Worried about making up/storing feeds?

[baby_mama87]

Hi everyone

My LO is 2 weeks today and I've just stopped combi feeding and put him on formula for all his feeds. Night time feeds are now a nightmare and I'm wanting to pre make my bottles but im really worried about making LO poorly! What are the chances of babies becoming Ill from storing feeds? I've been looking through some threads about how to do it correctly and my midwife ha said boil water let it cool then store the water in fridge but I've also read about the water needing to be 70 degrees to kill bacteria so now I'm confused! Which way is best?

Sorry for all the questions!

Xxx

 

[kecie]

I do that exactly - no ones ever told me about the water having to be a certain temp I guess just read what it says on the formula tin? On the one I'm using it says cooled boiled water so that's what I'm doing

 

[baby_mama87]

It tells you not to make up feeds in advance on the formula I'm using so I'm worried about doing it but I can't go on listening to LO screaming during the night when I'm making a bottle for him it's awful

Xxx

 

[kecie]

How long after you boil the water does it go cold in the jug?

 

[dizz]

The middle-ground way we do it (that takes 2 mins or so to make up a bottle so isn't that bad) is to get a thermos flask and keep it filled/topped up with boiling water throughout the day (I just change it when I make a cuppa), and a jug of boiled cooled water in the fridge... make the feed up using half the hot water and powder, then top up to the required amount using the cooled water - once you fiddle a little bit to get the amounts of both temperatures to what works for you personally it's minimal thought required. The water stays above the required nasty-zapping temperature for a fairly long time in a thermos.

 

[baby_mama87]

Thanks for this went and got a flask today so going to start making them like this!

Xxx

 

[dizz]

The only thing I do that's a little bit faffier is when you add the powder to the hot half of the water it moves the water up on the measurements in the bottle by about 10ml, so I take note of that and slightly overfill by the amount its risen up OVER the feed quantity you're making (whereas if you were adding the powder to the full quantity of water the increase in quantity wouldn't matter for measurements) if you get what I mean from that slightly garbled explanation?

 

[Mrsmitch80]

I've done them a few different ways! I will do them each feed when my lo's feeding becomes more regular so I can get one ready in time. I did do the cooled boiled water in the fridge in the bottles and then topping them up with boiling water but I realised that doing them that way they're not above 70 degrees unless I do it too hot and have to cool it anyway so they will still have any bacteria from the formula in.

I've heard from a doctor that if you add formula to boiling water it destroys the nutrients so I don't like doing that so now I make the feeds up two at a time then cool quickly and put in the back of the fridge. I never thought I'd so it that way but I think it must be the safest way (other than doing each as you need it)

I think unless you're keeping feeds for ages and not sterilising etc it's very unlikely you would make your lo ill

Xx

 

[londonbump2]

I make them up 3 at night and then twice in 2s during the day (as it's hot he'll moan until he has milk but only has a little bit cause he's just bloomin thirty!)

I make & cool & store in back of fridge, used to do 6 bottles at night but moved onto pepti which I don't think keeps as well/stinks anyway so how the hell would I know if it's bad!

I keep bottles in the fridge max 12 hours.

Because it's so hot when I'm out I mix with cooled boiled water, unless I'm only off out for an hour or 2, as I don't think it keeps in the cool bag as long as it should.

OH, I also measure all the powder at night and put into the little storage containers.

 

[mrsrof]

We make up the bottle with the water and either store that in the fridge and one of us goes down to get it for the night feed and we warm it and put the powder in then, or we just bring the bottle up to the room (again, just water, with a pot of the pre-measured powder separate) in one of those padded cases for keeping heat in. DD isn't really bothered what temp her feeds are, so room temp works fine.

The thing about the 70 degrees is really that it should be hot when it goes into the bottle from the kettle...once it's in the bottle bacteria can't get in (except for the few seconds it's open to put the powder in...and the powder's not sterile anyway!)...you wouldn't give it to LO at that temp anyway!

Don't panic too much about it!