Hi ladies,

I'm steadily switching Naomi from breast to bottle, she is 5 months

When i fed my son with bottles i used to make them all up in a morning let the water cool add the formula and keep them all in the fridge until they were needed. Now the health visitor tells me i need to make up a feed as and when required. My son never had a tummy bug, i just wondered why the change? Does it really harbour that much more bacteria?

I think its the governments way of making it as hard as possible for you! We just make them up for the next 12 hours and haven't had a problem yet, its ridiculous, I think in Ireland they say you can make them up beforehand so surely it should be the same here?! xx

That is crazy. Here in that States we are so much more relaxed on prepping formula bottles. We just wash bottles (only sterilize them once out of the box) with normal soap or dishwasher, and we use tap water. I prepare them as i go, just because I can estimate how much LO will take (he is reflux-y, so it really just depends.) But I worked at a daycare before having LO and we made parents prepare the whole days worth of bottle and we put them in the fridge.

When I had my son (8 years ago) I would make up 2 days worth and store in the fridge. I wouldn't ever reheat them, and I always used cooled boiled water until 6 months old and boiled the bottles, nipples, etc... until then too. My son did get the stomach flu at 2 months old, but it was the flu as we all got it!! He wasn't much of a sickly baby, on antibiotics a few times though, but not from his bottles, lol.

There was research and then guidelines from the World Health Organisation saying formula milk is not sterile and must be made with water over 70+ (which means left to cool in the kettle for no more than 30 mins) to kill any bugs in the formula and the UK adopted it. Many other countries (USA etc) didn't.
So yeah, in the UK you are supposed to make bottles up one at a time, with water over 70 degrees and not store feeds at all. Storing feeds is not encouraged but if you want to then the best way to do it is to use water over 70 to make your bottles, cool them quickly (in iced water say) then put them at the back of the fridge when they're cold and use within 24 hours. Either way, formula must always be added to water over 70+.
Whether or not you choose to do this is entirely up to you. Many people feel the UK guidelines are overzealous and are just trying to make like more difficult, especially in light of the big push towards Bf'ing; others feel that they are sensible giving that bugs can get into the formula and harm babies. Is up to you!

US and Canada dont have as many bugs etc in the water as the UK. Or so i have been told.
But i still sterilized all bottles and always used cooled boiled water to make up all bottles.
You can keep formula that is already made up in the fridge for 24 hours and you can keep cooled boiled water at room temperature for 48 hours.
So i used to make up enough 'water' bottles for 2 days and just leave them on the side and then add the powder as i needed a bottle. This worked great if we were going for a day out too as we werent panicking about making a bottle from scratch or attempting to keep lots of bottles cold for a whole day.

BTW: My son has always been big and in the 97th percentile! And he has only been sick once since he was born (which is now.. with a cold) and he is almost 13 months old.

Not sure about who has the cleanest water but in the UK using hot boiled water for formula is to do with the formula powder not being sterile, not the water having bugs. It's so the hot water kills any bugs in the formula. This is why it is recommended you continue using hot, boiled water for as long as you use powdered formula but can give normal tap water to your baby to drink after 6 months.

I think its because they are trying to "encourage" as many ppl as possible to breastfeed in the uk & making formula feeding seem more difficult is a good way to put ppl of formula & convince em to breastfeed!

Having said that, they must have done some research to back it up too!

Ita with bubbles. It was identified that only something like 13% of parents made up bottles to optimum levels of safety, which can lead to increased risk of gastroenteritis etc but most importantly in very rare occasions because formula isn't sterile it can harbour bacteria which can cause rare but very serious infection.
Not necessarily at the OP but the guidelines have been changed to reflect the current information available, so that parents can make decisions based on this. There was also the problem of some parents making up bottles too early, storing too long etc. Some guidelines are in place to cover all bases, I know I take the info they give me and then look into it myself and have on several occasions did things contrary to the guidelines as a consequence.
It's nothing to do with making bottlefeeding harder but with ensuring that parents are given the right information on the healthiest way to go about feeding their babies. Obviously parents will use this info along with their own experience and their own needs, so go with what works for you but it's important imo that parents are at least given these guidelines with which to make their own mind up. If parent's of formula fed babies are given substandard information to work with, isn't this cause for concern??
The wee formula storage pots from Tommee tippee are a great idea, imo.

ETA: I recently worked with a HV who gave me some leaflets and asked me when my last LO was born. When I replied that she was now 8 she sucked in her breath and said " Oh it's ALL changed since then." I had to laugh. I know guidelines have changed and do change as new information becomes available but the way she said it you'd think babies were now born with extra bits or something

I make the twins bottles at night ready for the following day and keep them in the fridge. I've done it since day 1 and it's never done them any harm xx