Is it ok to make up bottles this way?

[owltrousers]

Boil water, pour desired amount into sterilised bottles, allow to cool to room temperature. Add formula as and when a feed is needed. Shake, feed baby?

@thehairthebod and then warm them in the microwave or? I thought you weren't supposed to do that either

OP you have to warm them stood in a jug of boiling water or in a bottle warmer. This has got me thinking now, what's the easiest way of doing night feeds? Was hoping to avoid going downstairs!

@Twitchett22 Well thats what I was thinking...

Maybe its easier to just get the perfect prep or use premade milk at night time.

Thermos flask of boiling water upstairs? Ready to tip the powder in at feed time and leave to cool?

I always did the fridge thing and warmed in the microwave. Just make sure you shake it well to get rid of any hot spots.

Microwave is fine but you must shake or swirl.

I always microwaved, it's fine if you mix it well.

I either used perfect prep, or when we went away made bottles in advance with boiled water, chilled then microwave before feeding. Will do the same this time.

Also the little ready to feed bottles are great when out and about, especially if baby will drink at room temp.

I always always did it the way described in the OP. Currently 6 months pregnant and will be doing it this way again

I used to boil the kettle and fill up bottles with the required amount, then just add the formula and re heat. This was 6 years ago now though!

I always always did it the way described in the OP. Currently 6 months pregnant and will be doing it this way again

You honestly might as well not bother boiling the water in the first place then. You don't really need to boil the water to kill germs in the water, the water is already clean. You boil the water to kill bugs in the formula powder. If you add the formula to cold water then you won't kill germs in the formula so it's fairly pointless boiling the water in the first place.

@Thisusernamethingistricky my son is 4 and that was the recommended way to do it when he was born my midwife and health visitor etc all told me to do it that way. I'm sure the bacteria in formula hasn't changed that drastically in just 4 years

My DD is 6 and the advice from the WHO was (and still is I believe) to either make fresh each feed (no thanks) or make in batches and refrigerate. They make quite a big thing if the bacteria in formula powder being dangerous.

Mind you they also say never to microwave to heat a bottle because if hot spots and I always did!

Your baby will get used to whatever way you do it. If you always serve milk warm they will always want it warm. If its always room temp they will expect it room temp. Regards night feeds i take a sterile bottle to bed and have the ready made cartons ready to go 👍 theres no way im going down in the night. He has no pattern to his wakes, generally doesnt but thats changed a bit recently sometimes once sometimes twice, so the cartons create little waste if he doesnt wake it hasnt been opened.

My biggest issue is that the tommee tippee teats get clogged and i cant work out why, whether the water was too cool and created clots or something?!

@fakebake44 What a bizarre argument. We used to “cure” headaches by drilling holes in people’s heads to let the evil out. And then we learnt something different, and that became best practice. It’s no longer recommended to do it the way you did 4 years ago because the science has moved on. Do things how you want, and ignore the advice if you wish, but at least take the time to read and understand why the advice has changed.

The best way we have found for night feeds is:

Take up a thermos flask of boiled water, a small jug of boiled water (which cools) and empty bottles.

For each bottle feed, pour in 2oz from the flask, add powder, swirl, add 2 oz from the jug.

Super simple and quick - and kills the germs too.

@lubyloo222 do you just use the same sterile bottle for the whole night or do you need a new one for each feed?

@owltrousers

We use the perfectprep with no issues.

When out and about I have two thermos flasks - one with hot water and one with cooled boiled water.

To make an 8oz feed, I put 2oz of hot water, add formula, shake, then add 6oz cooled water, shake again. Done! I got the proportions from how the perfect prep makes it and it's perfect temp immediately. Guidelines when I first had DS was to use formula once made up within 1hour, although once DC has drunk some, if it leaves some this should be thrown away and not kept for the rest of the hour (I hope that makes sense). If I've made the formula up to use within an hour, I don't reheat it before giving.
I think generally they recommend just making up as needed now though, rather than making it within the hour.

A different bottle would be needed for each feed and would need to be sterilised.

For night time we just sterilise the bottle before bed.

New bottle each feed

Water over 70 deg to kill the bacteria in the formula, nothing to do with bacteria in water as the water is safe.

If you are making up in advance then 24 hours max in fridge once rapidly cooled.

Use within 2 hours or 1 hour if baby has fed from bottle.

If you do the perfect prep manually ie put 2oz of hot water and mix in formula and the add cold water, make sure you measure out the cold because the formula will expand the volume. 4oz of formula made up correctly will be passed the 4oz mark on the bottle

@Eeeeek2 good point. It takes it up to 9oz.

OP -You can always see what the level is on the bottle once the formula is in and then just add an extra 6oz of cooled boiled water though

@owltrousers i take 3 bottles up, and any unused go back in steriliser in the morning. It will be trial and error at firdt while yougrt to know your baby. Mine wouldnt do more than 3 feeds but my eldest was up every hour so that was different. Id mame 9oz at midnight and feed her that over the next few wakes.she hated milk and never took more than 2oz in any feed.

It was the way I made up bottles for DD who is 3.5. She's fine.

I did examine the risk and decided it was minimal. Plus it was a heatwave at the time she was born so room temp was better for her. Most people on here will clutch pearls at the thought though.

It's worth remembering that the perfect prep machine also has risks.

The so called perfect prep machine adds a shot of hot water to the formula and then tops up with cooler water. It does not sterilise the bottles! The reason it is not recommended is that the ‘hot shot’ is actually insufficient to kill harmful bacteria. Far from perfect. I’m afraid there aren’t any shortcuts to doing it safely. Anyone that says they didn’t use very hot water on the formula and their baby was fine was LUCKY. If the formula happened to have been infected with something really nasty as can happen from time to time then their baby would have been seriously ill. Formula fed babies do have more tummy bugs than breastfed ones and this is partly down to poor practice with formula preparation and partly because even with really careful preparation there is always a small amount of risk.

The hotshot from the perfect prep IS hot enough. I used to test it with a thermometer in the earlier days of baby one (massively guilt ridden transition from bf to ff made me paranoid) but it cools down very quickly, which is why the pp resets itself after 2 mins and you can no longer use that water to make the feed.