Making bottles up in advance question

[Strawbs]

Hi all, me again.. I feel like I should be putting a pound in a jar for you all every time I ask a question. Haha

Guidelines for making bottles says make, use and discard within two hours.. I do this where I can but not practical in the night with a screaming baby so before OH comes to bed (I sleep from 9-2 and that's her shift with the baby) she makes up the bottles for my next feed so it could be in the fridge for 3-4 hours, I then warm and serve,, I've heard people pre doing the water only for a days worth of bottles then adding powder and heating - sounds much easier but is it safe to do so? I assume as only water no bacteria can form but wanted to check before I started doing it this way..

If anyone ever fancies a coffee I'm happy to shout you one for all the help you guys give me..

Zx

[veryseriousgirl]

Hi Strawbs, we did pre-made up bottles and I think the key thing is that the water should be really hot when coming in to contact with the milk powder as that's where the nasty bugs can live. I used to do 24 hours worth of bottles at a time with hot water, then cooled rapidly by standing bottles in a bowl of ice-water then into the fridge once room temp.

Hope this helps!

[Monkey]

You should not re-heat bottles. This will help bacteria breed.

What you can do though is boil some water, pour just enough in the bottle to mix the powder, add cooled boiled water and finish cooling the bottle in cold water if need be. This speeds up the process considerably.

For the night, ready-made cartons are really much easier.

[Strawbs]

I reheat it in a bottle warmer surely that is ok ? I use it correctly.. He is in sma stay down for reflux and I can't fund them in ready made, I'll keep looking but for now I have to make bottles x

[Monkey]

Definitely not if the baby's already fed from it. If it's a new bottle I think it's fine. I know my husband was not comfortable with it and that's why we introduced the method I described in my previous post, which I think takes only a little bit longer than reheating. We are probably over cautious.

[Fuschia]

It's important to use hot water because the powder itself is not sterile and can harbour dangerous bugs

The food safety advice if a bottle cannot be made fresh with hot water is to use hot water stored in a flask, next choice is to make feeds up in advance, cool rapidly the store in the fridge for the shortest time possible

Making up a feed with cooled boiled water isn't included in the safe options

Things have come a circle really, my mum used to premake the feeds with hot water then keep in the fridge

Don't quite know where idea appeared that using cooled boiled water turns the feed sterile somehow

The cartons are sterile, is the safest option - but pricey

[Strawbs]

Monkey I would never reheat a used bottle! Only fresh out of the fridge..

[Monkey]

You should never make a bottle with cooled boiled water. You can use enough boiling water to dilute the powder (killing bacteria) and top up with cooled boiled water.

[Belle]

hmm afraid we do use the cool boiled water...with my first son have made milk up in advance and stored in fridge (was ready made), might start doing that with the baby now he's getting bigger. It is annoying if you're on a formula that doesn't come ready made, we are and I hate it!

Re using a flask etc - same issue of having to cool down bottles to make drinkable - I have a baby who def won't wait - is hard enough quickly adding the powder to bottle and shaking tbh, wouldn't manage much longer without the whole street being woken up! I acknowledge the risks but think esp for night feeds the official advice is not that realistic.

[fufton]

I tried lots of different methods for this as well. The best I found was to make up days worth of bottles with boiled water but fill slightly less than the needed amount and store them in the fridge. Then when you need a bottle, boil water and top up the bottle so you get the right amount of water in (to avoid constapation), then add the powder. The powder then mixes well with the boiled water and the bottle soon cools and is at a good drinking temperature as it mixes with the cold water.

[Belle]

that's an interesting idea Monkey - might try it.

[Bonfire2010]

We pre-made 12 hours worth of feeds (so about 3-4 bottles) using boiled water that had been cooled for 25-30 mins. These were then stored in the back of the fridge and reheated using a bottle warmer. We never reheated feeds twice and always discarded any feeds that were over 12 hours old. I went by the Food Standards Agency guidelines here ('When it is not practical to make up feeds just before feeding'.

[Fuschia]

Horrible to catch news from across the Atlantic, Enfamil formula gas been withdrawn from sale by many retailers after a baby died from cronobacter Sakazakii.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9RQFPVO2.htm

I believe in the us, consumers are less aware that infant formula powder isn't sterile. My heart goes out to this family. :-(

[Strawbs]

Thanks all.. I think I'll keep doing what I'm doing and make them up as I go up until the middle of the night wh I will keep one or two in the fridge and heat in the bottle warmer..

Thanks! Merry Xmas x

[EDmummy]

If its only for one or two night time feeds, how about using the pre=prepared variety in the carton. We trained Baby No. 2 to be less fussy than No. 1 and were able to give him these at room temperature.

[emza78]

Hi,

We've used formula for the last year with our little one and always done it the same way

- Boil the kettle and wait 20-30 mins

- Pour water into bottles, add formula, shake then place in a sink full of cold water to chill for 10 minutes

- Place into the back of fridge

- When needed remove 1, if baby prefers hot (ours did for quite a few months) place bottle in tub full of boiling water

As this link explains, the water needs to be above 70 degrees to stop bacteria breeding, if you look under the "transporting a feed" section though it also describes the same procedure above http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/documents/digitalasset/dh_124526.pdf.

Hope that helps, I remember going to great trouble trying to figure out which advice to take at the time as everyone says different things but this way has always worked for us.

Merry xmas!

[mum2besoon]

Hello,

Monkey did you ever boil water and mix some with formula to kill bacteria, then stick the bottle in the fridge. when needed, take bottle out of the fridge and put further fresh boiled water to Make up to correct dosage plus bring the formula at good temperature for baby to drink?

Has anyone else done this?

Really Scared of infection and at the moment and just making feed as I go along but I always have to be one step ahead unless I want a screaming baby :(

Bring on the New Year now!

Thanks for any comments on my post...

[Monkey]

No i have not. The whole point of the technique I described above is to make a bottle quickly for immediate consumption and avoid reheating.

[helena handbasket]

Maybe, but..........

I did a lot of what people have described, mostly due to exhaustion/brain numbness. When I realized much later that I had made some mistakes with the way I prepared formula I looked it up on the Health Canada website and discovered that there had not ever been a single case of this recorded. Ever.

I'm not saying that it isn't something to avoid. Obviously you want to keep it safe. The only reason I point this out is because we know that there are plenty of mums out there feeling bad about the formula and worse about accidently getting it wrong and making their baby sick. It is absolutely important to educate yourself about it and do everything to make it as safe as possible, but there is no point in freaking people out.

New mums are plenty freaked as it is!

Edited to add: In no way am I saying this infant's death isn't an absolute tragedy. I think that goes without saying but ........

Fuschia Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Horrible to catch news from across the Atlantic,

> Enfamil formula gas been withdrawn from sale by

> many retailers after a baby died from cronobacter

> Sakazakii.

>

> http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9RQF

> PVO2.htm

>

> I believe in the us, consumers are less aware that

> infant formula powder isn't sterile. My heart goes

> out to this family. :-(

[minder]

Hmm, would agree with Belle and use the cooled boiled water method! That's what I did with my three strapping teenagers and they've never had a serious days illness in their lives!

Strawbs that's what I did with cooled boiled water, fill a few bottles, either make up there and then with formula or put some in fridge. Get out of fridge (within 24 hrs) put formula in and reheat in a saucepan with boiling water added etc.

Monkey I've never heard about boiling water hitting the formula and killing off bacteria.

[Fuschia]

What is it there has never been a case of, Helena?

Sadly, contaminated milk has certainly been

Found to be the cause of death of several

Cases I remember - America and belgium

http://www.medicalonlinemedia.com/2011/03/dangers-of-enterobacter-sakazakii-in-powdered-milk-formula/

The good news is that following the advice on safe milk

Preparation (or using milk in cartOns) should eliminate the risk

[Fuschia]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-205215/Meningitis-bug-baby-food-firms.html

Though that news article shortly after the death in

Belgium refers also to the Netherlands and Canada

It is a tiny risk, but because do

Many of these bacterial

Infections In

Babies are fatal, it's a risk that should be avoided by following the guidelines for safe handling of formula powder

[helena handbasket]

I'm no expert, Fuschia. But I think I'm going to believe Health Canada before the Daily Mail. And the medicalonline piece is incredibly vague....... are those numbers SINCE 1958? Ever in the history of formula, in every country combined? It reads as bad science. I actually never realized formula was as safe as those numbers suggest, compared to pretty much anything else that can go wrong.

Anyway it sometimes feels like your disapproval of formula crosses the line from informative to bullying, that's all. And I do believe you are trying to be helpful. I know you mean well. Proper handling of formula is critical, obviously.

It just feels that obscure articles about dead formula babies is a bit.......... too much.

[candj]

I get so confused as to why formula preparation directions on the box will state use boiled water (boiled to rid the bacteria in the water, presumably) that has cooled for 20-30min - time varies but assume this is the temp that can be given to babies without scalding them. This to me suggests that using boiled water is not to sterilise the formula. I have no idea though and have always used previously boiled water on formula that is not necessarily at boiling point when hitting the powder. I'm not trying to cause controversy but am genuinely confused.

I'm sure I've prepared formula incorrectly as well!

[Monkey]

You need to use water at 70 degrees Celsius to kill in the bacteria in the powder. Water boils at 100 degrees hence the 30mn cooling time recommended. Mixing with boiling water would kill off the nutrients in the feed.