Night time feeding hacks/time saving tips anyone?

[ColicCrazy]

Hi all, we have ditched the Perfect Prep machine having discovered it was causing our 4wo DS cramps, irritability and gas etc.

So we have gone back to the kettle method, does anyone have any tips about how to save time for those late night feeds when baby is crying for a bottle?

I was thinking about myself or my OH just before bed, fill 4 bottles with formula, then boiling water, then just either leaving them on the side, or putting them in the fridge?
But would I then be able to microwave them for 30 seconds or so to heat up during the night?

Would appreciate any ideas / hacks / time saving tips.
We have bought the formula powder pots too, we have a flask we could use but that may still be too hot to drink if using that?

Thank you in advance!

What makes you think it's the perfect preps fault?

Don't microwave the bottles, it's quite dangerous. Get one of the bottle warmers that nurseries use, if you must.

We made up bottles in the evening, stuck them in the fridge and plonked them in a jug of just boiled water to warm. Took about two minutes. Mind you DS would happily drink them straight out of the fridge at that age, wee weirdo.

How can you definitely attribute your dc's digestive issues to the PP?

This is me being incredibly lazy, but I always used the little pre made bottles at night time - so jus took empty bottles and a few sealed bottles of the pre made stuff up and put it on my bedside table so it’s just a case of tipping it into the bottle when you need it. Will your DS have the pre-made? Our health visitor also told me that it can help with any gas/constipation issues as the iron in it is more evenly distributed

I have 3. I used to make up their bottles and leave them til I needed them.

Never ever reheated them. My kids are all fine.

Pour boiled water into a bottle less 2oz before bed. Put in the fridge.

When baby wants a bottle mix formula with 2oz fresh boiling water and then add the cool water from the fridge. This is what I do when I am at my parents house.

It depends on when they are waking. I used to make one up before I went to bed and wrapped it in a muslin or blanket for the first night feed. Then the next night feeds we had a flask of boiling water and a bottle of cooled boiling water so we could make one fresh. We used the boiling water to mix with the formula then topped up with cool boiled water. You have to be organised and wash and sterilise all the bottles before your bedtime and then take the steriliser without the water upstairs so you have all the bottles sterile and ready to go. It’s hard going from being asleep to making a bottle up in the dark with a baby crying but it is doable. You could also make some bottles up before bed put them in the fridge and then microwave them?

@Peanut55 I second this.

Could you take them up to bed in a thermal insulated bag?

Take boiling water up in a flask, make up the bottle, pop it in a mug of cold water to get to right temp. A good flask should keep the water over 70 degrees for a good few hours.

We did the flask thing too

Re Perfect Prep - we tried different formula, colief, the only constant was the perfect prep, having searched online lots of people have problems with it, some don't, but we decided to try the old fashioned way and it has made a marked improvement.

So can you put a made up formula thats just been poured out a hot kettle straight into the fridge? No need to cool first? Not like leftover food where you have to let it cool before putting in fridge etc?

@LadySlipper11 I like that idea, but do you mean put boiling water in the flask, keep the bottle in the fridge, then when its time for feed simply pour some of the hot water into a mug and use it to warm the bottle ? Would that work or is that a reverse of what you said?

Other way - boil the kettle before you go to bed, fill the flask. Take it to your room, and however many bottles you need for the night. When baby wakes, fill 6oz or whatever from flask, mix in formula, put made up bottle in a cup of cold water to cool (i just used water from bathroom tap but you could keep some water cool in the fridge for this). One of us would do bottle, the other would get LO and change nappy (if needed doing). Its faffy but it worked for us. The other option is boil and cool some water in a sterile bottle, and take that up too. You can sort of recreate the machine by doing 2oz "hot shot" water from the flask or straight from kettle, add formula, then add as much boiled cooled water as you need to make up the feed (Hence it being in a sterile bottle, you can see the markings for amounts). Sometimes it's still a wee bit warm but again a mug of cold water cools it pretty quickly.

That was so rambly! Hope it makes sense and is helpful!

So can you put a made up formula thats just been poured out a hot kettle straight into the fridge? No need to cool first? Not like leftover food where you have to let it cool before putting in fridge etc?

Nothing hot should ever go in the fridge - it can make the fridge temperature drop, which isn’t good for any of the food in there.

I think it depends on the age of your child - with a very young baby I wouldn’t cut any corners. When DC was 6months + I started pouring in hot first to sterilise the powder and the top up with cold to get it to the right temperature without waiting around. Flasks are a good idea for some but then I could never be bothered with that personally - I’m still getting up and pouring and faffing around with powder and cooling the bottle, I might as well get up and go down to the kitchen. As a pp said if you really want quick and easy get the ready made.

Hi Hun we had the same problem with the perfect prep machine and found it unsettled our little boy...the health vistors also didn't like it...we did the flask method where we filled it up of boiling water before bed and took it up with us...we would make the bottles up when required with the powder and have to cool them down standing in cold water...luckily for us our little boy never screamed for a bottle so it was ok...other than that I would use the pre made big bottles...the health visitors also didn't like making them up and putting them in the fridge due to the fridge door being opened and Bactria xx

We had two short cuts which we felt were okay when you consider the risks and what it is you are trying to avoid. You want to sterilise the powder using hot enough water, and you want to avoid having milk at a lukewarm temperature for too long as it's good conditions for bacteria.

The first was to make up a couple in advance, cool them fast as per the instructions (used to leave them in a clean jug with water running over them), then place in the coldest bit of the fridge. We would then (completely against advice) reheat in the microwave. Then shook very vigorously to prevent the hot spots.

The other was to make up a bottle using half the volume of boiling water, shake well, then top up with cold. When tots were tiny I had a dedicated tub in the fridge that was cleaned, sterilised and refilled each time. When they were old enough to eat dirt I just topped up using the tap.

Neither way is at all recommended, but I felt I understood the risks. Experience also taught me that doing it "properly" can result in mild scalds as you can give a bottle before it's properly cooled due to being screamed at by a hungry child!

I generally used to fill a flask full with hot water. At the same time, poured hot water into the bottles about 2/3oz less then needed. (so would fill it up until 4oz when making 7oz bottle). When my DS woke up, I would just fill it up to the 7oz from the flask and pour the powder in after that!

With dC 1 i made up bottles last thing at night, cooled them down in a bowl of cold water befire storing in the fridge, then reheating in a bittle warmer while i chanhed nappy.

With DC2, i just make fresh each time, with 50% boiling water, add powder then top up with 50% cold (either cooled boiled, or tap). Eg. For a 6oz bottle: 3oz boiling, add 6 scoops and shake then add 3oz cold. Perfect temp and actually quicker than the make-in-advance-and-heat-u p method ime .