Milton sterilising fluid - anyone had any issues?

Elsiebunny

A friend of a girl at work's baby apparently was sensitive to milton, although I would imagine it would be quite rare seeing as it is so tried and tested? I was also going to suggest silent reflux as my son had this and in our case found the baby milk linked to above to be the worst as it is the lightest, although all babies are different. Does he cough a bit, particularly when laying down? or seem to cough up clear liquid? that helped us work out it was silent reflux. Or maybe wind? If only they could talk

donteatthat

If things are reeking of chemicals I would check the dilution is correct firstly. I need to use miltons for some things for my baby and at 1 capful in 5 litres of water things don't overly smell. If it is too strong it could be irritant?
If you are wanting to rinse then you need to get some bottles of sterile water. I don't see how boiling water and leaving it to cool makes it sterile, given the temperatures you need to use to kill most things these days, and whilst water leaving treatment plants might be free from bacteria the water pipes will probably pick up some biofilm on the way. But it might be adequate to kill off most things that come in down water pipes. The other reason that your tap water won't be as sterile as when it leaves the water plant is because it could pick up bacteria that was living on the pipe at the domestic outlet end.
Boiling water and leaving it to cool for 25 minutes is supposed to bring it to a temperature that when added to the formula powder will kill any bugs in it given that the powder is not sterile. That sounds like flakey science to me however!

meritaten

I'm starting to get confused now! I'm a mum of three grown children and three grandchildren and all the grandkids have been bottle fed. and the advice on making up formula is to use 'cooled boiled water' from the kettle.............so those people who say NOT to use the cooled boiled water to rinse any Milton from the bottles because of the danger of it containing bacteria.........??????????????? How does that compute?

Imp

meritaten wrote: »

I'm starting to get confused now! I'm a mum of three grown children and three grandchildren and all the grandkids have been bottle fed. and the advice on making up formula is to use 'cooled boiled water' from the kettle.............so those people who say NOT to use the cooled boiled water to rinse any Milton from the bottles because of the danger of it containing bacteria.........??????????????? How does that compute?

I didn't say "don't do" anything, all I asked for was a reference for using cooled boiled water to rinse bottles.

I can think of a perfectly good reason for using cooled boiled water for making up a formula - it strips out the chlorine from the water so you aren't giving your child excess chlorine.

Anyway, if anyone has a reference website recommending using cooled boiled water, I am still interested.

Imp

I've gone looking for web sites myself now. I found SMA's information about preparing bottle feeds. I don't know if SMA are a big brand or not.

Anyway, they say boil fresh tap water and let it cool to not less than 70 degrees Celsius. 70 degC is not cool water. It is scaulding hot.

Once the powder is added and mixed, the bottle should be cooled down under running cold water to a luke warm temperature.

So basically, we are use hot but not boiling water to make up the formula (providing some sort of bacteria kill), then quickly cooling the formula down to a temperature suitable for the baby. This means the formula does not spend a long time at the optimum temperatures for bacterial growth.

This all makes sense. I suppose when I heard the phrase "cooled boiled water" I was imagining something closer to room temperature than scaulding hot.

delain

Imp wrote: »

I've gone looking for web sites myself now. I found SMA's information about preparing bottle feeds. I don't know if SMA are a big brand or not.

Anyway, they say boil fresh tap water and let it cool to not less than 70 degrees Celsius. 70 degC is not cool water. It is scaulding hot.

Once the powder is added and mixed, the bottle should be cooled down under running cold water to a luke warm temperature.

So basically, we are use hot but not boiling water to make up the formula (providing some sort of bacteria kill), then quickly cooling the formula down to a temperature suitable for the baby. This means the formula does not spend a long time at the optimum temperatures for bacterial growth.

This all makes sense. I suppose when I heard the phrase "cooled boiled water" I was imagining something closer to room temperature than scaulding hot.

I've only ever used very hot water, never liked the idea of the powder not dissolving properly if nothing else.

SMA are one of the longest standing brands, but have not made the improvements to their formula that other companies have (according to my health visitor) and I've found from my own experience and that of other mums I know that babies on SMA are prone to constipation although this is not true of every baby.

onlyroz

Here are the official Milton instructions:

1) Clean utensils thoroughly after each feed.
Clean bottles and teats thoroughly with warm soapy water.
Rinse with cold water.
2) Prepare Milton Solution.
Fill you Milton Sterilising Unit with cold water.
For every 2.5 litres water, add 1/2 capful (15ml) of Milton Fluid.
3) Completely immerse utensils.
Ensure that no air bubbles are trapped inside the bottles/utensils.
Items are ready to use after 15 minutes or can be left for 24 hours until you need to use them again.
Wash your hands before removing utensils from the solution.
Drain bottles and teats - no need to rinse.
Fill bottles immediately and cover teats.