warming bottles

Just curious how everyone heats their 5oz or more bottles. With the smaller bottles we have always heated water in coffee cups and put the bottles in them. This method seems to not get the bigger amounts warm enough. Plus we have cereal in every bottle for reflux issues so it's thicker than just the formula. Any suggestions? Thanks
Allison

 

Just curious how everyone heats their 5oz or more bottles. With the smaller bottles we have always heated water in coffee cups and put the bottles in them. This method seems to not get the bigger amounts warm enough. Plus we have cereal in every bottle for reflux issues so it's thicker than just the formula. Any suggestions? Thanks
Allison

 

I know your not supposed to, but I began heating bottles in a microwave when the bottle warmer stopped getting them warm enough. I put two 4 oz. bottles in at a time without the tops and started at full power for 20 seconds (when the bottles have been in the fridge for quite a while) and then tested every 10 seconds after that. Of course you shake the crap out of them to make sure there are no hot spots. Right now the girls still like their bottle warm at night--for two 8 oz. bottles it takes about 1 min. 23 secs.

 

For the first four months, we used a bottle warmer that we purchased at Target for about $20. At around four months, we switched to the microwave and never looked back! The bottle warmers take about 5 minutes to heat up, which doesn't sound like much and it isn't when you can anticipate their feedings during the day and have the bottle ready to go when they are hungry. However at night, when you have a screaming baby wake up and want to eat, 5 minutes is an eternity! Now we take the tops off the bottles and warm up 8-9oz in the microwave for 30 seconds (each). We shake them really well. Wish we'd done this from the beginning!

 

Yep, against all rules, we also warm bottles in the microwave. We remove the nipples and mic for 40 seconds (as pp said, test what works with your microwave). Note: we don't heat to make the bottles warm, just slightly warmer than room temp. Shake well to avoid hot spots, and always test on your wrist. We've never had any problem, but I think the key is that we aren't trying to heat the bottles too much.

 

If you really don't want to microwave (I do it too from the fridge, although mine usually take room temp) another option is leaving a crockpot of water plugged in and set to low. It gets hotter than a bottle warmer so you have to watch that the bottle doesn't get too hot. I did this when I was pumping/freezing. Now they're totally on formula so I zap the bottles.

 

I was going to suggest the crock pot, someone on TS mentioned it after we were done with bottles and I soo wish I had read about it before.

In regards to microwaving, hot spots are not the only issue. I have read that the actual microwaves from the microwave can remove some of the nutritional value from the formula. If you must microwave then it would be best to only heat the water then mix in powder after the water is heated. The shaking should eliminate hot spots and this method should also retain all the nutrition intended.

 

I typically served the bottles at room temperature. If I was filling from a batch that was in the fridge, I microwaved to bring it to a warmer temp.

 

I agree with one of the pp's about microwaving, just doing the water. That's what we do.....I fill a pyrex measuring cup (glass) with water and microwave it about 50 seconds while I'm getting bottles. I just feel better microwaving in glass, since I just don't know what happens to the plastic as its microwaved. Maybe it's all a big scam, but it makes me feel better.

 

I mix a big batch of formula at night for the next day, so it is cold in the refrigerator. I pour the bottles and microwave them (without the nipples) for 30 seconds to take the chill off. It doesn't make the bottle warm. I give it a good shake just to make sure there are no hot spots.

 

It took so long to warm up bottles that I found it was faster to make fresh ones each time I needed them. They got hot water right from the tap (and still do). I actually save time doing it this way. When I was warming them, I put hot water in glasses and dunked the bottles in them. Dunk and spin....dunk and spin.

 

I boil the kettle and stick the two bottles in a pot and do it that way. It seems to warm them up quite well x

 

We did it the super-oldfashioned way -- heat water almost to boiling in a pot on the stove, then stick the bottles in. We used a bottle warmer for the first few weeks, but it actually took longer because it was so unpredictable -- half the time we wound up having to cool the bottles off or warm them a second time.

I would have used hot water from the tap, but DH is a biologist and he was worried about all the bacteria that lurk in your hot-water heater, so he insisted on using cold tap water.

Then at 10 months or so we switched to the microwave. By that time we were barely warming them at all -- only 20 seconds for a 7-oz bottle.

 

I never got mine used to warm formula and feed them cold out of the fridge - it also keeps my son from spitting up too much...

 

We used our bottle warmers for the first couple of months because it was fast and easy. After that, I phased the girls onto room-temp bottles. It worked better that way for travel, just being out of the house, and for efficiency at home. It was a gradual transition as I started heating the bottles for less and less time.

 

I also use the microwave during the day, but at night I put the powder in the bottles and warm water in my coffee thermos and take it to my room at night. Then we just pour the warm water in the bottle with premeasured powder. Very fast and easy.

 

We used warm water to mix the bottles. (Can't make big batches, but we didn't care!)

 

When I had to heat them, I used the microwave, take the nipple off... I only heated it for like 20 seconds and shook well to make sure there were no hot spots.

 

If you microwave water only, make sure you put something in it like a wooden stirrer or a toothpick.
Water can get super heated in the microwave and it will explode if you pour a powder into it. I always thought it was an urban myth until it happened to my DH while making a hot chocolate. It was the most insane thing I've ever seen... the water just sort of blew up in a big puff of steam and chocolate gunk was everywhere. I don't know how DH kept from getting burned. For some reason if you put a wooden stirrer in the glass this doesn't happen.
Not like anyone would be heating water up THAT much for formula, but accidents do happen.