room temperature bottles

LegacyUser

Hi,
have a 7 week old who we've had to bottle feed due to her not latching on. She's been colicky so we've had to change her to cow and gate comfort formula which seems to be agreeing with ha bit more. We make up two batches of bottles daily (3 bottles at a time) by boiling water and leaving it cool for about 30 mins then adding the formula and putting into the fridge and taking them out maybe 2 hours before her feed so they get to room temperature. Is thIs an ok way of making up feeds??

January

Official line from the HSE is that you have to make up each bottle as needed.

I've made them up your way before (but never took them out and let them cool, I've always had to heat up to room temp with either a bottle warmer or a micro, depending on the baby, 2 of mine liked them warmer than room temp) and never had a problem.

sillysocks

We gave room temperature bottles to our two but just did them by measuring the water into the bottles, enough for that day and then filling with formula when we were about to use it.

HSE guidelines are totally different to that, but I found if you asked 10 people how they did bottles you'd nearly get 10 different answers!

bp

sillysocks wrote: »

We gave room temperature bottles to our two but just did them by measuring the water into the bottles, enough for that day and then filling with formula when we were about to use it.

HSE guidelines are totally different to that, but I found if you asked 10 people how they did bottles you'd nearly get 10 different answers!

I did the same - water in the morning and formula as required

seventeen sheep

Hmmm I'd think of it this way ... would I pour myself a small glass of milk, leave it sitting on the counter for two hours, and then drink it? Ick, no!

You're making up the bottles perfectly - it's really important to let the boiled water cool for up to thirty minutes - fresh boiled water will destroy some of the nutrients in the formula, but if you leave it more than thirty minutes, the water won't be hot enough to sterilise the formula itself. In fact, I was told by the formula manufacturer that anywhere between 10-30 minutes is fine to let it cool - these times are for one litre of water, though, so keep that in mind if you're boiling larger/smaller quantities! Just make sure to cool them before putting them into the fridge - this is purely because if you're regularly putting hot items into the fridge, it may damage the fridge.

We microwave bottles now - the only danger with this is hot spots, it won't damage the formula at all, so if you shake the bottle well and test it, it's fine to do this. But for the first couple of months, we would take the bottle from the fridge and sit it in a bowl of boiled water to bring the temperature up. So we'd only take it from the fridge around ten minutes before a feed.

If you're not happy to use a microwave, I'd definitely go with heating it up in a container of boiled water - or else invest in a bottle warmer. I wouldn't give a bottle after leaving it out of the fridge for two hours - two hours is the limit for finishing a bottle once it's been taken from the fridge, one hour would be my personal limit to be honest! A bottle of room temperature milk is a great environment for bacteria to grow in very quickly. Obviously no harm done yet, but I wouldn't continue to do so, if I were you.

Typer Monkey

I made up a days worth of bottles exactly as you describe but took one out of the fridge just before giving it and popped it in a Tommy tipee bottle warmer for a few minutes to take the chill off. I think the bottle warmer was less than €20. Hot water in a bowl would do the same job tho.

After a few months my daughter preferred the bottles straight from the fridge tbh. She drank them much quicker and with greater enthusiasm it was the summertime tho

Sligo1

I always prepared and heated my bottles as the last 2 posters have said. Your preparation technique is fine but You shouldn't leave a prepared bottle out for 2 hours prior to giving it to your baby. after a bottle has been taken out of the fridge it needs to be discarded after 2 hours as the amount of bacteria that may have multiplied in the milk During this time (2 hours) may be harmful.

fall

http://www.safefood.eu/SafeFood/media/SafeFoodLibrary/Documents/Publications/Consumer/Baby-Bottle-Feed-2012.pdf
This is the booklet they give in the Coombe and my phn also gave me one, my baby is four weeks old so it's recent. The ideal is prepare each feed as you need it but they say that sterile water and then adding formula is an option when out or travelling ( page 10 I think option C)

highly1111

I always used the Dr brownes mixing jug on my 3. would make a huge batch of formula that morning and pour into individual bottles as required. I would then heat them in the microwave or in a jug of hot water. If microwaving be careful hot spots and just mix it with a sterile spoon (pour boiling water over the spoon is sufficient!)

Another quick tip my husband came up with it using an electric weighing scales. We would put on the mixing jug oj the scales, reset, add x amount of water 800 mls etc and then reset and add x amount of formula. So if each scoop is 4.7 grams x 5 scoops per bottle x 6 bottles per day etc. All measurements are on the side of the formula cartons - then lump it all in.

This is the jug - they're in Smyths

http://www.amazon.com/Dr-Browns-Formula-Mixing-Pitcher/dp/B0010L98DI

seventeen sheep

Oooh that's an excellent tip about the scales! We have one already. Would definitely do this next time rather than measuring out scoops!

polydactyl

We make them up as you do but as other posters say I would never leave them out for two hours, even if out and about they are in a refrigerated bag, warm them up in bottle warmer/micro/bowl as suits you. For cutting down on scoops I can highly recommend the clevamama scoop, has saved me days of scooping over the hours. One scoop to measure 8 ounces.

pwurple

Straight from the fridge here... No faffing about with heating apart from bedtime one, which we zap in the microwave and shake to get rid of hotspots. Baby is not bothered.

Never actually made an 8 scoop bottle either though. Reflux baby, got up to about 6 oz once. She's on 5oz at the moment, at 11 months.

uck51js9zml2yt

The midwife recommended warmed milk to us rather than cold. Its easier on the babies stomach.
We give it 30 - 50 seconds in the micro. Just make sure to shake it well to mix the hot spots.

painauchocolat

sillysocks wrote: »

We gave room temperature bottles to our two but just did them by measuring the water into the bottles, enough for that day and then filling with formula when we were about to use it.

HSE guidelines are totally different to that, but I found if you asked 10 people how they did bottles you'd nearly get 10 different answers!

Quick note on this system. We started our little girl on regular aptamil, and made the bottles like this - bottles of water and adding formula as needed. However, this didn't work when we moved her to the aptamil comfort formula. It's a different texture and did not mix properly with cooled water. Now we make up the bottles of water 2 ounces short.. When we need a bottle we add 2 ounces of freshly boiled water and then add the formula. It mixes properly and is at close to the correct temp - only needs a little cooling.

jester77

You should invest in a little water cooler, gets boiling water to the perfect temperature for formula in less than a minute. We had this one and it was great.

LegacyUser

thanks for the replies everyone!

went into mothercare and got a bottle warmer and a portable (basically a flask!) one too. for about 5oz it says warm it for 8 mins for 20C or 10 mins for 37C, which one should i be doing for her?? and how long do i need to stand a bottle in the hot water for if i'm out??
thanks!

Sligo1

leftshark wrote: »

thanks for the replies everyone!

went into mothercare and got a bottle warmer and a portable (basically a flask!) one too. for about 5oz it says warm it for 8 mins for 20C or 10 mins for 37C, which one should i be doing for her?? and how long do i need to stand a bottle in the hot water for if i'm out??
thanks!

Anything between 5-10 minutes should take the chill off the bottle. Especially of she's only used to getting it room temp as opposed to warm/hot. Just be careful of heating it up too much using the bottle warmer. Always test it first (obviously I'm sure you will).

seventeen sheep

leftshark wrote: »

thanks for the replies everyone!

went into mothercare and got a bottle warmer and a portable (basically a flask!) one too. for about 5oz it says warm it for 8 mins for 20C or 10 mins for 37C, which one should i be doing for her?? and how long do i need to stand a bottle in the hot water for if i'm out??
thanks!

20 would be room temperature, 37 would be body temperature.

We went for room temperature in the early months, basically because we were only using the bowl of hot water so didn't want to have to leave it sitting there too long when he was hungry, also so that he wouldn't get used to warm bottles and start refusing cooler ones. It made it handy when we were out and about, that we could just throw a bottle in the bag and give it when needed (within the time limits!), instead of worrying about warming it up.

Typer Monkey

If you'll be out for longer than two hours I found bringing one of the small ready made cartons and a steriled bottle with me. I can't remember if they come in the comfort milk though