Formula when out all day

Dogsarethebest2025

Hi, 

What do everyone do when you want to go out all day but your baby needs feeding? 

I was breastfeeding for the first 2 months ( I intended to breastfeed all year but didn’t work out for me ) and at the time I booked a day out in September to a theme park 3hr drive from our house one way. 

Now, that the baby is on formula. How do I go about this when out? 

I have the tommee tippee flasks to take out with me but they’re only good for one feed. I won’t have anywhere to clean and sterilise anything when out. 

Any advice is good thank you 

RAS

Check with the theme park.

They may heat milk in their eating places, or they may have special facilities in some mother and baby rooms? Heat up one feed just before leaving for home?

carly

You can buy bottles of pre made up formula which do not need refrigeration. These can be  fed  to babies at room temperature.  It is a myth and just a convention that babies must have warm milk at every feed.

sheramber

carly said:

You can buy bottles of pre made up formula which do not need refrigeration. These can be  fed  to babies at room temperature.  It is a myth and just a convention that babies must have warm milk at every feed.

When my son was born  46 years ago the maternity hospital  supplied   babies milk at room temperature- much to the mother’s disgust. 

carly

sheramber said:

carly said:

You can buy bottles of pre made up formula which do not need refrigeration. These can be  fed  to babies at room temperature.  It is a myth and just a convention that babies must have warm milk at every feed.

When my son was born  46 years ago the maternity hospital  supplied   babies milk at room temperature- much to the mother’s disgust. 

Yes, it was the same when my children were born in the 80s.... but the babies were fine with room temp milk... it was only the mothers' preconceived ideas that caused dismay   and to be honest by the time the baby has finished the bottle the milk is cool anyway. 

Bue21

You can also avoid the extra cost of ready made formula by filling the bottles with cooled boiled water and taking the appropriate amount of formula in a separate pot. Just add the powder when the feed is needed and shake/stir well. As others have said babies are fine with milk at room temperature (just not chilled).

Exodi

We've go out quite regularly with baby and have a good system.

We take sterilised bottles out with us (as many as you need, as you say, not realistic to expect to be able to clean/sterilize while out).

We take a formula dispenser where you can section the correct doses: e.g. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00BV2VLT0

We take a Nuby RapidCool: e.g. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09VH5PCCJ . This cools boiling water to a temperature that is safe for baby.

Lastly, we take a thermos flask full of boiling water, however if the place you're going to has boiling water you can skip this (e.g. you're going round someones house and can use their kettle - coffee shops also usually supply boiling water if you need).

When we need to do a bottle, we'd pour boiling water from the thermos into the bottle up to the amount we intend to do (e.g. 5oz - use the markings on the bottle), we'd then pour all of this except about 1oz into the Nuby (doing it like this saves needing a jug), and then we add the powder to the oz of boiling water in the bottle, put the lid on and give it a shake (this is to sterilise the formula). When the Nuby is done (as indicated by the LED on the lid), we then pour this into the bottle, give the whole thing a shake and the bottle is ready.

This is a slight variation from how they might suggest you use it (where they suggest you add the water and formula to the nuby and it cools the complete bottle). The problem I have with this is that it effectively means that as your Nuby will have had warm milk sat in it, it's dirty after one use. Of course they'd suggest buying multiple Nubys to prevent this! Our solution seems to be the most efficient (though technically if you were being pedantic you could suggest the bottle would be slightly hotter than intended as 1/5 (in my example) is boiling water and 4/5 is cooled to the right temperature - baby doesn't seem to care but if it bothers you just wait a minute before giving bottle to baby!).

Our baby was never that keen on the pre-made bottles and if you intend to go down this route, definitely test it in advance at home, as the last thing you want is to be in the middle of nowhere with a hungry screaming baby who rejects the feed.

Shelldean

Exodi said:

We've go out quite regularly with baby and have a good system.

We take sterilised bottles out with us (as many as you need, as you say, not realistic to expect to be able to clean/sterilize while out).

We take a formula dispenser where you can section the correct doses: e.g. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00BV2VLT0

We take a Nuby RapidCool: e.g. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09VH5PCCJ . This cools boiling water to a temperature that is safe for baby.

Lastly, we take a thermos flask full of boiling water, however if the place you're going to has boiling water you can skip this (e.g. you're going round someones house and can use their kettle - coffee shops also usually supply boiling water if you need).

When we need to do a bottle, we'd pour boiling water from the thermos into the bottle up to the amount we intend to do (e.g. 5oz - use the markings on the bottle), we'd then pour all of this except about 1oz into the Nuby (doing it like this saves needing a jug), and then we add the powder to the oz of boiling water in the bottle, put the lid on and give it a shake (this is to sterilise the formula). When the Nuby is done (as indicated by the LED on the lid), we then pour this into the bottle, give the whole thing a shake and the bottle is ready.

This is a slight variation from how they might suggest you use it (where they suggest you add the water and formula to the nuby and it cools the complete bottle). The problem I have with this is that it effectively means that as your Nuby will have had warm milk sat in it, it's dirty after one use. Of course they'd suggest buying multiple Nubys to prevent this! Our solution seems to be the most efficient (though technically if you were being pedantic you could suggest the bottle would be slightly hotter than intended as 1/5 (in my example) is boiling water and 4/5 is cooled to the right temperature - baby doesn't seem to care but if it bothers you just wait a minute before giving bottle to baby!).

Our baby was never that keen on the pre-made bottles and if you intend to go down this route, definitely test it in advance at home, as the last thing you want is to be in the middle of nowhere with a hungry screaming baby who rejects the feed.

This is EXACTLY what we do with my granddaughter. So well explained by Exodi.
Right down to how we mix the water and formula. 

You can also get a Nuby flask that keeps water hot if not going anywhere you can ask for hot water.

The NUBY is a lifesaver. I so wish we'd had these things when my four were small. Had a nightmare trying to warm their milk with one restaurant actually melting the twins bottles.

Grey_Critic

May I ask why you want Hot water? My Niece who is married and has lived in Paris for many years used cold water. At the time her mother (a nurse) and my sister were taken aback but it seems that is ewhat they do in France

oystercatcher

Grey_Critic said:

May I ask why you want Hot water? My Niece who is married and has lived in Paris for many years used cold water. At the time her mother (a nurse) and my sister were taken aback but it seems that is ewhat they do in France

Recommendations on making formula feeds up changed a few years back following some cases of salmonella contamination of milk powder. The formula powder isn't sterile and it is now recommended that feeds are made up one bottle at a time with Very Hot Water to kill off any bacteria etc and then the feed needs to be cooled to a suitable temperature and used straight away .

This is all quite a change from when I had my now adult children and we were encouraged to make up a days feeds and store them in the fridge. Yes, most babies were fine with that regime but no-one wants to be the rare exception that has a major problem .

Exodi

oystercatcher said:

Grey_Critic said:

May I ask why you want Hot water? My Niece who is married and has lived in Paris for many years used cold water. At the time her mother (a nurse) and my sister were taken aback but it seems that is ewhat they do in France

Recommendations on making formula feeds up changed a few years back following some cases of salmonella contamination of milk powder. The formula powder isn't sterile and it is now recommended that feeds are made up one bottle at a time with Very Hot Water to kill off any bacteria etc and then the feed needs to be cooled to a suitable temperature and used straight away .

This is all quite a change from when I had my now adult children and we were encouraged to make up a days feeds and store them in the fridge. Yes, most babies were fine with that regime but no-one wants to be the rare exception that has a major problem .

I still remeber those days between my mother and my siblings (there's a large age gap in my family) - bulk prepping 6 or so bottles in one go and storing them all in one fridge.

I do feel quite privileged to be in the present, as I remember it took an absolute eternity to fill and boil a kettle, fill a jug, add the bottle, wait for the bottle to heat up in it, testing it every few minutes, etc. By the time the bottle was ready, the baby would have cried themselves senseless. Nowadays, I use a prep machine so I can have a bottle ready in less than 2 minutes (less time than it would even take for the kettle to boil).

As oystercatcher said - advice is now to add a small amount (usually an oz) of boiling water to the formula powder and shake it to sterilize the formula.

Plus, health and safety aside, practically I've got to imagine it would be significantly harder to combine the formula powder with the water properly using cold water right? I'd imagine you would end up with lumps, that's how my protein shakes end up even despite vigorous shaking (unless I use a wire mixball and even then).