Formula feeding questions

[mammytobe2021]

I wasn't sure where to put this so thought I'd put it here as I'm currently pregnant.

I plan to formula feed baby when they arrive (due January so I still have a long way to go but I'm finding myself feeling absolutely clueless and it's terrifying me even though we TTC for so long) and I'm wondering what people do about night feeds.

I know you're supposed to boil the kettle and allow it to cool for half an hour ish before you make up the bottle then cool it under the tap before feeding but how the bloody hell do you do this in the night? You can't hang around with a crying baby in the middle of the night waiting for the kettle to cool down and everywhere seems to advise you don't make up extra bottles in advance so what do you do?! I feel like an absolute moron for even asking this and I'm panicking myself that I'm going to be a crap mum for not knowing basic stuff but there's no answers for this online anywhere.

I know a lot of people use perfect prep machines but from what I've read they're not actually that safe because the water doesn't get hot enough to sufficiently kill all the bacteria in the formula and I don't really want to spend £70 on something if it isn't going to do the job properly/safely.

I'm getting so anxious, how can we have TTC for so long only to feel so unprepared now I'm actually pregnant!

Question about using the ready made formula at night...do you just pour it into a sterilised bottle and then feed baby? Or do you need to warm it up? Also once the bottle is open can you use it again in another clean sterilised bottle later the same night or in the morning or does it not keep?

I say this as someone who fully BF (do consider that - easy, benefits for you and baby) but people misunderstand the requirements for sterilising. Very important to make sure that bottles are sterilised after use but they don't need to be sterile before use. My understanding is that the risk of bacteria in formula powder is very low, and mitigated by the initial hot shot of the perfect prep machine. The real risk of bacteria in formula milk is in used bottles so make sure these are cleaned as soon as possible and sterilised effectively.

We also used pre-prepared bottles for night feeds, out and about and on holiday. We didn’t heat them up after opening and pouring in a bottle - baby preferred them at room temperature. Obviously if a half-drunk ready-made formula container had been in the fridge we did warm that enough to make it room temperature again.

With certain formula brands you can get different sized containers, minimises the need to store half open ones in the fridge. However you can definitely store open ones for an amount of time. Says on the bottle... maybe 4 hours refrigerated or something? Sorry can’t remember but will be on manufacturers’ my websites.

Didn’t get the Perfect Prep machine because our midwife warned that it’s a very precise temperature and the baby may get used to that precise one and then refuse cooler liquids like room temperature milk if you’re out and can’t heat it or water. I was aware of the safety concerns but didn’t research because the fussy baby thing had already put me off.

@Stargazer87 you pour ready made first formula milk into a sterilised feeding bottle. Unused formula milk that hasn’t been poured into a feeding bottle needs storing in the fridge, you can however buy ready made formula with teats, and there’s various sizes of pre made formula that come in bottles and cartons.

Thermos of hot water and cool down in jug of cold water. Honestly not that much of a faf. Always have it filled during the day too so don't have to predict when baby wants a bottle. Lasts up to 10 hours.

We’ve got a perfect prep and love it. Probably our most used piece of baby equipment. When we’re out and about we use the 1/3 hot water from a flask and top up with 2/3 pre-measured cold water.

We have also used the ready made formula. There is no safety requirement to warm it but your baby may think otherwise. Mine would drink it cold before we got the perfect prep but then got so used to her milk always being the same temperature she would refuse it cold. It then became easier to make it from a flask when out than try to warm it up.

@stargazer87 just tip it in and feed it at room temp if baby is OK with that. Left over stuff must go in the fridge but small bottles are fine if put straight in the fridge for 24 hours (I think). To be honest I well and truly cheated with feeds while baby was tiny and fed the newborn packs that come with the teat, expensive but a life saver for me because I was terrified of getting the bottles wrong. Took me about 10 days to get the courage to use a bottle 😂

I always made up batches of 5 bottles at a time and kept them in the fridge and gave them at room temperature. Never any drama with heating up bottles .

Perfect prep is the best option to be honest. Anything else is a faff. Used mine for a year with ds, he's absolutely fine.

@WheresMyMilk you take the back panel of the machine off

Like a pp a do what the perfect prep does with a kettle. A hot shot about half way up bottle, shake and then fill the rest with cold water. I would recommend the ready made starter packs with teats for taking to hospital and maybe the first few days as they are easy. My babies have always been happy with room temperature ready made.
I actually make the night bottle boiling hot at about 12 and use it at 2.30 and it's is just the right temp. I know they isn't recommended now but we have done it for three and never had a problem.
I think if I was just about to have my first I would invest in the perfect prep tbh

Why not have a go at breastfeeding first then decide what to do? You could have a few ready made formulas in case you feel like using them. However breastfeeding is soooooo much easier. In the night when you feel like you've only blinked rather than slept the last two hours since the last feed, you can literally plop down on the sofa, lift your shirt and Walla! Baby fed, while you can relax, no clean-up, straight back to sleep after. Breastfeeding is a gift let me tell you! I can't wait to breastfeed number 2 next year if all goes well. Either way, good luck with night feeds. It's like mental boot camp but you get used to it! Oh and by 6 weeks your boobs are milk machines so you may save yourself quite a few quid in the process! :-)

If using the ready made formula which is already in pre-made bottles does it not cause teat confusion with the bottles you use during the day? I would have thought it's better to pour into your regular bottles? FTM so just an assumption!

My midwife told me you don’t actually have to wait for the kettle to cool down - I’ve always just made the bottle up straight away then cooled in a bowl of cold water 🤷‍♀️

I think 30 minutes is just the maximum time you can wait before making up a bottle otherwise the water wouldn’t be hot enough to kill any nasties in the formula powder.

There is some research that shows that some of the components of the formula are broken down in boiling water, which is why the advice is to wait until it cools long enough to not damage the nutritional content, but not too long that it doesn't kill bacteria. Not surprising the midwife gave incorrect info though, if it's formula feeding they don't seem to want to know.

I just made up my bottles for 24 hours and put them in the fridge. When baby needed a bottle I just put it in a jug of boiling water for a few minutes, and bingo ! the bottle was ready. You don't have to make them up one at a time - keep it simple and easy for yourself.

I never waited for the kettle to cool much. I just boiled it and got on with things as soon as the steriliser was finished (steam).

I would then make up enough feeds for the next 24 hours (8 bottles, usually), cooled them and stored them in the fridge. I did this for all three of my DDs with no problems at all.

Sometimes I would use the odd carton of ready made for convenience.

@Staplemaple actually this particular midwife formula fed her own babies and was very helpful. DS is 6 months now, has met all of his milestones early (crawling at 5 and a half months) And has followed his percentile curve perfectly so don’t think he has been lacking in nutrients.

Don’t stress though OP! I was the same when DS first arrived and constantly worried about doing the “right” thing but you soon find your ways when you get into a routine.

Perfect prep.

The people who try to debunk them as unsafe are bizzare. They are only unsafe if used by idiots who can’t follow i attractions on when to add powder or how to clean them and change the filters.

I had a row with a midwife over one when Dd was a baby. She told me to bin it immediately or Dd would get sick.

Her parting shot was “well if you want to put an easy life over your babies health there is nothing I can do to stop you”

She seemed to be full of rage that my body wouldn’t produce breast milk though for some reason. I was fine with it.

Part of the problem is that perfect preps make bottle feeding a breeze. People don’t like that. If you can’t or gasp, don’t want to breastfeed then it shouldn’t be easy to do formula feed. That’s what I’ve always felt from HCP over three pregnancies and two failed attempts as BF.

*instructions

@Stargazer87 they have those funny shaped teats (forget the correct name for them!). Neither of my babies could get the hang of them in hospital for BF top ups, we were kept in both times due to no weight gain. As soon as we were home and on ‘normal’ shaped teats there was no problem with feeding and they were guzzling away and gaining at the speed of light.

I’m 34 weeks and have just bought a few packs of ready made with teats for hospital - I couldn’t find any that weren’t that shape (orthodontic??). I’m not even attempting BF this time. Wondering if this one will be like her siblings and hate those teats!

@SquigglyOne she still was incorrect in her advice, and meeting milestones is nothing to do with feeding, it's so bizarre people correlate the two.

Only ever used pre made formula and never warmed up. Just poured straight into sterilised bottle and DS drank at room temp.

Would do the same again

Perfect prep all the way! You should never use boiling water anyway when making bottles, you need to boil the kettle and let it cool for up to 30 mins then you mix it into the formula.
I don't know one person that takes the temperature of the water in the kettle (all kettles are different, putting different amounts of water in etc) prior to making the milk.

The whole dirty pipes thing was because people were using the likes of Britta filter (or cheap alternative filters) instead of the Tommie tippee ones!
My sister works for Tommie Tippee and the only reason other companies haven't done anything similar is that it's due to copyright!
My one year old hasn't had an upset stomach.
Health visitors and midwives can't recommend products as it's seen as though their favouring brands. Like they cannot tell you what brand of milk to use.

DD2 was born after I’d had a double mastectomy so no option other than FF. Used perfect prep from birth, cleaned as directed when it tells you to and no trouble. She’s 3.