Night feeds/Making up bottles in advance?

[Baby_C]

Hi all,

Just wondering what everyone does with the night feeds? Do you make a fresh bottle each time or make them in advance?

Last night I poured two bottles with boiling water and took them to bed along with two containers with the formula, this worked well as I just added the formula and was good to go. My only concerns are that the second bottle was not very warm by the time she wanted it, is this okay? Also, I'm having to dismantle the bottle in the bedroom to add the formula, is this ok as the bottle will no longer be sterile?

Does anyone just make the formula up in advance? That would be so much easier but health visitor says no.

 

[Toni.C]

We asked the midwife If we could make them up in advance and got slaughtered for it! My mum said she used to make them up and put them in the fridge. I don't see any harm in doing what you're doing, as long as the bottle has been sterilised I guess and the water has been boiled. Alternatively you could boil the water and keep it, and the sterilised bottle by your bed.

We have brought a few of the 200ml bottles of aptamil so we can just get a bottle out the steriliser, pour the milk in and feed baby. We usually take these with us if we are out for the day, but they are handy at 3am when you have a screaming hungry baby and it saves boiling the kettle and spending 15mins cooling it down again. Can work out a little pricey but it is a lifesaver and open bottles last for 48 hours in the fridge if you don't need it all for that feed.

 

[Dotty_woman]

I sterilised the bottles and put boiling water in so if it was going to be used for a 7oz feed I'd put 4oz of water in and then put the sealed bottle in the fridge. When you need the feed, top the cooled water up to 7oz and then put the formula powder in. That always worked fine for us. xxx

 

[littlemonkey]

I made mine up in advance because it was easier. LO was fine.

Guidelines are you shouldn't because it increases the risk of bacteria, baby getting sick etc. Obviously if you do it and baby is ill, it might be a good idea to just make fresh every time.

However, I read a US website which said formula can be made up and stored in the fridge for 24 hours.

Also my son was on reflux milk which actually said on the instructions on the tin to make it up in advance and chill it to thicken it.

 

[Mummybexee]

What reflux milk was that!! Aptimal reflux is 7 min stand time!

I'd take 2 bottles of cool boiled water upstairs each 4oz in - I'd take a 3rd bottle and a hot flask of water

Add 2 Oz of hot water to empty bottle with milk. Shake. Add 4 Oz from one of
Bottles and shake. 1 hot 6oz bottle

I'd use the empty bottle from the 4oz I'd used to take the first bottle, to make the second

Easy

For a 4oz I'd do 1oz hot 3 cold - 5oz I'd do 1.5 hot and 3.5 cold and so on

 

[Iwant3]

I put the right amount of powder in a powder pot - then take up bottles with some cold water in 4oz in my case then I take a flask up with boiling water - I then put 2 oz of boiling water in and add the powder = perfect temp ready to feed bottle! Have done this from birth and she's now 11 months never had a problem with it!

In the early days I used cooled boiled water and sterilised the bottles, but now do not sterilise and use tap water

 

[Mummybexee]

Just remember when you add powder to 2oz of water the volume goes up from 2oz to 2.5 - same thing happens when you get in a bath - the water rises. So unless you pre measure 4oz your likely to only top up with 3.5oz.

Depends how anal you wanna be with measurements

 

[Staceylou27]

We boil the kettle and let it cool to drinking temperature before putting it ina flask. We take this and sterilised bottles up to bed with us. We have a tub of formula upstairs and just make the bottles up as we need them.

We have never had any problems and my lo is not left waiting for a bottle to cool

 

[Ella1979]

We always made formula up according to the guidelines on the tins. It was a nightmare during the night, but I couldn't risk my baby getting sick. She was so tiny, any illness would have been awful at such a young age, particularly if it was avoidable. Then when my robust little son came along, we still made it up fresh each time but we used the perfect prep machine - absolutely brilliant!

 

[littlemonkey]

What reflux milk was that!! Aptimal reflux is 7 min stand time!

I'd take 2 bottles of cool boiled water upstairs each 4oz in - I'd take a 3rd bottle and a hot flask of water

Add 2 Oz of hot water to empty bottle with milk. Shake. Add 4 Oz from one of
Bottles and shake. 1 hot 6oz bottle

I'd use the empty bottle from the 4oz I'd used to take the first bottle, to make the second

Easy

For a 4oz I'd do 1oz hot 3 cold - 5oz I'd do 1.5 hot and 3.5 cold and so on

SMA stay down

Instructions were boil kettle leave to stand 30 mins as per the usual formula guidelines.

Then fill bottle and chill for a minimum of 30mins prior to feeding. So making fresh would mean making up an hour before every feed minimum!

One of the main ingredients was gelatine, which was obviously the thickening agent and why it needed to be chilled.

 

[Baby_C]

Thanks for your replies.

We've just seen that the perfect prep is only £66 on Amazon, we had a discount as we're signed up to their baby club so got it for £51, couldn't resist!

I may even take it up to the bedroom at night!

 

[Mummybexee]

No way aptimil is 7 mins. I just made oscars on the prep like any other milk

 

[Pumpkin9]

I used to make up one night time feed as normal and then cool and leave in the fridge. Only ever did it for a night feed.
Check out w.h.o guidelines as they give advice on this.

This might be me being anally retentive about this but why would you put formula into water that potentially isn't 70c (and therefore won't kill bacteria). I'm pretty sure The guidelines say leave kettle to stand for a maximum of 30 mins. Formula should always be put into the hot part of the water and then you can top up with cooled boiled water.

I know it's probably a small risk but that wasn't one I was prepared to take. Might sound hypocritical bearing in mind I did make up and store but there we go

 

[Babygiz]

I used To fill a flask and take it up to bed with us, and take the powder in the little tubs so I could just make it as and when

 

[T84]

You'll never look back from perfect prep. it can't be easier. I used to have the pots of powder counted and sitting ready to pour in when making the bottles too x

 

[Toni.C]

Okay so like you BabyC I'm finding night feeds a pain and having read this, we invested in a perfect prep machine and I can't wait to use it tonight!

 

[vicky78]

Bet you found it useful! We're taking ours to lanzarote tomorrow!

 

[Baby_C]

The perfect prep machine is amazing! Last night was so easy, I even took it up to the bedroom, pure laziness haha!

 

[kumber]

We would make up a batch of feeds needed within the next 24 hours and stored them all in the back of the fridge. It is perfectly safe as long as the water doesn't fall below 70 degrees and is stored immediately in the back of the fridge. This does not, as some people believe, cause rapid spoilage in food, it just means you use slightly more electricity while the fridge cools rapidly to cool the bottles. The WHO has more in depth guidelines if you're interested and wouldn't recommend it if it wasn't safe!