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Keeping an eye on my now 6 day old daughter over night. Me and the mrs are working a bit of a shift pattern at the moment so we can try to get big blocks of sleep in, rather than lots of broken sleep. Seems to be working OK.
Anyone got tips for making up bottles quickly?
I currently dissolve the powder in half the volume of boiled water then cool it with sterile cold water, but it doesn't always get down to good temp quick.
How do people feel about making several bottles at once, fridging them and warming them up?
I've looked through mumsnet etc' but thought i'd ask singletrack dadsnet for a different spin.
Don't do shifts you're encouraging her to wake up through the night, if she wakes so will you.
Yeah make a batch and heat as needed.
Looong time since I did this, but making a batch in the day and storing in the fridge until needed. It's much easier to warm up quickly than cool then down.
Enjoy the quiet moments when everyone else is fast asleep.
Check the container but with some you have to discard the formula after 2 hours.
We used to pre fill the bottles with cool boiled water and leave those in the fridge.
She's only tiny so we have to feed her every 2-3 hrs at the moment, so I'm staying with her overnight. I only wake her when she's ready and try not to interact too much.
I'm still finding her a bit of a handful whilst trying to mess with bottles at the same time!
What I don't get is, once a bottle is made, it has to be discarded after an hour, or fridged for up to 24hrs. So if I make it up, allow it to cool sufficiently to go in the fridge, then warm it up again, does it then get another whole hour before it has to be discarded!?
And why does it say not to use repeatedly boiled water?
And why do some instructions say boil water and allow to cool for 30 minutes, but others say "no more" than 30 minutes? Can't I just use the just boiled water if i'm cooling the bottle anyway!?
It's a minefield!!
The easy answer is to buy the tommee tippee perfect prep machine. It will make the bottle for you in less than a minute and it will be perfect temp,fresh,clean and above all convenient. It was a god send for us but we had twins so saved even more hassle. It will be the best 70 quid you ever spend.
Yeah, we have been considering that....
In the end you'll realise that babies are actually very hardy things and just use cold water straight from the tap and a 30 second blast in the microwave (for 6oz, 800w microwave, adjust as necessary).
Or get the wife to feed her from her chest, thereby relieving you of all duty!
Congratulations btw Op, I'm not far off joining you, mini-jek #2 due week today, eeek. Wife will be breastfeeding!
Tommee tipee machine x1000
It meant I could wake up, make the bottle and be back asleep within 5 minutes
£70 to save you doing a batch of bottles in the morning? Dear me.
The repeated boiling thing is because salts etc. accumulate and become more concentrated each time you boil the kettle, as some of the water boils off. Not a big hardship to get into the habit of tipping the kettle out before filling and boiling tbh.
If you're worried about leaving made-up formula in the fridge you can always give her premix overnight (which is what some friends of ours did, and what we did when away from home).
Thermos flask with the right temperature water in. I slept on the couch for six months so I got a good nights sleep 🙂
If it's seventy quid you won't miss and it makes things easier for you, then I wouldn't worry too much what anybody else tells you. They all know best. Also, she's 6 days old - just feed her when she's hungry - she doesn't really have any concept for night or day right now and won't recognise any kind of effort to get her into a routine.
For us, best combo was microwave steriliser and boiled water straight into bottles and into fridge. I think we did this four at a time. Make them up as you need them. We didn't go on to formula for around 6 months though, so not really sure how the sequences for newborns differ.
Good luck!
In the end you'll realise that babies are actually very hardy things and just use cold water straight from the tap and a 30 second blast in the microwave (for 6oz, 800w microwave, adjust as necessary).
This. The quicker you get here the easier you will make life... Worked for my two, my brothers 4, and each of my sisters two...
Drac - health visitors and midwives advise against doing milk in batches so that shouldnt be an option. The hassle of making formula milk is not to be under estimated particularly as babies dont tend to be that patient.
The prep machine is worth the money and more importantly more time with your child/bed rather than standing around a kettle. It took us less than 3 weeks to realise that our life was dominated by water production for milk (twice as much needed for twins). We bought the machine and never looked back.
Is breastfeeding / pumping an option for you? (By you, I mean can your missus express?)
Why do they advise against doing batches?
As long as you are sterilising and using freshly boiled water there should be no Rick of any bugs growing.
We have been doing batches for the last 10 months (thankfully much less so now he is on food)
david47 - Member
In the end you'll realise that babies are actually very hardy things and just use cold water straight from the tap and a 30 second blast in the microwave (for 6oz, 800w microwave, adjust as necessary).This. The quicker you get here the easier you will make life... Worked for my two, my brothers 4, and each of my sisters two...
I think you have to wait until they're 6 months + before you could use straight tap water and zapping it? Agreed though, it's a minefield. Our first was hard because we were typical first parents and scared of everything we read. Our second was a different story.
Co-slept with both of them. Wife breastfed. So much easier to resettle when you can just BF in the middle of the night.
Tommee tippee percect prep machine x 1000. I can't believe no one else makes one, i'd highly recommend it.
The Tomme Tippee Perfect Prep was great for us. If you are using it a few times a day for over a year it works out at decent value. Especially if it's saving you a few minutes of listening to your little one screaming for a bottle.
Another big thumbs up for tommee tippee perfect prep, just so quick, easy and hassle free which is what you want when you've got a hungry baby. Plenty available second hand around £30 or you could buy new and get half your money back when you sell.
Your learning that for everything you read/hear about childcare, you'll also read/hear the opposite 😀
As has been said, babies are hardy. We used to boil the water and store it. Then make up the bottle and heat it up when needed.
You can now buy cartons of ready to use baby milk. A godsend for when you're out and about. Might be an idea for those night shifts.
The theory - boiling water is not the same as sterilising if. The air in your kitchen isn't sterile either. The formula powder isn't sterile, so basically, from the moment you make up the formula, it is a breeding ground for the bugs that will undoubtedly be present in it. At the kind of Luke-warmy temps that a bottle will cycle through as it is cooled down and then reheated, you could very well be incubating something nasty. NHS, baby formula manufacturers and midwives have to assume the worst case hygiene scenario based on a small number of documented incidents and advise you to make fresh every time.
In practice - babies become more robust very very quickly. Cooling batches of water to store in bottles in the fridge is fairly low-risk. You can buy a little gadget to keep 3 pre-dispensed quantities of powder to hand. The downside of this is that the powder doesn't disperse as well in cold water and there is a small theoretical risk that not putting the powder into 60degree water misses the chance to kill the bugs that may be in it. Once our 3 boys were a few weeks old, we tended to assume the middle ground and make up bottles in 2s or 3s for the night shift. Never a full days worth.
Both of ours were primarily BF but first one had a few issues that meant bottle feeding during the night for first couple of months. Pre mixed cartons were definitely the way to go, bottles sitting sealed in the steriliser ready to go after last feed, milk in and go.
THIShermos flask with the right temperature water in.
I only wake her when she's ready and try not to interact too much.
WTF? Have I read this wrong? Why are you waking her? Unless you have been told of a specific medical reason you need to do this then let the girl sleep! She will let you know when she is ready.
WTF? Have I read this wrong? Why are you waking her?
When newborn, we were certainly told both times not to just let them sleep, and feed them at regular intervals so would sometimes need to wake them
We made up batches for 12 hours...fortunately we discovered the boy liked then cool from the fridge....now he turns his nose up at warm milk.
Theyre all different, just use common sense and dont kill yourself trying to do it all "right"
She's now 13 months so feels like years ago.
Mum fed then expressed up until 4 months so I had very little to do with prep.
After she was weaned on to bottles we always had one ready during the day but as said after 2 hrs we made a fresh bottle. For night time we used bottled follow on milk. Open, pour, feed, sleep. Very easy.
She has generally slept from 7 till 6am and dropped the middle the night feed after 8 months. We just wish she would sleep until 7am!
We ignore mums net etc as it's full of contradiction and our health visitors have been hit or miss. They work from a check list which bugged us so we just tuned in to what our daughter wants and make it up as it goes along.
I have had two kids btw. One Bf, one bottle. BF, despite throwing up some challenges along the way, particularly at the beginning, was ultimately far, far easier. Not cheaper though as my wife used it as an excuse to buy load of BF specific clothing.
WTF? Have I read this wrong? Why are you waking her?When newborn, we were certainly told both times not to just let them sleep, and feed them at regular intervals so would sometimes need to wake them
Mine are 2 and 5 and we weren't told to do this. My wife is the kind to read up on everything we should/should not be doing as well. I am not about to tell anyone to go against what their doctor/midwife/health visitor has told them but we definitely weren't. Having said that ours probably woke that often in any case.
Wake them up to feed?? Never heard such twaddle!! And I am so pleased I was able to breastfeed both of mine, I couldn't be doing with all that fuss and palaver - and expense.
Nah, let the little one sleep. Just as long as the feed is going in over 24 hrs, even if it's in clusters, 8 sittings a day I think for breast. They eventually settle into a routine. You'll be surprised how long they can go without during the night.
Don't pay too much attention to all the advice you'll get given, there's too much of it out there. Remember when going through a bad patch that it will pass, and make the most of it when they are in a good mood. Most of all just enjoy it as it goes quickly - only 5months in here and already the newborn bit feels like a distant memory.
Fed the baby when s/he is hungry, don't get stuck into time slots. Also welcome to the world of parenthood where everyone knows best and they know a different process to everyone else. Also be prepared for umpteen different best practices from the various medical professionals that you talk to.
Best approach...do what you think is right, as long as you are feeding, cleaning, nurturing and letting them sleep then they'll turn out very well.
Saying that, they are far more responsibility than a pet animal and it is normal to be asking how-to to begin with.
All part of the experience...you'll be fine.
I believe the advice is to let them sleep but not go beyond a certain length of time between feeds, so wake IF neccesary. If your baby wakes anyway it isn't an issue and likely wouldn't come up. My daughter often would not wake and the hospital and midwife were very specific about this, however it is only for the first month or so (I think it is until the baby reaches a specific weight).
She was a brilliant sleeper though!
We went with boiling water into a sterile bottle and seal. Then let cool and store in fridge. Heat and add formula as required. Technically you are not meant to microwave but this is due to uneven heating of the liquid so a vigorous shake (which you do when you add the formula anyway) sorts this out. Always check on your wrist though.
The best advice I can give is to go with the flow and don't have too many pre-conceptions about how it is all going to work, just roll with it. We expected my daughter to be breastfed and when this turned out to be impossible it was a huge blow at a time when you are all a bit low.
The reason not to add formula to warm (not hot) water is because of the bugs that can grow in the powder. It is specifically designed to be high in nutrients which is also ideal breading area for bacteria especially when moisture is introduced (such as from condensation on the powder scoop from when you have tipped the power into the steaming water). Adding the power to hot water does a better job of killing any nasties. I am not really one for going overboard on germ killing but tummy bugs with babies are not fun. Days and days (and nights) of explosions from both ends can get tiring pretty quickly.
Back up again now! Thanks for all the tips so far.
The little one was born by emergency C/S and weighs 5lb 11. As she's so little, we've been advised to aim for 2-3 hr feedings and not to let her sleep longer than four. She was only taking 30ml a time, but that's quickly picking up. She had her first full 90ml bottle last night, she can sleep longer after that!!
Breast feeding isn't an option as my better half is still in some pain and has a lot of recovering to do. She's doing great but she doesn't need the pressure of BF. We tried initially and the little one got colostrum and now we're happy to move on from that.
Just made a batch of bottles to go in the fridge for today.
I'm a microbiologist in the real world. I understand the importance of sterility, how bugs work and what they can do. What I don't understand is how sterile fluid in a sterile container is going to somehow poison her in such short spaces of time. That's what so much of the advice makes me feel.
I had to do all feeding for the first 2 months on the last one. My poor wife was suffering with PND after a really hard birth and 3 weeks in special care. Baby was 7 weeks early and cleft pallet. I remember making up batches for the night shift. Couldn't switch off as our little girl had no suck so I had to squeeze the bottle in a gentle rhythm, holding her pretty much upright.
They were some long lonely nights. Fortunately my wife just woke up one morning and was relatively back to normal, much to my and all the kids relief.
What I don't understand is how sterile fluid in a sterile container is going to somehow poison her in such short spaces of time. That's what so much of the advice makes me feel.
We couldn't get our heads round that one, either.
For what it's worth, a week in we were in survival mode with both kids. With #1 it was worse as we had *no* idea what we were doing...
We're 16 months ahead of you and had a C section to after almost 48 hrs of labour. Breastfeeding was hard, extremely hard, but we sight advice from out local breastfeeding clinic and discovered in 5 seconds he was tongue tied. Next day referral for the operation and it was so so so much better after that.
You'll be bombarded with advice but every baby is different. Just do what works for you all and enjoy the little girl while she's tiny, they grow up mighty fast!
Instead of waking to feed you might want to google "dream feeeding". It sounds a bit along the lines of crystal healing, but it worked for ours. Mind you, i think hes got my sleeping genes, short of nuclear war....
Oh and you'll find a lot of baby shizzle is either totally risk averse, or subject to FUD to sell something....
Congrats op.
One thing that made the first few days of parenting difficult for us was all the contradictory advice from every nurse that visited.
We tried to keep to a strict feeding routine,and there were a few stressful evenings....we soon learned to feed him when he wanted fed and to hell with the strict feeding routine.
& fwiw imo,never wake a sleeping baby.
We tried to keep to a strict feeding routine,and there were a few stressful evenings....we soon learned to feed him when he wanted fed and to hell with the strict feeding routine.
IME routine of any kind doesn't really happen until they go into toddlers and have a fixed post-lunch nap.
Still remember the cold terror of waking up at 0500 when #1 spawn unilaterally decided she didn't need a bottle at 0200...