Making up feeds...

[Magic Monkey]

I had another thought about this at 6.00 this morning! If you do plan to make up your bottles and put them in the fridge there are a few things that you need to do to make this safer, they should be cooled quickly, they need to be kept in the coldest part of the fridge, so not the door. If you are going out you need to make sure that you keep them really cold (same sort of temp as the fridge) until you want to use them.

 

[nori]

OK.. so if i go down the lines of making up the feed (with milk) to 3oz (Ollie has 4oz) and then top up with boiling water do i do the following:

Boil kettle
Wait for 20mins (so its cooled but not more than 30 mins)
Put water in bottle to the 3oz mark
Add 4 scoops of formula
Put straight into the fridge in the main bit not the door
When Ollie needs feeding boil the kettle and add the extra 1oz
Feed Ollie.

If i go out and about i could take the above out of the fridge and put in my bottle bag to keep cool. I could then add the boiling water from the flask thing?

God i wish the breastfeeding had worked.. far easier whipping your boob out!

Claire x

 

[Hazel]

At home I make them up and chuck them in the fridge, warm the up in a jug when needed. If we're going out I just put the water in and then put the powder in a pot and bottle in a thermos to keep at room temp then just add powder when needed. Saves trying to find somewhere to warm it up. We also do this at night feeds to save putting the kettle on and we can keep the bottle in her room so it's quicker and less likely to wake her up to much then she goes straight back to sleep.

 

[daftscotslass]

OK.. so if i go down the lines of making up the feed (with milk) to 3oz (Ollie has 4oz) and then top up with boiling water do i do the following:

Boil kettle
Wait for 20mins (so its cooled but not more than 30 mins)
Put water in bottle to the 3oz mark
Add 4 scoops of formula
Put straight into the fridge in the main bit not the door
When Ollie needs feeding boil the kettle and add the extra 1oz
Feed Ollie.

If i go out and about i could take the above out of the fridge and put in my bottle bag to keep cool. I could then add the boiling water from the flask thing?

God i wish the breastfeeding had worked.. far easier whipping your boob out!

Claire x

No if you want to make it up with the formula powder you will need to add all the water, mix it and then refrigerate it, heating it as you need it by using a bottle warmer or sitting the bottle in hot water. The reason for this is that adding the powder bulks it out so it will go from 3oz of water to just over 3oz and it will be difficult to measure the amount of hot water you need to make it up to 4oz. So if you have 4oz of water you end up with just over 4oz of milk when you've added the powder. If you add more water after it's mixed you risk the balance of powder to water being off.

If you want to do the adding hot water thing then just keep the bottles part filled with water (they don't need to be in the fridge as both the bottles and the water going in them should be sterile, unlike if you've added the powder), top it up to the amount you need with boiling water when you need it and add the powder.

Hope that makes sense

 

[lisa&alex]

yip.. what daftscotslass said again lol..

i will do this way step by step..

sterilise bottles
boil kettle
pour 3oz of boiling water into bottles
cool - then put in the fridge
when feed time take out of fridge and boil fresh kettle
add the extra oz or fresh boiling water to the bottle (make up to 4oz)
add the 4 scoops of formula
feed

another way is

sterilise bottles
boil kettle
pour 4 oz of boiling water into the bottle
cool for 30 mins
add the 4 scoops of formula
cool rapidly in cold water
put in the back of the fridge untill feed time
warm bottle in boiling water or bottle warmer at feed time

the advised way is

sterilise bottles
boil kettle
leave for 30 mins
add 4oz of water to bottles
add 4 scoops to water
cool rapidly
feed baby with fresh bottle

hope that makes sence x

if going out and about you could add boiling water (slightly cooler than boiling if you wish for it to be cooler by feed time if that makes sence?) i a flask and scoop the formula into sterilised tupawear container. this is the safest way x

edit to say you could do this way at home to i guess

 

[Morganuk]

Thanks Lisa, im doing it your way now
I havent been doing her harm the way I was doing it was I?

 

[lisa&alex]

naw dont be daft.. when you have a sterile bottle and boiling water (sterile water) there are no bacteria there to multiply iykwim, you gotta do it whatever way suits you hun.

 

[nori]

yip.. what daftscotslass said again lol..

i will do this way step by step..

sterilise bottles
boil kettle
pour 3oz of boiling water into bottles
cool - then put in the fridge
when feed time take out of fridge and boil fresh kettle
add the extra oz or fresh boiling water to the bottle (make up to 4oz)
add the 4 scoops of formula
feed

another way is

sterilise bottles
boil kettle
pour 4 oz of boiling water into the bottle
cool for 30 mins
add the 4 scoops of formula
cool rapidly in cold water
put in the back of the fridge untill feed time
warm bottle in boiling water or bottle warmer at feed time

the advised way is

sterilise bottles
boil kettle
leave for 30 mins
add 4oz of water to bottles
add 4 scoops to water
cool rapidly
feed baby with fresh bottle

hope that makes sence x

if going out and about you could add boiling water (slightly cooler than boiling if you wish for it to be cooler by feed time if that makes sence?) i a flask and scoop the formula into sterilised tupawear container. this is the safest way x

edit to say you could do this way at home to i guess

LOL.. i will get this in a minute! Your first method is pretty much the same as what i am doing apart from the fact you add more boiling water to heat it up. This is the way the HV said isnt advisable due to the whole boiling water not killing the bacteria thing (even though i know lots of people who do it this way)

So.. I will now do method number two.. make up the bottles with the formula and put in fridge. Just wondering though.. why do i need to cool them in cold water first?

For the out and about method, again im not going to be adding the formula to boiling water to kill the bacteria? I think i may just stay in! lol

Claire x

 

[daftscotslass]

Thanks Lisa... that makes more sense than the way I put it

Personally I think there's more of a risk mixing them first and then storing them in the fridge than mixing them at room temperature (as I said that's just my thought). As soon as the powder is mixed with the water it's a breeding ground for bacteria though the risk is lowered by cooling them rapidly and refrigerating. The longer you leave the milk warm the more likely it is for bacteria to grow whereas if you cool it right away it lowers the risk of this happening (but doesn't take the risk away completely).

No method is 100% when bottlefeeding but you have to weigh each method up and the way I chose has worked well for us the last 8 months as has mixing a days' worth for other people.

 

[nori]

Thanks Lisa... that makes more sense than the way I put it

Personally I think there's more of a risk mixing them first and then storing them in the fridge than mixing them at room temperature (as I said that's just my thought). As soon as the powder is mixed with the water it's a breeding ground for bacteria though the risk is lowered by cooling them rapidly and refrigerating. The longer you leave the milk warm the more likely it is for bacteria to grow whereas if you cool it right away it lowers the risk of this happening (but doesn't take the risk away completely).

No method is 100% when bottlefeeding but you have to weigh each method up and the way I chose has worked well for us the last 8 months as has mixing a days' worth for other people.

See.. thats what i thought! Oh sod it i may just stick to what i am doing..

Claire x

 

[lea m]

Ive never been told/ read about the 70C thing and have always made my kids bottles with warm but not hot water and they are all happy and healthy so Im not going to worry too much about it!
I dont personally like the thought of storing them in the fridge not to mention it would bug me having a screaming baby and waiting for the bottle to heat up haha

 

[daftscotslass]

Honestly, do what you're comfortable with. We spent a couple of agonising weeks making feeds up fresh because that's what we thought we had to do. I got to the end of my tether and called a friend who also had to switch to bottles very early on and she told me about the topping up with hot water and adding powder thing. It honestly saved my sanity in the early and Becky is certainly none the worse for it!

 

[ozzy]

not sure if this has been mentioned but in the early days i used a flask.

 

[ninjawomble]

You are DEFINATLY not supposed to add the formula to boilin water as this denatures(kills) the enzymes in the milk

I didnt know this
Been adding boiling water then cooling, then giving...... feel bad now

 

[ninjawomble]

Ok now Im stressing lol. Is it ok to do this?

Boil kettle
Pour into bottle
Cool water in bowl of cold water (rather than wait 30 minutes)
Then add formula when cooled
Give milk


Also if I pour out hot water "in advance" and it cools too much as LO hasnt woken up yet, is it to heat up milk from room temp again then give?

Failing that I could just go and but the ready to give sma cartons

 

[CH0C0H0LIC]

My 'Ex' HV told me to use boiling water and to add formula straight away I was so right telling her boss she was a numpty!

It's too late at night to now retrain the OH how to do bottles so for tonight James may have to have 'Enzyme Free' milk lol and I'll whip up a powerpoint presentation for him in the morning (seriously though not a bad idea using pictures lol).

I'm gonna do the boiling>cooled water>boiling top up>add powder>feed method and see how that goes.

If that fails he's having his first McDonalds at 5wks and 4days old

Damn those faulty boobies of mine

Sarah xxx

 

[nori]

Damn those faulty boobies of mine

Sarah xxx

and mine!!! i blame the damn c section!

 

[ninjawomble]

Damn those faulty boobies of mine

Sarah xxx

and mine!!! i blame the damn c section!

Bloody snap!
I tried and tried after the section, but its all gone tits up (literally)

 

[CH0C0H0LIC]

Mine was a combination of the c-section, Jumbo being in special care unit for 4 days and him being tongue tied...

Guess I didn't stand a flaming chance really

Sarah xxx

 

[ninjawomble]

Isla being in special care didnt help me either..think I stressed all the milk away