New advice dept of health-storing formula milk(baby bottles)

parsnips

amarillo wrote:

Buy a milk powder section pot, available in Boots and most baby sites. Put milk powder in when each bottle is required, shake well and serve at room temperature. This means no heating, then cooling of milk and makes the night feeds much quicker and easier. I kept the required night feeds in the nursery, along with the powder. After a quick shake, you are ready to roll. No need to venture downstairs to boil kettle etc, and really easy when out and about. Both my sons took formula at room temperature with no problem. What makes things easier for Mum makes things calmer and easier for the babies too!

so if you make up 6 bottles of boiled water and leave them out on the counter for the day, when you require a bottle you just add the required amount of powder and shake, your bottle is done, no heating.

but by the time you required your last few bottles, wouldnt the water in the bottles be stone cold?

essexhoney

no it would still be at room temperature because it hasnt been stored in the fridge.
iv been quite luckily with both of mine so far they didnt like it at room temperature nor did they like it warm they would only take it if it had come straight from the fridge

Becles

I breast fed mine initially, so didn't use bottles until they were about 4 months old.

I always made the bottles up as and when I needed them, unless we were going somewhere and had to take milk with us.

Before I was pregnant, I was working in a food microbiology lab, so I tend to err on the side of paranoia with food/milk though!

funky-footprints

i cant believe they keep changing things again, this year they have announced sterilising be stop at 6 months, solids be not introduced until 6 months and now this. I was another that made up my milk and stored it in the fridge heating it as required, or if we were out, carried either ready made carton formulae or a flask of hot water and the avent container with 3 sections. no doubt when i get round to having a number 3 it will all be changed again. Im considerably suprised that my 2 are as healthy as they are actually !!!!

hollydays

Essexhoney-re the hospital not providing formula,I think thats so short sighted. I initially breastfed my 2, but found it pretty tiring,and my daughter is bottlefeeding and mum and baby are both thriving.Mothers are made to feel guilty about enough things without that one.How is a mum in hospital supposed to steralise bottles etc.The hospital usually provides those little glass bottles of formula which i dont think you can buy.Some mums dont want to breastfeed,it should be respected.

jellyhead

room temp isn't cold, especially not at the moment. he drinks his water at room temp anyway.


it's not really any extra hassle doing things this way. if the bottle was in the firdge you'd boil a kettle to warm it up, this way the bottle is out on the counter and you can boil a kettle to warm it if you want to. if opening and closing the tin of baby milk, getting it out of a cupboard etc. is a chore then you can measure it all out for the day in one go and use those little storage pots, or any sterile container to separate it into sections for each bottle. the storage pots can be washed and sterilised.


most people i know have water at room temp and they just add powder and shake, perfect.

Becles

funky-footprints wrote:

i cant believe they keep changing things again, this year they have announced sterilising be stop at 6 months,

I didn't know that. It was 12 months when mine were little.

I'd be merrily sterilising things for them to chew on while teething, and while my back was turned the dog would give them a manky rubber bone to chew on :eek: Didn't do them any harm though!

jellyhead

essexhoney, i think the 'old' way probably didn't do us any harm, that's the way i did it for spud who's nearly ten and i also used to store the bottles in the fridge door as i didn't realise it wasn't cold enough. he had one nasty infection, but my ten month old has also had one infection. not that i'm suggesting there's nothing wrong with the 'old' way - i'm sure that following the new advice will reduce the number of infections babies have. sometimes it can be really nasty, and a dehydrated baby needs to be in hospital on a drip which can be very stressful for baby and mum, especially if there are other children to take care of and mum can't spend 24 hours a day in hospital with baby. so i will try to follow the new advice. but it doesn't really work for us when using colief. using twice the amount and leaving it to work for half an hour just doesn't do enough, according to my baby lol! and leaving it out while warm for the colief to work for an hour or so would probably be more dangerous bacteria-wise than using the fridge.

ho hum ... the article i read painted a nasty picture of bug-infested tins of formula, it really made me feel ill. a cynic would say it was supposed to make me feel ill, to worry that i'm giving germ infested powder to my innocent babe, to encourage people to think formula is dirty. but you can't breastfeed a lactose intolerant baby (unless you hear about colief before your milk dries up!). apparently some randomly tested tins contained bacteria. not all tins, but some.

flikkerty

Hello,
So do i stop steralising now she is 8 months? We are still using the ready made stuff, practically needed to remortgage because of the cost but I couldn't do with the faffing about of the water and powder precisely because I didn't understand. That doesn't actually read very well but I hope you catch my drift, i'm 'ot!

jellyhead

laughing about the manky bone :rotfl:
we were talking about sterilising yesterday, most of us sterilise dummies like mad, then our babies go to toddler groups and put filthy toys in their mouths, that have been chewed by other babies

essex not having bottles in hospital is terrible, imagine how many women will run off home before they are physically ready to leave hospital! it's not as if they are going to offer you the use of a steriliser if you're bringing in your own bottles. that's really horrible and stressful. maybe home birth is the best option i know some hospitals don't allow disposable nappies, and they provide washables, which they wash for you. that's not a bad idea, but not providing milk, i really don't like that idea. my hospital has little glass bottles, but not of soya or hungry milk. everyone seems to breastfeed for the first couple of feeds, and then some change to formula.