How do you make and store formula?

Hi,

Well, my girls are almost six months and I'm ready to stop pumping. I've made it to my revised goal (originally I wanted to breastfeed for a year, but since neither of them latched on, I decided that six months of pumping would be the new goal). So, now I'm about to start using formula and wondering if any of you have tips as to how best to do this for twins?

Do you make up all of your formula for the day at one time? Do you put it all in the bottles in advance? Do you store a whole day's worth in a pitcher? Or do you make up each bottle right before feeding? If you store in the fridge, do you warm up before you serve the formula? If one of your kids doesn't finish a bottle, do you throw it out or reuse at the next feeding?

Also, how do you wash your bottles and nipples? Just regular warm soapy water after each meal? Or do you boil everything each night? Use the dishwasher?

Thanks in advance for the advice!

 

Right now we make each bottle up right before we serve it. At the beginning of the day/night I put the water in each bottle so that all I have to do is add the powder and mix it right before the feed. My babies are fine with it at room temperature. I have thought about making it up ahead of time but I'm thinking if I store it in the fridge I would have to heat it up before serving.

We wash the bottles usually twice a day in warm soapy water (we have enough bottles that I go through them all, then wash them all at once). I was doing them in the dishwasher but the nipples weren't getting clean and I had to rewash them anyway. I never bothered with the sterilizing, and the babies seem fine so far.

 

We've done it all possible ways, but now we mix up a big pitcher each night and then pour them into the bottles and store in the fridge. Then we take out the bottles before each feeding to bring them to room temp.

What makes my life so much easier is I have enough bottles for 2 days (12) so that way I just run the dishwasher each night after I prep the bottles for the next 24 hours. It may have cost a little more, but it saves my sanity and that is huge!

 

QUOTE(Trishandthegirls @ Oct 18 2007, 03:12 PM) [snapback]456849[/snapback]
Do you make up all of your formula for the day at one time? Do you put it all in the bottles in advance? Do you store a whole day's worth in a pitcher? Or do you make up each bottle right before feeding? If you store in the fridge, do you warm up before you serve the formula? If one of your kids doesn't finish a bottle, do you throw it out or reuse at the next feeding?


It depends. Usually, DH makes enough for the entire day and stores it in a jug if he has time. If he doesn't, I just use hot water and mix it up as needed. If I'm going somewhere, I'll pre-measure the powder and then just add the proper amount of water as needed so it doesn't go bad. I've found it really hard to find something to store ready-made bottles in and they won't eat it cold.

If you mix it up and put it in a jug, you have to store it in the frige. So, yes, you'd need to heat it up. We use the Munchkin bottle warmer from Target, and like it a lot. I've never gotten one too hot to use. You're not supposed to reuse any unused formula. We've cheated on that once or twice, if they start and only eat half an ounce and it hasn't hurt anything. It does go bad quickly...you shouldn't leave it out or use it after more than an hour. That's not so much of a problem once they're older.

I haven't found that one way is better than another or even faster. It takes about 3-4 minutes no matter what.

As for washing. All of our's are washed in the sink, by hand, with a mild dish soap (I think it's called Dawn free and clear or something). If we're in a hurry, they might get put in the dishwasher, in top rack with the nipples and rings inside a plastic basket that holds them. But, that's rare, because they can deteriorate much more quickly that way. I always inspect them for cracks or burn marks too.

Hope that helps!

 

I tried EVERYTHING in the beginning. We made bottle in advance, I soaked nipples, I could go on and on. We finally found a solution that works for us. I make the bottles at the time of feeding. if I know they will eat at 11 I will make the bottle at 10:30 so it is ready. Then after the bottle I rinse, put the bottle in the dishwasher and put the nipple into a big pot that sits on my stove. I boil the nipple everynight. I keep that pot on the stove and toss the nipples in there and boil them when I have time. You will find your own routine. This is just what works for me.

 

We make a big jug of it every morning that will last us all day.

I use to use a new bottle each time they ate, but now I just use the same one all day. I rinse it out between bottles and keep them in the fridge.
They all go in the dishwasher everynight to be cleaned. I tried washing by hand, but it just became easier to throw them in the dishwasher.

 

I also made up a batch for the day. Our formula would clump, so I would use the Pampered Chef pitcher with the plunger in it. I would use a whisk first to mix it well, and then restir when we got it out of the fridge. We made up bottles as we needed them and heated them in the micro for a short time to get the chill off.

 

We made a day's worth at a time. DH was in charge of this, as it took muscles. Here was the protocol:

Start a big pot of water warming on the stove.
Fill pitcher (with good seal) with COLD water (cold water has less bacteria) from the tap -- the right amount for a day's worth of formula.
When water on stove is simmering, turn off heat and put pitcher in. Let it sit until water in pitcher is very warm.
Remove lid and add appropriate amt of formula (carefully).
Put lid back on and shake, shake, shake, until completely dissolved. This usually took about 5 minutes of near-constant shaking (that's why DH had to do it).
Dump hot water out of pot and fill pot with mixture of ice & cold tap water. Put pitcher back into pot (in the sink) until cool. This quick-cooling reduces the amount of time that it spends in the "danger zone" where bacteria can grow.
Then I poured a day's worth of bottles, labeled them with the date, and put them in the fridge. (ETA: I had to pour most of the bottles in advance for daycare anyway -- so it was easier to just pour them all.)

When it was time to eat, we warmed the bottles in a pot of very hot tap water. We had a bottle warmer, but it was totally unpredictable. After about 9 months, I started just nuking them for 10 seconds.

We did re-use bottles -- we'd leave them out for up to an hour, then put back in the fridge if there was more than a couple of ounces left. (That may seem silly, given how careful we were about bacteria when mixing the formula, but there you go.) At the end of the day, we dumped out all partially-drunk bottles.

We washed bottles & nipples on the "sterilize" cycle in the dishwasher (nipples in a little plastic mesh box, to keep them from flying around).

Sorry this is so long.... but since you asked.

Congrats to you for pumping for 6 months! Pumping is sooo hard -- I am really impressed.

 

Each night after the girls are in bed we make a big pitcher of formula ( we warm the tap water on the stove and then mix it in a pitcher).
We pour it into enough bottles for the entire day and store them in the fridge. For us it is ten bottles.
The next day, as we need them, we take the bottles out and bring them to room temp in a tupperwar container of hot water-it is pretty quick.
If the girls don't finish a bottle-we toss the rest. Our bottles and nipples are washed in the dishwasher. We have one of those baskets you put nipples, etc. in on the top rack of the dishwasher.
Having the individual bottles ready to go when I need them has made all the difference for me!

 

Thank you everyone! You've all given me some great tips... it's interesting how everyone does this almost the same, but just a little different.

Thanks again -