think it fair to expect baby to wait that long for a feed. Realistically how long does it take for the water to cool, apparently bottles can’t be made up with boiling water and then cooled under the cold tap?
I’ve read about making up feeds in advance in the morning for the daytime and in the evening ready for night feeds and then putting them in the back of the fridge. When needed just put them in a jug of boiling water to heat up.
Any advice will be greatly appreciated thank you!

I’ve made my own prep machine! Sort of.

Ds is 6 months and drinks 7 oz bottles. I fill with 3oz boiled water, add 7 scoops of formula, shake the bottle then add 4 oz of cold water. Perfect temperature for him. Only takes 2/3 minutes.

We use the kettle, wait 15/20 mins then cool under tap/stand in cold water. For the night feeds we cheated and treated ourselves to ready made formula. Yes more expensive but We didn't need to leave the room!

Hi, the perfect prep machine is not recommended from health visitors or the NHS for baby's under 6 months old. This is because the perfect prep doesn't boil the water first then let it cool to 70c. It literally just heats it to 70c which is fine for a baby over 6 months when they no longer need pre boiled water.

The kettle thing is a nightmare and there are a couple of ways I've found to get around it. The first is to boil less water; half a litre will take 15 mins to cool and 250ml 7 mins 30. You could even just pour the amount you need from boiled kettle and leave it to cool on side and then used a meat thermometer to test how long it took for it to get to 70c then you can set timer for that every time. If you want it to be the correct temperature ready to drink you can keep jug of cooled boiled water in fridge, make a 3 oz formula with say 2 oz 70c and 1oz the cold water from the fridge. That will make it the instant right temperature to drink and will mean no cooling or warming up.

Why are they saying the prep machine is a waste of time??
It's a bloody god send.

Get the Tommy Tippee machine it's a life saver. We keep it in the bedroom so we don't have to go down stairs in the night

Now ds is over 6 months and he doesn't need pre boiled water I am blessed with a variable temperature kettle that I can press a button and hear to 70c; it's amazing! For 7 oz I literally add 100ml 70c and 110ml fridge cold water and it's perfect temp. I refridgerate the water because it allows me to use more of the 70 and kill all of that nasty bacteria before adding the cold. It's takes me seconds to make a bottle. I have the powder measured out ready on a dispenser and can't recommend them enough as well.

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Oooh im sure I'll be told off but I boil water and prepare all my bottles - then I just add the powder when needed and DS has them cold... takes 30secs... I have done this since switching to formula at 1 month - he's now a strapping 8 month old in the 90th percentile...

The powder pre-measured in. Dispenser is a god send - I concur!

Easiest way I did it is get a thermos for holding hot boiled water and keep it refilled every 3 hours.

Prep machines are horrible imho as mould issues have been known but that's my opinion.

I do suggest getting a bottle warmer, plug in and fill with some water and when you make the formula up, add some hot water from thermos, cool down with bottled fresh water and mix up. Heat up to desired level in warmer and feed.

The above takes maybe 5 minutes but awesome for those nighttime or morning feeds, just redo thermos at night and warm bottle up in morning with that water in heater.

Bottled fed our daughter like this til she was 16 months old then she discovered Horlicks for nighttime and squash during day.

Easy to clean as you don't need to dismantle a machine pipping to clean it etc.

Feel free to ask anything else.

I always thought the main thing was that the formula had to hit hot water to kill any bacteria in the formula. So I always used to use a bit of just-boiled water to mix the formula (like some kind of roux!) and then top up to the right amount with cooled boiled water that I would keep in the fridge. It would then be the perfect temperature straightaway if I got it right (and if I didn’t it would take very little time to cool). So pretty much as @evilcleverdog described.

Why are they saying the prep machine is a waste of time??

This is because babies under 6 months need their milk made with water that has been previously boiled then cooled to 70c. The perfect prep doesn't boil the water first and just heats the water to 70c (fine for over 6 months old but not for a younger.)

70c will kill the bacteria in the powder yes but it won't kill all of the bugs in the water hence why only boiling first does that.

Emma its safer to add the powder to 70degree water, cool the bottles and store in the fridge until needed than to add the powder to cold water. This is because the powder potentially has more dangerous bacteria than the water.

If you use hotter water than 70c you kill he nutrients in the powder so that won't work either.

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I use the prep machine- top it up with cooled boiled water and voila! Avoids the issue Starmix mentioned.
We clean ours religiously & regularly take the back off to check for mould. Our DD is 1 and hasn't had any issues and DC2 due end of March and we'll use it for him too.

I tried the making a head of time and blast chilling them in iced sink and putting in fridge and then warming but found this a lot more faffy. You'd still need to let boiled water cool to 70 first.

In 2014 with DD I used to battle with the kettle for the night feeds and begged my HV for a better way.

She pointed me to the very back of an NHS leaflet which provided their recommended technique for pre-making bottles:

During the day, boil kettle then cool for 10 mins. Make up required volume of formula as normal.
Rapid cool in sink of cold water.
Once cool, store at the back of a fridge for up to 12hrs.
When a bottle is needed, simply stand in warm water or a bottle warmer. I used to zap in the microwave for 20s and shave vigorously for 2 mins to ensure no hot spots

Once I had that method sorted I used to pre make up my night feed bottles and maybe 1 or 2 for the next morning whilst I was cooking my evening meal. So much easier than making from scratch every time and as it was actually printed in an nhs publication figured it must be ok!

I think the key things were to boil the water, then use it whilst still fairly hot to make up the formula to kill bacteria in the powder. The rapid cooling and storage in coolest part of the fridge meant no bacteria growth.

I do know plenty of others from our birth year who added the powder to pre-boiled and cooled water as an alternative and all children turned out fine!

You don't need to leave the water for 30 mins. The guidelines are to leave the water NO MORE than 30 minutes. You can make them with freshly boiled and then cool them.

The perfect prep machine isn't recommended a) as there is no evidence that the small amount of boiled water is sufficient to kill the bacteria in the formula and b) the cold water added to cool the bottle isn't boiled and cooled it's straight tap water.

Perfect prep. For out and about, either:

1. Replicate perfect prep - for a 4 oz bottle (what DS currently takes): 1oz boiling water, 4 scoops powder (taken in individulal pot), top up with cold water. I use the PP to filter the cold water:

• discard the hot portion of PP cycle
• put cold portion of PP cycle into sterile bottle, add lid, put in bag
• put another sterile bottle in bag
• fill thermos with a bit of hot water - not much, water is heavy to carry! Put in bag
• put scoops of formula powder into pot. Put in bag.
• Go out!
• When feeding time comes, pour 1oz hot water into empty bottle, add formula and swirl, add the cold water. Use now-empty cold water bottle for next feed.

2. Take a perfect prep-made bottle in thermal bag thing to keep it warm

3. Pre-made formula given cold (can't be bothered warming up)

Tried all of the above for night feeds but have concluded PP machine is most reliable.

Never tried the traditional wait 30minutes for water to cool down shebang, who can be bothered with that!

What a great idea marzipancustard. Is it safe to boil water and practically boil it again I don't know.

You don't need to leave the water for 30 mins. The guidelines are to leave the water NO MORE than 30 minutes. You can make them with freshly boiled and then cool them.

This isn't right, the ready the formula has to be made at 70c is to kill the bacteria in the powder while not killing the nutrients. If you use freshly boiled it will kill the bacteria but it will also kill nutrients as well.

I combi fed (mainly breast but some bottles) and I used the prefect prep with my LO before 6 months old and never had any issues. Making bottles up is such a massive faff without a perfect prep.

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