Making baby formula after 6 months

Tina20

Now my baby is on solids, she is having less milk, but I was just wondering:

The point of boiling the kettle to make the formula, is that the hot water kills the bacteria in the milk, because the powder itself is not sterile.
After 6 months, you can feed tap water,solid food, feed from unsterilised bowls, spoons, cups etc.

So, do I still have to make up bottles with freshly boiled water? Can I not just use room temperature water? She's drinking room temp water from a sippy cup anyway...

would save me a fortune not having to boil the kettle so many times a day...

skylight

I've always boiled until around a year old - everything still needs steralising etc until that point, bowls and spoons too etc.

The water and stuff that is. Not the baby!

The 6month+ baby milk does state to still boil the water. As long as the water was boiled "recently" then I make bottles with that too - upto an hour after boiling so its coolish anyway, so I don't re-boil every single time.

Tina20

Oh right, My health visitor and doctor have both told me that sterilizing is not necessary after 6 months.
The toast, porridge, baby rice etc is not sterile and that's fine apparently.
So much conflicting advice out there....

skylight

Just remember that advice is just that. No-one is telling you that you HAVE to steralise or not to steralize after six months.

And the best bits of advice I can give??
A) take as much advice from as many sources as you can manage and then come up with what is best for you and your family - nothing is right nor wrong and more ideas mean there are other ways of doing things if something isn't right for you the first time.
When you say no, mean it.

And that's it!

GobbledyGook

I'd still boil because it's the heat of the water that kills the bugs in the powder. It's not just because it's not sterile it's something to do with the actual bugs that could be in the powder (I've completely forgotten which it is, but although it's uncommon/rare it's potentially nasty).

lily76

I was doing the same routine when my baby was 6 months old as I did it before. Even now my baby is 21months old I still sterilise his milk bottles and put just-boiled water in his bowls, spoons, plates etc from time to time.

lily76

Even DH's lunch box is filled up with boiling water to be sterilized a little bit frequently.

Molly41

If you feed a baby pasteurised cows milk it has been heat treated to kill bugs and put in sterilised containers. It therefore follows that you should still sterilise baby's bottle/ container and make it up according to the instructions so that any bugs are killed off.

tyllwyd

This is what it says on the SMA nutrition site
"How hot does the water need to be to make up feeds?

As infant formula powder is not sterile, the water you use to make up the feed needs to be 70oC to kill any bacteria that may be present. Boil a kettle filled with fresh tap water and allow to cool for between 25-30 minutes before measuring the required amount of water. Please note feed will still be too hot to feed and will need to be cooled under cold running tap, or in a bowl of cold water"
http://www.smanutrition.co.uk/know-how/bottle-feeding/storing-formula/faq-512.aspx?catid=15

shortdog

My son still has powdered milk (soya - he has a cows milk allergy) and he is 6. I still make it with boiled water from the kettle, as it doesn't dissolve properly in cold water, and leaves loads of little clumps of powder!
I sterilised bottles until the kids stopped using them, as they are difficult to get properly clean, but, once they started crawling, I didn't see any point in sterilising anything else - the turning point with my eldest was the day I took a clean dummy out of the steriliser and handed it to her, and then watched her rub it across the carpet and try to shove it up the dogs nose before popping it in her mouth. Seemed pointless sterilising then!

lilymay1

My son has just turned 7 months and I won't be giving him tap water or cows milk until he is 1. I stopped sterilizing his bottles at 5/6 months but still use boiled water to make up his forumla.