a few questions to do with formula feeding, any advice appreciated :)

[staycutee]

firstly, is it worth buying a bottom warmer to bring out with you? or do you just put the bottle in a cup of hot water to warm it?

also, when you went into hospital to give birth what did you do? my hospital has told me i need to bring milk with me, so i have bought some of the ready to feed cartons, but do you just bring all your bottles with you pre-sterilised at home?
xx

 

[tinkabells]

With my hospital they give you there own bottles, so not entirely sure, best thing to do is speak to your midwife and ask them what they do and what you should be bringing?!

I've got the bottle warmers and they are good, but if i've forgotten them, any type of food place will give you a cup of wate ror warm the bottle up for you, just make sure if they are warming it, dont let them put it in microwave!!!xxx

 

[staycutee]

thanks hun x

 

[dom85]

The hospital I gave birth in provided formula in glass jars with disposable teats as they did not have facilities to sterilise anything. I saw packs of them in Boots the other day, I use SMA gold and they had packs of 24 including the teats, I cant remember how much they cost but I dont think it was too crazy and they are definately worth it in the first few days at least as you dont need to worry about faffing around with sterilisers.

Also, I give Brady his formula at room temp so I dont have to worry about heating it to just the right temp for him. Not sure what bottle you're using but Tommee Tippee have just starting doing this https://www.boots.com/en/Tommee-Tippee-Closer-to-Nature-Travel-Bottle-Warmer_998859/ which I got today. I plan on taking the boiled water with me to make up a feed as I have the formula dispensers as well, and then using the cup with cold water instead to cool the bottle down for him.

 

[dali]

my hospital provided the milk in glass bottles ready to use too. although i have been told they recently stopped doing that ( shrug) but you can buy them anyway , i would pack those as you can store them in your bag without worrying about having to steralise them before uusing etc..
my lo had his milk at room temp so never needed to warm it while we were out

 

[jen1604]

I agree,I would try and get hold of the pre-sterilised in the glass bottles that I know you can get,it will be sooooo much easier on you when youre in hospital hon,I'll find you a link in a sec.My hospital gives us milk though,sucks that yours doesn't,I had heard they were stopping it though as some sort of breastfeeding initiative.

Cant help you on the bottle-warming though,sorry,as Ophelia always had her bottles at room temp xxxx

 

[jen1604]

This is the SMA one chick but I dont know what brand youre planning to use and I dont know which other ones you can get in this kind of set,sorry
https://www.mothercare.com/SMA-Star...ng=UTF8&m=A2LBKNDJ2KZUGQ&n=306201031&mcb=core

xxxx

 

[lexy604]

My hospital had throw away ones so that was great i use ready made for the first month as told by the hospital and i take them from the fridge and put them in my cooler bag than heat them in the microwave or under the tap whatever is available. My question would be since the bottle is only good for an hour after bein taken out of the fridge what if i was gone for a few hours if i bring a can the rest of it would go bad after opened and any bottles would too if i didnt have a fridge to keep them cold

 

[Happy]

Phoebe has her bottles at room temp but sometimes f we are out I warm them up a bit using a tommy tippee flask.

My hospital didn't provide milk so we took ready made cartons with us, they had sterilising facilities for us as well.

 

[lexy604]

I prefer room temp too much easier and Carter doesnt care

 

[purple_socks]

i was told not to heat bottles because firstly it saves u the hassle of finding a way of heating...LO will drink it at the temp u get them used to so if u heat it u will always have to heat it where as if u offer it room temp u wont need to bother with heating and secondly if they r used to it a certain temp and it cools while they're drinking or they don't want it for a few mins and it ends up cooling a bit they might refuse it because of the change in temp IYKWIM? u wont b able to re-heat so u would have wasted that bottle.

Kian has always had his bottles room temp. If i use pre made formula (the big cartons) then i leave it in the fridge once its open (coz it last 24 hours then) and i'll sit the bottle in a bit of warm water to warm it to room temp but normally i pre fill the bottles with boiled water at the begining of the day (water is left to cool for half hour ish in the kettle so it doesnt melt the bottles!) then i add the formula powder when its feeding time. I don't heat them. i use those tommee tippee powder holder thingies when i go out.

As for FF in hospital...my hospital had a feeding room(i think most do). there were loads of cold water steralizers sitting on the side which u can use (u put ur name on one and its urs til u leave) or u can take ur own one to use. it takes 15 mins to steralize a bottle in one of those so take a couple of bottles and u can use one, put it in the steraliser while u use the other one. There was also kettles if u wanna either use powder formula (which works out cheaper) and fridges to store opened ready use cartons. They didn't provide formula although they has a small supply of those glass bottles with diposable teats incase of emergency (they gave me one when we had problems BF but i had to buy my own once we decided to regularly FF)

 

[Kte]

Kian has always had his bottles room temp. If i use pre made formula (the big cartons) then i leave it in the fridge once its open (coz it last 24 hours then) and i'll sit the bottle in a bit of warm water to warm it to room temp but normally i pre fill the bottles with boiled water at the begining of the day (water is left to cool for half hour ish in the kettle so it doesnt melt the bottles!) then i add the formula powder when its feeding time. I don't heat them. i use those tommee tippee powder holder thingies when i go out.

I am starting to do this; add powder to prepared water in a sterilised bottle. I am glad I have read someone else does this. I BF for a day but had a mishap and couldn't continue, now I express and give her a little but only every other day or so. Mainly I FF and we have just switched from the cow & gate cartons to powdered milk. I was originally given the C&G milk from the hospital due to my BF mishap, it was one in a little glass bottle. For a few days after we kept on buying the cartons but since Chloe's feeds have gone up it makes more sence to use powder.

I give Chloe her bottles at room temperature rather than heating them up so when we go out and about she isn't fussed and just eats away.

 

[lexy604]

I only heat mine if there still cold from the fridge but i have always from the begining done them as close to room temp as i could because i am now on powder and dont want to have to find a way to heat them when im out as i will ebe just makin them as needed while out. My mom tried to get on me about heating his bottles but i say if hes willing to take them room temp im all about it so much easier.

 

[Kte]

Chloe takes at room temp and I agree it is much easier.

I am still figuring out the best way to prepare, we have gone back to making up feeds and storing them in the fridge.

Out and about is still an issue!

 

[purple_socks]

Kian has always had his bottles room temp. If i use pre made formula (the big cartons) then i leave it in the fridge once its open (coz it last 24 hours then) and i'll sit the bottle in a bit of warm water to warm it to room temp but normally i pre fill the bottles with boiled water at the begining of the day (water is left to cool for half hour ish in the kettle so it doesnt melt the bottles!) then i add the formula powder when its feeding time. I don't heat them. i use those tommee tippee powder holder thingies when i go out.

I am starting to do this; add powder to prepared water in a sterilised bottle. I am glad I have read someone else does this. I BF for a day but had a mishap and couldn't continue, now I express and give her a little but only every other day or so. Mainly I FF and we have just switched from the cow & gate cartons to powdered milk. I was originally given the C&G milk from the hospital due to my BF mishap, it was one in a little glass bottle. For a few days after we kept on buying the cartons but since Chloe's feeds have gone up it makes more sence to use powder.

I give Chloe her bottles at room temperature rather than heating them up so when we go out and about she isn't fussed and just eats away.

prefilling with water then adding powder later is the way several people advised me to do it, and the way a book i had said to do it...its far too hard to boil and cool the kettle for every feed...that would just b a never ending cycle of boiling kettles all day!!