Formula in the uk vs us - Page 3

summer rain · Mar 29th, 2012, 16:53 PM

The reason for the guideline is because with the two methods used by manufacturers worldwide to make liquid formula into powder, there is a small but potentially lethal risk of dangerous food poisoning bugs making their way into the finished products. This risk is found in the US as well and some babies have died in the US in the past due to such contamination. The only reason why making up with cooled boiled water isn't advised in the US is because there is a strong formula marketing lobby and it wouldn't be good for business if they mentioned such potential risks on their packaging plus they'd have to spend millions reformulating and repackaging their product to be reconstituted with hotter water. Most formulas in the UK were reformulated in this way 5 years or so ago so that any nutrients will be little affected by the hotter water temperature and they are now not designed to be mixed with room temp water xx

Duejan2012 · Mar 30th, 2012, 23:20 PM

so if that happend in the uk then why when there have been infants the havnt gotten sick or even worse some died from so called bacteria in the formula but those batches only get recalled. Why dont they tell us that this was happening so now they are putting another warning on the can to prevent this from happening? Does that make sense. I think if this was truely the case and it prevented these acasional sick babies why wouldnt they put it on. I personally wont care if it said to do it or not. Whatever it said on the can as a warning then i would follow that. Even if it ment boiling and cooling and sterilizing etc I dont think it would change people minds about useing formula therefore the business wouldnt be ruined. All i would care about is my baby being healthy no matter what it took.

andella95 · Mar 30th, 2012, 23:35 PM

I've been trying to find actual cases of this happening, so pehaps someone could point me to a verified recent source of this. I'm sure it's somewhere, but I can't find it, lol. There was the enfamil scare last year, but the problem wasn't a batch of contaminated formula.

I know that everyone wants to hate on the formula companies, but I'm finding that a lot of it is conspiracy theory instead of fact.

Do you really think that people would stop using formula and start breastfeeding if we were told to boil and sterlilize? Nope. If they were really too lazy, they'd start using concentrate or ready to feed which are already sterile and cost MORE money, so the formula company's would make more profit.

queenlavera · Mar 31st, 2012, 01:50 AM

Andella - I agree with you, the formula companies would stand to make more money because more people would buy the ready to feed or concentrate to not have to worry about bacteria in powder and they are definitely more expensive. I also have not found any actual sources showing that babies have died from bacteria in formula.

I am still confused with the boiling than cooling to kill bacteria in the formula itself, how are you always sure that the temp is 70 degrees after the 30 minute wait period and how do you quickly make a bottle if you have to do this? Also wouldn't different weather make the water temp lower or higher.

fairykate · Mar 31st, 2012, 03:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by queenlavera

Andella - I agree with you, the formula companies would stand to make more money because more people would buy the ready to feed or concentrate to not have to worry about bacteria in powder and they are definitely more expensive. I also have not found any actual sources showing that babies have died from bacteria in formula.

I am still confused with the boiling than cooling to kill bacteria in the formula itself, how are you always sure that the temp is 70 degrees after the 30 minute wait period and how do you quickly make a bottle if you have to do this? Also wouldn't different weather make the water temp lower or higher.

The weather wouldn't make a difference as you're inside and the water is in the kettle so I don't see how it would affect it?

I imagine that they must have tested a range of kettles and timed the water to see when it reached the right temp. They haven't just made it up to make our lives more difficult - it would have had proper testing over some years as there are so many rules and regulations for baby formula.

It is difficult to make a bottle 'quickly' but what I do is to keep a jug of boiled, COLD water in the fridge at all times which I top up when I use it. I then boil the kettle, get the bottle ready (put it together or whatever) and mix the right amount of powder with HALF the amount of 'just off the boil' water, mix, then add the remaining oz of the cold water from the fridge and this cools it down. Takes about 5mins. You know roughly when your baby will want another feed anyway tbh.

Duejan2012 · Mar 31st, 2012, 13:38 PM

well i remember reading in third tri about a case where a 10 week old baby died supposivly because of the formula having bactiera in it. All they did was recall that batch and did test but NEVER found anything in the formula. It was enfamil new born i believe. But just like i said in prev post that it doesnt matter what the can said i will be feeding my baby. Andella said it better about that wouldnt stop us from formula feeding our babies. And that was a perfect point about the concentrate too.

ALso i wonder how big is the scoop in uk vs usa because they said that in ukk its one scoop per one ounce or something?

edit i meant 10 day old baby lol

mommyof3co · Mar 31st, 2012, 14:11 PM

From what I understand it's not the formula that's different but the water, apparently here in the US our water is better controlled and filtered. I think I remember seeing that the UK doesn't have fluoride in their water but we do...or the other way around? I can't remember now haha. But I'm pretty sure it's how our water is treated vs theirs. When I've used formula with some of my kids I never boiled first, I did sterilize bottles probably once a week but washed with hot soapy water between that

fairykate · Mar 31st, 2012, 15:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duejan2012

well i remember reading in third tri about a case where a 10 week old baby died supposivly because of the formula having bactiera in it. All they did was recall that batch and did test but NEVER found anything in the formula. It was enfamil new born i believe. But just like i said in prev post that it doesnt matter what the can said i will be feeding my baby. Andella said it better about that wouldnt stop us from formula feeding our babies. And that was a perfect point about the concentrate too.

ALso i wonder how big is the scoop in uk vs usa because they said that in ukk its one scoop per one ounce or something?

Our scoops are 4.5g or 5g.....? Not sure what yours are over there, might say on the packet though?

queenlavera · Mar 31st, 2012, 17:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fairykate

Quote:

Originally Posted by queenlavera

Andella - I agree with you, the formula companies would stand to make more money because more people would buy the ready to feed or concentrate to not have to worry about bacteria in powder and they are definitely more expensive. I also have not found any actual sources showing that babies have died from bacteria in formula.

I am still confused with the boiling than cooling to kill bacteria in the formula itself, how are you always sure that the temp is 70 degrees after the 30 minute wait period and how do you quickly make a bottle if you have to do this? Also wouldn't different weather make the water temp lower or higher.

The weather wouldn't make a difference as you're inside and the water is in the kettle so I don't see how it would affect it?

I imagine that they must have tested a range of kettles and timed the water to see when it reached the right temp. They haven't just made it up to make our lives more difficult - it would have had proper testing over some years as there are so many rules and regulations for baby formula.

It is difficult to make a bottle 'quickly' but what I do is to keep a jug of boiled, COLD water in the fridge at all times which I top up when I use it. I then boil the kettle, get the bottle ready (put it together or whatever) and mix the right amount of powder with HALF the amount of 'just off the boil' water, mix, then add the remaining oz of the cold water from the fridge and this cools it down. Takes about 5mins. You know roughly when your baby will want another feed anyway tbh.

I believe it is a water issue, not a formula one that is my point. Also I don't know about in your home but mine is colder in the winter and hotter in the summer, so the water would cool to a different temp during those times. This is what I am talking about.
It is interesting to see how you have to prepare yours, I just use filtered water.

queenlavera · Mar 31st, 2012, 17:18 PM

From what I have been able to find, it seems the bacteria issue (which has not been proven to be because of formula) is a problem for babies 10 days old and younger. So I am wondering would those steps still be necessary for an older baby?

Mar 29th, 2012, 16:53 PM	#21
summer rain Mum (Mom) BnB Elite Join Date: May 2010 Location: South East England Posts: 16,532	The reason for the guideline is because with the two methods used by manufacturers worldwide to make liquid formula into powder, there is a small but potentially lethal risk of dangerous food poisoning bugs making their way into the finished products. This risk is found in the US as well and some babies have died in the US in the past due to such contamination. The only reason why making up with cooled boiled water isn't advised in the US is because there is a strong formula marketing lobby and it wouldn't be good for business if they mentioned such potential risks on their packaging plus they'd have to spend millions reformulating and repackaging their product to be reconstituted with hotter water. Most formulas in the UK were reformulated in this way 5 years or so ago so that any nutrients will be little affected by the hotter water temperature and they are now not designed to be mixed with room temp water xx

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Mar 30th, 2012, 23:20 PM	#22
Duejan2012 Mum (Mom) BnB Addict Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: colorado usa Posts: 3,251	so if that happend in the uk then why when there have been infants the havnt gotten sick or even worse some died from so called bacteria in the formula but those batches only get recalled. Why dont they tell us that this was happening so now they are putting another warning on the can to prevent this from happening? Does that make sense. I think if this was truely the case and it prevented these acasional sick babies why wouldnt they put it on. I personally wont care if it said to do it or not. Whatever it said on the can as a warning then i would follow that. Even if it ment boiling and cooling and sterilizing etc I dont think it would change people minds about useing formula therefore the business wouldnt be ruined. All i would care about is my baby being healthy no matter what it took.

Status: Offline

Mar 30th, 2012, 23:35 PM	#23
andella95 Mum (Mom) Chat Happy BnB Member Join Date: Dec 2009 Posts: 2,023	I've been trying to find actual cases of this happening, so pehaps someone could point me to a verified recent source of this. I'm sure it's somewhere, but I can't find it, lol. There was the enfamil scare last year, but the problem wasn't a batch of contaminated formula. I know that everyone wants to hate on the formula companies, but I'm finding that a lot of it is conspiracy theory instead of fact. Do you really think that people would stop using formula and start breastfeeding if we were told to boil and sterlilize? Nope. If they were really too lazy, they'd start using concentrate or ready to feed which are already sterile and cost MORE money, so the formula company's would make more profit.

Status: Offline

Mar 31st, 2012, 01:50 AM	#24
queenlavera Mum (Mom) Chat Happy BnB Member Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: PA, USA Posts: 1,144	Andella - I agree with you, the formula companies would stand to make more money because more people would buy the ready to feed or concentrate to not have to worry about bacteria in powder and they are definitely more expensive. I also have not found any actual sources showing that babies have died from bacteria in formula. I am still confused with the boiling than cooling to kill bacteria in the formula itself, how are you always sure that the temp is 70 degrees after the 30 minute wait period and how do you quickly make a bottle if you have to do this? Also wouldn't different weather make the water temp lower or higher.

Status: Offline

Mar 31st, 2012, 13:38 PM	#26
Duejan2012 Mum (Mom) BnB Addict Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: colorado usa Posts: 3,251	well i remember reading in third tri about a case where a 10 week old baby died supposivly because of the formula having bactiera in it. All they did was recall that batch and did test but NEVER found anything in the formula. It was enfamil new born i believe. But just like i said in prev post that it doesnt matter what the can said i will be feeding my baby. Andella said it better about that wouldnt stop us from formula feeding our babies. And that was a perfect point about the concentrate too. ALso i wonder how big is the scoop in uk vs usa because they said that in ukk its one scoop per one ounce or something? edit i meant 10 day old baby lol

Status: Offline

Mar 31st, 2012, 14:11 PM	#27
mommyof3co Mum (Mom) BnB Elite Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Waxahachie, TX Posts: 10,653	From what I understand it's not the formula that's different but the water, apparently here in the US our water is better controlled and filtered. I think I remember seeing that the UK doesn't have fluoride in their water but we do...or the other way around? I can't remember now haha. But I'm pretty sure it's how our water is treated vs theirs. When I've used formula with some of my kids I never boiled first, I did sterilize bottles probably once a week but washed with hot soapy water between that

Status: Offline

Mar 31st, 2012, 17:18 PM	#30
queenlavera Mum (Mom) Chat Happy BnB Member Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: PA, USA Posts: 1,144	From what I have been able to find, it seems the bacteria issue (which has not been proven to be because of formula) is a problem for babies 10 days old and younger. So I am wondering would those steps still be necessary for an older baby?

Status: Offline

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