How do you make your formula in big batches?

My pumping has sadly come to an abrupt end, and my girls are only getting one bottle of breastmilk each per day (but I made it to 4 months, yay!). So now that I am mostly feeding formula, I think it's time to start making the formula in big batches, maybe even the night before to save time.

How do you make your formula in advance? Do you make it in individual bottles and keep them in the fridge (I think that might take up an awful lot of fridge space for my twins)? Or do you mix it in a blender, or in a pitcher, or do you just make indiv. bottles as needed throughout the day? For some reason my mom seems obsessed with glass and urges me to use a big glass pitcher and glass bottles (???) but I think that's loony or at least very impractical.

Then how do you reheat the bottles of formula? In a bottle warmer, on the stove, etc? I use the Playtex Vent-Aire bottles and when you submerge the bottom half of them in water, they tend to collect a bit of water around the bottom and make a mess.

I find bottle-feeding to be much more difficult than breastfeeding and this process has been semi-mystifying for me since I b/f'ed my first two girls. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

 

We always mixed up a big batch in a rubbermaid pitcher to be poured into the bottles and kept that in the fridge. We always serve our formula at room temp, so we would put it in the microwave (yes, i know, bad mommy) for a short time to take the chill out. My sister warms hers in a pan of water on the stove. HTH

 

We started out just mixing bottles as needed, but we had to switch to Enfamil AR which I was never able to get fully mixed like that. Now we make a pitcher (plastic) and poor as needed into the bottles (plastic--your loony comment was funny! :rotflmbo: ), then microwave for 33 seconds and shake, shake, shake to disperse any hot spots. I used to fill the bottles ahead of time, but it took a lot of time and space to do it that way.

 

I also made a batch of formula for the day, I used my Pampered Chef Quick Stir Pitcher for this. I would just pour in into the bottles when needed. To heat them up I put water in a pyrex container and heated that in the microwave. Then I put the bottle in that hot water to warm up.

 

I also used my quick stir pitcher to mix up 24 hours worth of formula, then I'd pour into a bottle and microwave for 10 seconds an ounce. (give or take) for a nice warm bottle or 4 seconds an ounce for a room temp bottle.

I agree with you about bottle feeding being harder than bfing, but congrats for making it for 4 months! :yahoo:

 

We made formula in Rubbermaid containers as well, but we (another bad mommy) didn't warm up the formula. They took it straight from the fridge. They didn't know any different, and it made it a little easier on us. I know you are supposed to pour it into bottles after you mix it, but we kept it in the container (we had 2 so switched them out to wash each day) until they got fairly regularly taking the same amount all the time so we could just pour out what we needed.

 

Like the others I make a days worth of formula and mix it in a rubbermaid container. I usually pour a few bottles (plastic ones) and leave the rest in the container unless my fridge is empty then I pour them all. And like others I am a bad mommy and pop it in the microwave for 30 seconds (6oz) just to take the chill off and then shake it. This is how I have always done it and no problems so far.


ETA: Just make sure to take the nipple off before heating if you use the microwave because otherwise it ruins the nipples.

 

I do make mine up in advance and I do it in the bottles. I do this right after I feed them...they sit in their high chairs, I crank up the radio and make them up while singing to the boys (they love it)! I am efficient, I can make 10 bottles up in less than 15 minutes. We would pull a bottle out, sit it in a glass of lukewarm water and give it to them. I am trying to wean them off of even it being heated up at all.

 

I used the blender. I found that is completely got rid of all of the formula chunks--one of mine was on Alimentum and it is a very chunky formula. I would make one big batch for 24 hours worth and pour it into bottles to store in the fridge. Yes, it does take up room in the beginning but once you get down to about 4 bottles a day it dramatically improves.

I used the Avent bottle warmer and the occasional microwave (another bad mommy here)when the babies were screaming!!


Rachel

 

We no longer do the big batches, just easier to do individual bottles. But when we did do the bottles, we mixed in a rubbermaid pitcher and kept it there. We poured what we needed out of that pitcher....and put it in the microwave.....I KNOW I KNOW it is bad.....but SO much faster than the bottle warmers.

 

I make all their bottles (always have) and have a shelf in the fridge designated for them, when we used powder I would use a pitcher (blue one from b r' us) and just mix a big batch (am/pm? when we ran out) and fill the bottles. Now that we use pre-mixed b/c BCBS covers it (similac/ neosure) yippee! I will make what we need and grab them when they are hungry. My pedi told us if 'we could get them to drink it cold we would be golden!' They do and we are!! I just grab it from the fridge and pop the bottles in their mouths and no having to heat or warm them up, so much time saved! I had to wean them though, as we started to warm them initially (micro water in the micro and sat bottles in the water for 2-4 minutes) and I slowly started leaving in the water for less and less time each day until they drank it cold, Now it's the only way they like it; say if it has sat out for a half hour or so, and is room temp, they won't drink it. I prefer COLD milk too, so whatever works! I always THOUGHT you HAD to give a baby warm milk, I was wrong! Thankfully our pedi mentioned it or we would still be warming the bottles...

 

I use the platex vent-aire and I mix my bottles and warm them in the micro for about 20sec for 4 oz. It is not to warm and not to cold. I always leave a jug of boiled water on my counter so when i don't have bottles made in the fridge I just pour and mix formula for each individual feeding.
good luck missy

 

I don't use formula (EBM) but we have a crockpot on the counter always warm and ready to heat up bottles in. I do know what you mean about the Vent Aire bottles collecting though and it's actually why I switched! It's so conveinent for DH or sitter to pop one out of the frigde ready made and put in the crock pot for a minute or two and it's done!

 

we used to make them up (when they were at the height of formula) in the pampered chef pitcher or with a hand blender and pour 24 hrs worth and keep them in the fridge - we also never warmed our bottles - it helped my son with spitup - if the bottles were warm he'd barf that much worse!

 

Every night I make the bottles for that night's feeding and 3 feedings the next day. I mix it in a pitcher and then put it in bottles in the fridge overnight. I leave the bottles for that night out so that I don't have to warm them (since I use it within 2 hours.) The next day we just pull out the bottles, take off the tops, and microwave them together. It makes the next day so much easier when everything is ready to go.

 

We made it in a big pitcher, with about 48 hours' worth at a time. DH was in charge of formula-making because it took muscles (though I could do it if I had to). He started with cold tap water (because warm water is more likely to contain bacteria). Then he submerged the pitcher of cold water in a big pot of hot water to warm it up. When it was warm, he measured the powder into it, screwed the lid on really tight, and shook it for several minutes (off and on) until it was completely dissolved. Then he dumped the hot water out of the big pot and refilled it with cold water, to cool the formula off quickly (so bacteria wouldn't get a chance to grow). When it was cool, I poured it into individual bottles, labelled them with the date, and stashed them in the fridge.

Can you tell my DH is a scientist? :icon_biggrin:

When it was time to eat, we warmed them in a pot of warm water (just tap water, run hot). We did this until they were about 9 months old and then I caved and started microwaving for 20 seconds (for two bottles). It was a lot faster, and since they didn't need it as warm at that point (just room temp), there was more margin for error and I didn't worry as much about overheating. I did shake them pretty well after microwaving, just in case.

 

With mine I would measure the water and pour it into a milk carton and add the formula and shake it. I then would just measure what I needed into the bottles. The boys ate a lot so it never stayed in the fridge long!

 

Hi there. After I stopped pumping I tried a range of different plans for making formula and finally found something that works well for me.

I boil tap water (2 minutes at a rolling boil) and allow it to cool for about 30 minutes. Then I transfer it to a glass pitcher (hermetically sealed to keep out contaminants) (see: http://store.greenfeet.com/itemMatrix.asp?...p;MatrixType=2). Boiled water in a sealed container will stay sterile for 24 hours at room temp or 48 hours in the fridge. I keep the pitcher in the cupboard at room temp, along with sterilized bottles and a can of powdered formula. Everytime I need a bottle I just pour the water into the bottle, add the scoops of formula, shake and we're ready to go. The bottle is the right temp (room temp - my kids are fine with this) so I don't have to do any heating/cooling. I don't have to deal with lumps of formula or anything (like when you use cold water). Making a bottle takes about 10 seconds, which is WAY faster than when I was making a big pitcher of formula or big batches of bottles and keeping them in the fridge (and then needing to put them in the warmer for 5 minutes or micro for 1-2 minutes). Hungry babies cannot wait! (I wish they could!) When my guys ate in the night I just put a couple of water-filled bottles in their room and one of those travel formula holders with the powder all measured out. No muss, no fuss.

Clear, hard plastic is the "dangerous" kind. A glass pitcher is great. Glass bottles are pricey and heavy for babies to hold (if they ever start) not to mention fragile. Gerber makes new bottles that are exactly like the Avent kind, except with "safe" plastic (and they're cheaper!). They're called Gerber Gentle Flow (http://www.gerber.com/prodcat?catid=438).

Good luck!

 

Target has the most AWESOME drink dispenser - it works GREAT! I just boiled the water, let it cool and mixed the formula in this bad boy. I got two so that I could clean one and have the other ready.

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/601-4...D&bckreg=lc