Mixing baby formula to cold boiled wafer?

billygruff

Hi,
I have a question around adding baby formula to cold boiled water...

We have a baby boy and he is on SMA gold formula.
We are making the bottles up by:
1) boiling kettle with fresh cold water
2) sterilising teats/bottles/rings/caps in steam steriliser
3) adding boiled water to sterilised bottles
4) leaving water in bottles to cool to room temperature
5) add formula to the cold boiled water when baby want a bottle

The baby is doing fine (he is 15 weeks old now),
Some one mentioned that we should be adding the formula to boiled water that has been allowed to cool for 30 mins...

Has anyone else used the method of adding baby formula to cold boiled water?? What is the most normal method?

Thanks,
BG

Spades

The baby is doing fine (he is 15 weeks old now),
Some one mentioned that we should be adding the formula to boiled water that has been allowed to cool for 30 mins...

We use the same formula and let the water cool for no more than 30mins as instructed on the tin. I dont know why the water cant be cold or boiling hot but I imagine it has something to do with the way the water and formula mix. Its probably best you follow the instructions.

Ciaranpm

hi my son is 9 weeks or so , boil the kettle leave sit for max half hour and the pour into bottles add feed and cool quickly under cold tap when hot germs breed!

put them in the fridge and heat up in warmer when they want it.he goes for the bottle all the time no probs hasnt been sick at all really.

hope this helps

C

billygruff

Hi Spades, do you heat the bottle before feeding or give it at room temperature?

billygruff

just found this on an eu safefood website, looks like the purpose of adding to hot water is to kill any harmful bacteria in the formula...

http://www.safefood.eu/Global/Publications/Consumer%20information/How%20to%20prepare%


Step 2
When boiled, leave the water to cool in the kettle or pan. Cool it for 30 minutes, but no longer. This will make sure that the water is not too hot, but also that it is no less than 70°C. Using water warmer than 70°C to make up feeds will kill any harmful bacteria that may be present in the formula.

Spades

billygruff wrote: »

Hi Spades, do you heat the bottle before feeding or give it at room temperature?

we let the bottles cool to room temp and then place in the fridge. We make six at a time. When a feed is required we then heat the bottle as close to room temp as possible. The reason for this is because of a tip we got from another couple. if the baby gets used to having a warm bottle, you may find it very difficult to get the baby to take a bottle thats only at room temp, and the couple that told me that found themselves in situations were heating a bottle up wasnt an option and the baby refused it causing them and the baby grief. Thats what works for us anyway and havent had any problems yet.

Mr Magnolia

We follow a similar procedure to Spades. The only difference with us is that we'd heat the bottle beyond room temperature up to body temperature for the baby.

Ludo

We used to boil the kettle...leave to cool....sometimes for hours. Fill bottles with cold water from kettle and leave on kitchen counter. Then add formula and feed as needed. Only heated it if they were sick as didn't want them getting into the habit of only drinking warm formula. This made it sooo much easier to feed them when out and about as they were used to the room temp bottle.

Not the recommended method but hey...with twins we didn't have time to go farting around following the directions to the letter. Never had any problems with this method and no-one got sick.

noby

We do pretty much the same as Ludo.
For our first we heated the bottle. Our second wasn't as patient, and used to scream the house down in the middle of the night. Because of this, and trying to avoid waking the one year old, she got her bottle at room temp. We're on number three now, and she always gets her bottle at room temp.

The last bottle at night is often freshly made up, and warm, and seems to help them doze off.

delly

At the initial stage we followed the letter to the law, making up the bottles after 30 minutes etc. When we were out and about we used water and heated it to mix with the formula, and after 3 or 4 months just used water bottles when even at home.

We tried doing the room temperature thing, but there's nothing like a nice hot boppy to send our little one to sleep. One thing we did find however when we did try room temperature bottles was that the formula was that bit harder to mix and required a good shake.

shrapnel222

we have never bothered to either sterilise the bottles or boil the water. washing machine is more than enough to kill 99.9% of the bacteria and tap water is perfectly safe. there is absolutely no point in doing all these things imo, but then again this is a great divider. i've spoken to plenty of doctors and pediatricians who have said this to me, and plenty of others who have said sterilising is worthwhile, but not essential.

I'd love to hear tallaght101's point of view actually.

Dades

We always keep a bottle of boiled water in the fridge that just needs formula and a bit of a warm up.

Kids need a few germs anyway to build up an immune system!

Mr Magnolia

shrapnel222 wrote: »

we have never bothered to either sterilise the bottles or boil the water. washing machine is more than enough to kill 99.9% of the bacteria and tap water is perfectly safe. there is absolutely no point in doing all these things imo, but then again this is a great divider. i've spoken to plenty of doctors and pediatricians who have said this to me, and plenty of others who have said sterilising is worthwhile, but not essential.

I'd love to hear tallaght101's point of view actually.

From what I've been told by various nurses, doctors and pediatricians, the contents of your post appear to be dangerous and irresponsible.

Personally, there's no way I would use a washing machine to wash a baby's bottles and there's certainly no way I'd make bottles without having sterilized all component parts.

stovelid

Ciaranpm wrote: »

boil the kettle leave sit for max half hour and the pour into bottles add feed and cool quickly under cold tap when hot germs breed!

put them in the fridge and heat up in warmer when they want it.

This is what we do as well.

IsThatSo?

Most people I know add the formula to cold water when the baby requires a bottle. They were advised to do this as having the formula made up was in itself a breeding ground for bacteria!!

I would do whatever works best for your situation and not get too hung up on it OP

Nevyn

I agree with that being dangerous and far from best practice.
All formula feeds come with instructions I suggest people follow them.

shrapnel222 wrote: »

we have never bothered to either sterilise the bottles or boil the water. washing machine is more than enough to kill 99.9% of the bacteria and tap water is perfectly safe. there is absolutely no point in doing all these things imo, but then again this is a great divider. i've spoken to plenty of doctors and pediatricians who have said this to me, and plenty of others who have said sterilising is worthwhile, but not essential.

I'd love to hear tallaght101's point of view actually.

Ludo

shrapnel222 wrote: »

washing machine is more than enough to kill 99.9% of the bacteria and tap water is perfectly safe.

Mr Magnolia wrote: »

Personally, there's no way I would use a washing machine to wash a baby's bottles

I wouldn't use a washing machine either. Try the dish washer instead...bottles don't rattle around as much

shrapnel222

Mr Magnolia wrote: »

From what I've been told by various nurses, doctors and pediatricians, the contents of your post appear to be dangerous and irresponsible.

Personally, there's no way I would use a washing machine to wash a baby's bottles and there's certainly no way I'd make bottles without having sterilized all component parts.

as i said, this is a great divider. i guess there are a lot of irresponsible and dangerous doctors and pediatricians out there then. dishwashers typically use a temperature of 65 degrees C, which is more than enough to kill most bacteria. and tap water in this country as in a lot of european countries is much safer than mineral water for babies.
to each their own i guess

Mr Magnolia

shrapnel222 wrote: »

as i said, this is a great divider. i guess there are a lot of irresponsible and dangerous doctors and pediatricians out there then. dishwashers typically use a temperature of 65 degrees C, which is more than enough to kill most bacteria and tap water in this country as in a lot of european countries

Tell that to the people of Galway.
65 degrees in a dishwasher is a far cry from 100 degrees in the typical steam sterilizing unit. Mineral water has additives and should not be used for bottles either.

delly

At the end of the day, why take the chance? If you can prevent your child from being ill then its logical to do so.

At 20 months now I still sterilise my daughters bottles, simply because that's the routine and it costs me nothing to still do so.

Ludo

We stopped sterilizing about 2 months ago when the boys were 13 months and just put them in the dishwasher now (the bottles by the way, not the boys ). We don't boil the water anymore either. They only get one bottle a day so no big deal and I don't see the point sterilizing when they are going around licking the floor and shoving everything in their mouths anyway.

shrapnel222

Mr Magnolia wrote: »

Tell that to the people of Galway.
65 degrees in a dishwasher is a far cry from 100 degrees in the typical steam sterilizing unit. Mineral water has additives and should not be used for bottles either.

obviously if it's not fit for adult consumption it's not good for a child. i don't think even boiling galway water was enough when it was contaminated:rolleyes:

Mr Magnolia

I still sterilize purely out of routine even though is 14 months. She's on cow's milk now.

Nevyn

Ludo wrote: »

We stopped sterilizing about 2 months ago when the boys were 13 months and just put them in the dishwasher now (the bottles by the way, not the boys ). We don't boil the water anymore either. They only get one bottle a day so no big deal and I don't see the point sterilizing when they are going around licking the floor and shoving everything in their mouths anyway.

Big difference between that at 13 months and doing that 3 months.

Ludo

Thaedydal wrote: »

Big difference between that at 13 months and doing that 3 months.

Yes obviously...Sorry...guess we wandered slightly OTish.

country_gurl

we do the same as yourself... boil the water put into bottles and leave to cool on the counter then just add formula when he wants it. I dont heat it up as it saves me getting out of the bed in the middle of the night!
Its just "different courses for different horses" the experts keep changing their mind next year it'll be don't heat it. do what u think best

MrsA

We stopped Sterilising when DS was 5 months old. He has never had so much as a tummy bug since.

We wash the bottles carefully in as hot water as we can stand, and then we fill them with cool boiled water and leave them on the kitchen counter for the day and use as we need them. I would never leave them over 24 hours though.

He is just over 1 now, and only on one bottle of formula a day, we are due another baby in 9 weeks and are not planning on sterilising his bottles at all, a little bit of common sense goes a long way.

Sterilised bottles etc are not exactly sterile anyway.

M

Nevyn

If you are washing/submerging them in boiling water you are 'sterilsiing' them.

shrapnel222

Thaedydal wrote: »

If you are washing/submerging them in boiling water you are 'sterilsiing' them.

she's not washing in boiling water though. she's washing in hot water which is probably at around 55 degrees

Ludo

Related issue...I was chatting to a nurse in the feeding clinic a while back and she was saying that they see a lot of children with stomach bugs who use Dr Brown bottles.

The reason: there are soo many fiddly parts to assemble in the bottle, that even after sterilizing, they are contaminated as the parents re-assembling them haven't washed their hands properly!

Mr Magnolia

Well we use Dr. Browns and would recommend them highly. You can't compensate for parents not cleaning them correctly and there's only one fiddly part. The nurse can't be sure that they're to fault for any illness unless they've done the proper research which I'm sure they haven't.

delly

Irony of irony's folks. I came home today to find the steriliser busted. The boiling plate corroded enough for water to get down below and fried the electrics.

Maybe i'll start a thread on winning the lotto and see what happens on Saturday :pac:

January

I have a microwave steriliser for that exact reason... happened to a friend of mine.

OT, I sterilise the bottles in the microwave, then boil the kettle, let it cool for 30 minutes, pour the water into the bottles and leave them in the press till needed. Room temperature bottles for my LO.

lostinnappies

The purpose of boiling the water is to kill any harmful microorganisms. The longer you leave the water exposed to the air the more bacteria will gather. Leave it for no more then 30min. Once the bottle is made up and closed with a lid it is sterile and should be refridgerated to, again, prevent any bacteria from building up.

Personally I only ever left the water in the bottle for about 20min. My two are fine and never had a problem with tummy upsets or diarrohea, which is what you would expect from a contaminated bottle.

livvy

in my humble opinion i feel when baby is really small bottles should be 100% sterile and feed made up on demand. I was totally ott with my first baby but reckon i will cool off a bit with number 2. once they are crawling you could power hose them and it wont make a difference - with the amount of germs they are putting in there. Each to their own - i did wonder about the dishwasher but stuck with the sterilizer. See i have one baby and think i know it all:)

axel rose

Its mad how we are all different, but sure none of the babies seem to suffer for it!
Anyway I sterlised bottles until my son was about 6 months old. I make up his bottles with fresh boiled water, 2 at a time and store them in the fridge. To heat them I heat them in the microwave and give them a good shake. Now when I say freshly boiled water..........There has been the odd time when tap water was heated in the microwave and I just added the formula..........bad bad mammy but with a hungry cranky baby!

Zynks

My third child, 9-month old first girl, keeps picking stuff from the floor and putting it into her mouth. God knows what she must have swollen by now. So we try to keep the floors clean as much as we can, but with two older boys around it is very likely she will always find something.

If that isn't doing much harm to her, I guess sterilising bottles can be called a bit OTT at this stage though we still do it most of the time. It is like ordering mineral water and putting in ice from tap water.

At the crèche they say she is built like a tank.

For the three kids we always served the bottles at room temperature, mixed with cold pre-boiled water. Never had any problems with colics either, with any of them.

oh well

the germs which a baby/toddler would pick up from the floor are different to the germs which could potentially be life threatening from unsteralised milk or milk prouducts. boiling the water kills the germs in water and the boiling water will also kill off the potential germs in the dried powder milk. While its never done any harm to your children (thank god) there are young babies out there who need every help they can get to ensure they grow up healthy. The recommended methods of making up powdered formula are set by the WHO for good reason. There was case in US in recent years where babies did suffer terrible digestive problems due to bottles made up by the hospital were made with cold water. Seeing as one can never tell which baby will have a weaker immume system to another, the recommendations are there for a reason. Whether a baby takes the bottle cold or warmed up afterwards is immaterial and down to choice of the baby, but they should never be made up with cold water and once made up, should always be chilled immediately. Its the same as keeping milk warm in a flask - its not recommended. Its a perfect breeding ground for germs.

coralcathy

really interesting reading that some ppl would make the bottles with tap water..............

when i had my first child i bathed him in bottled water:o............

first time mammies eh!!

axel rose

Coralcathy thats incredible! How did you heat it for a bath? You must think Im really bad!;) ........Which reminds me that I left him out in the back garden somewhere.........this morning.

WildWater

OP
Yes raised three with that method with no problems whatsoever.

Zynks

oh well wrote: »

...boiling the water kills the germs in water and the boiling water will also kill off the potential germs in the dried powder milk....

Surely if you follow the instructions and have the water cool down for 30 minutes it won't be hot enough to kill any germs. I would wonder if good stuff also gets killed if boiling water is used directly.