The right way to make and store bottles?

maidofhonour · 30-09-2006, 10:04

After subscribing to another thread in the group and being asked how she made up formula milk it kind of got me thinking.
Please can I have people thoughts on the following -
How many bottles do you/can you make up in one go and how do you store them and for how long?

I used to make up enough bottles to last me for the day and I used to store them in the fridge until needed. Then I used to pop them in a jug of hot water to heat it back up.

I saw my daughters friend the other day, make up a bottle with semi hot water and then put it into her sons changing bag as we were all going out.
Is that safe?

babychickens · 30-09-2006, 11:06

http://www.dh.gov.uk/PolicyAndGuidan...674&chk=gupWCK

current department of health guidelines say;

-use boiled water that has cooled for no more than half an hour (so is still over 70oC). add the powder to the water.
-make every feed up fresh (if you can't, take water in a flask and add the formula when you need it), or use prepackaged sterile. don't store in the fridge, particularly at the front or in the door.
-don't keep feeds for longer than 1 hour after making them, you can cool them down quicker than normal in a bowl of cold water
-don't reheat feeds, throw away anything unused.

stuff it doesn't say on that website;
-if you offer cooled boiled water, i seem to recall reading that you shouldn't offer more than 100ml per day, but i might be mistaken about this.
-resterilize bottles if they were sterilized more than 48 hours ago as they're unlike to still be sterile.

i found all of this out when i switched from breast feeding. i found that the advice you get is different from pretty much anywhere you find it. i'm sticking with the above because it's the most stringent set of advice i've found - i used to work in a microbiology lab and get really twitchy about such things. baby formula is pretty much ideal for growing bacteria in if you're not careful.

doodle · 01-10-2006, 14:38

I'm naughty. You are supposed to make up a bottle fresh each time you need it, these guidelines only came in during November 2005. But I make up a days worth of feed and put it in the fridge. My reasoning is that my Mother and loads of other Mothers for the last 30 years have done this and there have been very little problems, so I'm doing the same. Hanging around to make a feed when it is needed is just a nightmare.

I think you need to decide on what you are comfortable with it. If you child was premature, then I would stick to making it fresh as their immune system hasn't developed at all.

Angiej · 01-10-2006, 20:36

You are meant to make the bottles fresh when your baby needs them, as theyve recently found out that doing bottles for the day the even in the fridge the bacteria is growing and there are a lot of babies who are formula fed being admitted to hospitals with illness caused by parents doing the bottles all in one go..

However it is up to the parents,

maidofhonour · 01-10-2006, 21:01

[QUOTE=babychickens][url]
current department of health guidelines say;

-use boiled water that has cooled for no more than half an hour (so is still over 70oC). add the powder to the water.
-make every feed up fresh (if you can't, take water in a flask and add the formula when you need it), or use prepackaged sterile. don't store in the fridge, particularly at the front or in the door.

I'm confused now because its saying the water that is to be used to make up the bottlehas to be over 70oC. But then it says if you cant make up fresh then take the water in a flask and add the fomula when you need it.
So what you're saying is to put the water in a thermos flask to keep it above 70oC?

babychickens · 02-10-2006, 08:48

[QUOTE=maidofhonour]

Quote:

Originally Posted by babychickens

[url]
current department of health guidelines say;

-use boiled water that has cooled for no more than half an hour (so is still over 70oC). add the powder to the water.
-make every feed up fresh (if you can't, take water in a flask and add the formula when you need it), or use prepackaged sterile. don't store in the fridge, particularly at the front or in the door.

I'm confused now because its saying the water that is to be used to make up the bottlehas to be over 70oC. But then it says if you cant make up fresh then take the water in a flask and add the fomula when you need it.
So what you're saying is to put the water in a thermos flask to keep it above 70oC?

yes, i suppose so. seems a bit excessive to me when it's so easy to buy premade formula, though. once you've opened powder formula it isn't sterile anymore, so adding it to water that's less than 70oC is perhaps offering bacteria free reign to grow all they like. i suppose the assumption is that nothing you'd find growing in formula can survive over 70oC.

YummyMummy · 02-10-2006, 11:50

I used to make up feeds and store them in the fridge when my son was a newborn as it was so much easier, however I now fill a few sterilised bottles with boiling water in a morning and then top them up with fresh boiled water to heat them and make the feed as I need them. But I have to agree with doodle as my mother always goes on at me about how she used to make up a days worth and store them in the fridge. with so much info and advice it all becomes very confusing.....

Zebra · 02-10-2006, 11:52

I'm another mum who makes all the bottles for the day and sticks them in the fridge. Thankfully our girls have always been fine.
I've always made the formula with boiling water and sealed the sterilised bottles as quickly as possible, allowed them to cool a little and then put them in the fridge.
My theory was that any bacteria remaining in there is probably something I haven't got the equipment to deal with and I'd done my best.

Hels · 02-10-2006, 15:01

I'm still breast-feeding for the most part but am gradually weaning my baby (he's 3 months) onto the bottle. I put boiled (still hot) water into one or two sterilised bottles and leave them on the side to cool. Then, when I need to make a bottle up I just add the required amount of powder formula, give it a shake, and feed little one with it at room temperature.

I thought that was a good way of doing it rather than making the feed up and putting it in the fridge and then re-heating

doodle · 02-10-2006, 15:17

I think both ways have potential problems. By making all the feeds up and putting them in the fridge, then you do have the problem of re-heating the formula up again. But by filling the bottle up with hot water and then making the formula up later as Hels does, then you have re-opened the steralised bottle. So I think they both are the same risk wise.

When I travel, I put some made up feeds from the fridge into a cooler bag and I have a flask of hot water to sit the feeds in to heat up.

babychickens · 02-10-2006, 15:38

from a purely microbiological perspective, the purpose of the boiling water is to kill the bugs in the water, any that have snuck into your sterilized bottle, AND to kill any bugs in the formula powder, hence the importance of adding formula to hot water.

the problem with keeping feeds in the fridge is that any bugs that somehow haven't been killed (70oC won't necessarily kill everything) will grow when you warm the feed back up. if you keep the bottles in the door or right at the front of the fridge they'll still be able to grow faster than if you keep them at the back of the fridge where the temperature is more stable and lower. that said, if you always make your feeds up fresh, if you keep them for too long any bugs that have survived will be able to start growing again as the temperature drops. whether making the feeds up fresh or keeping htem in the fridge is better in terms of not growing bugs I personally don't know, but I would assume that the government guidelines are based on appropriate lab based tests. on the website it does say that the risk of microbe problems is low if you make them all up at once, but given that the only advantage i can see of making htem all up at once is the speed it takes to warm the milk, i prefer to do mine fresh each time. it only takes 10 minutes to cool the feed down, and i'm lucky that babybabychickens is very predictable so i don't need to listen to 10 minutes of scream whenever she's hungry.

cosywolf · 05-10-2006, 14:27

I boiled water and often kept it in the sterilised bottle while it cooled, then made the formula, and generally had one or two in the fridge. I also tended to have one around at night upstairs, from the fridge into a cool bag with an ice pack awaiting the night feed.

I didn't reheat because I got cosycub into the habit straight off of accepting his milk as it came - straight from the fridge, or freshly warm when I'd just made one up. That, at least, took one problem out of the equation.

bethan4230 · 13-10-2006, 20:32

This confused me too, when I was feeding number 1 son the advice on the packet said you could keep them for 24 hours in the fridge. Now feeding number 2 son, the advice has changed (just like the advice that you now shouldn't wean until 6 months - I ignored that one too). I'm afraid I still make a days worth and keep them in the fridge, but number 2 son has just had a dodgy bottom for a day, so maybe that is why!

Brunette · 13-10-2006, 23:00

I know that the advice has changed since I had my daighter - and she's not 3 yet! I made up a day's worth and kept them in the fridge. I'd probably do the same again to be honest!

doodle · 15-10-2006, 01:07

When you make a whole days up, do you let the bottle cool on the side before putting them in the fridge or do you put them straight in the fridge? Me and Hubby do it different to each other, so would like to get us doing the samething, but not sure which way is the best.

babychickens · 15-10-2006, 08:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by doodle

When you make a whole days up, do you let the bottle cool on the side before putting them in the fridge or do you put them straight in the fridge? Me and Hubby do it different to each other, so would like to get us doing the samething, but not sure which way is the best.

same as with food - you shouldn't put hot or warm food straight in the fridge, i imagine this should apply to milk, too. you should probably let it cool first.

NatalieSheff · 19-10-2006, 21:13

my baby is 14m now and i make 3 bottles at a time. i boil the water, put it in jug leave to cool, add the HIPP and pour into bottles and straight in fridge until he needs one. then i sometimes warm it in microwave for 10sec so its cold-room temp or i just give it him straight from fridge.
i used to heat it thru warm water, but hed be screaming for it and then id leave it in too long and have to put it in cold water! nightmare
ready milk is very good to have in!