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EAT => Bottle Feeding => Topic started by: malenka on March 19, 2014, 23:45:49 pm
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I'm new to bottle feeding... DS never took one, and DD is finally willing to take one. I'd like to wean her NF and I think if I give her a bottle instead of BFing, it might make things easier because it will discourage any comfort nursing, and I will be able to slowly decrease the amount she's getting.
My question, being new to bottle feeding, is how on earth do you heat a bottle in the middle of the night? When DD wakes for a NF, if I don't get to her fairly quickly, she screams the house down and wakes her brother. If I'm going to give her a bottle of EBM, I'll have to go to the kitchen, boil water, heat the bottle in the water... seems like it would take way too long! I know you're not supposed to heat them in the microwave because of potential hot spots, but can't I just swirl the milk around to make sure the temperature is uniform?
One more question, she seems to like the bottle I have for her, so that's great but I did notice that it's a low flow teat. She's 7 months - should I buy a faster flow teat? I want her to have to "work" at the bottle a bit, so that it's more like BFing. She seems happy enough with the flow, but since I'm new at this, I wondered...
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If I'm going to give her a bottle of EBM, I'll have to go to the kitchen, boil water, heat the bottle in the water... seems like it would take way too long!
This is pretty much what I did. It is lengthy, but as you said if I didn't take him with me he'd scream the house down. As he got older it was harder and harder to get him back to sleep after the feed - we weaned it at 8 months. I know someone mentioned to me boiling the water before bed and putting it in a thermos to keep it hot until the NF, then at least you can warm the bottle in her room quickly. Never personally tired it though.
One more question, she seems to like the bottle I have for her, so that's great but I did notice that it's a low flow teat. She's 7 months - should I buy a faster flow teat?
I used Playtex bottles & nipples and my DS used the low flow until probably 10 or 11 months. The fast flow was just WAY too fast. My thought is...if it ain't broke, don't fix it :)
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I usually run the tap water until it's really hot and then let the bottle sit in a mug of hot water, but that usually takes at least 5 min. Luckily my LO is pretty relaxed and can wait for a bit. Occasionally I've given him his paci while waiting and he falls back asleep.
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I did use a thermos of boiled water which I kept upstairs with the ready measured powder and for those unexpected middle of the night feeds we did boil the water but used this slightly sped up version of mixing:
1. I carefully observed how much volume the water plus powder mix would be (eg for 8oz of formula 240mls - once it's all mixed together it comes to 260/70mls)
2. Add the ready measured powder to a bottle;
3. Add in some boiling water - for an 8pz bottle 140/160mls of boiling works;
4. Add cold water up to 260/70mls.
This makes a bottle of how right temperature for my DD and can be drunk straight away, while you're still getting the benefit of sterilising the milk powder at the start.
You do still have to wait for the kettle to boil though, DH would often hold DD until milk was ready in these circumstances, so perhaps not good for every night.
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I was exclusively expressing till 5.5 mo, so I always kept boiling water in a thermos to warm up EBM. So, day time or night time won't be any different. When we switched to formula, we did what Naomi did. Again I keep a bottle of cold water (cooled boiled when DS was a baby) and then thermos of boiling water. I find that boiling water takes the longest time. HTH
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I actually didn't heat up my son's bottle in the middle of the night and he didn't seem to mind. I researched it a bit and you don't have to heat up a bottle it is just a preference. But i guess it depends on what kind of formula you are using. I used the powdered kind, So I would have the water in the bottle ready to go and then all I had to do was scoop the formula in and shake. I found this to be so much easier in the middle of the night!
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A bottle warmer would at least take the time of boiling out of the equation - I got ours second hand and it warms up a 5-6oz bottle in about 5 minutes.
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I use a bottle warmer as well. I keep one in our DD's room and get the measured water ready before she goes to bed. I keep the night feed bottle in a cooler with an ice pack in my bedroom so I don't have to go downstairs while she's crying. I pop the bottle in the warmer as soon as she wakes up and by time I finish changing her it's ready.
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A friend recently told me that tommee tippee do a coffee machine type dispenser... Wish I'd have known about it before!
Don't know if you can get them there? It basically dispenses formula at the correct temperature really quickly, all you have to do is put a sterilised bottle under it and press a button... Much easier than boiling a kettle etc.. Especially at night!
Hth or hope you can find something similar over there if this one isn't available xx
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A friend recently told me that tommee tippee do a coffee machine type dispenser... Wish I'd have known about it before!
My brother, king of the gadgets, has one for his DD. You put the powder in the bottle and press the button for the correct oz, it delivers a hot shot to kill the possible bacteria then tops up the bottle to the correct amount which makes it the right temp for drinking straight away in about 2 mins.
They cost about £100 :o :o :o Seriously, £100 for a glorified kettle!!!!
Laura
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Ha ha Laura, I didn't know that! Think I was just in awe of the idea! ;)
Xx
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Hi Malenka
We used a themos. Put the milk in hot before bed. By 2.00 am it was just the right temperature. If it was a bit hot, I just put some cold water in.
RE teats..we just cut bigger holes as DD got bigger.
Julia
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DD is EBF, so the tricks for formula don't work for us. That being said, I haven't had much time to pump lately so instead of giving a bottle in the middle of the night, I've been BFing. The recommendation here is that LOs can start with cow's milk at 9 months, so next month I'm planning on replacing the middle of the night BF with a bottle of regular milk, so these suggestions will come in handy for sure!
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A friend recently told me that tommee tippee do a coffee machine type dispenser... Wish I'd have known about it before!
My brother, king of the gadgets, has one for his DD. You put the powder in the bottle and press the button for the correct oz, it delivers a hot shot to kill the possible bacteria then tops up the bottle to the correct amount which makes it the right temp for drinking straight away in about 2 mins.
They cost about £100 :o :o :o Seriously, £100 for a glorified kettle!!!!
Laura
Lol...if I was formula feeding from the start I might be tempted but I use my Kuerig in the same way, plus I can make coffee!
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We used hot water from the keurig to heat bottles before we got a bottle warmer. Just don't put the k-cup in, let it run plain water out, and voila instant hot water ;) We still use other people's keurigs to get hot water when out and about and need to warm up a bottle!
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Well, you can warm up a bottle in coffee...I have forgotten the last k cup in a few times and instead of running more water I just pop itin the coffee!
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My GF kept her crock pot on at night with water in it. You could also just place a small amount of water on the stove to boil, (before you go to bed) and make your formula with a small portion of boiling water and the rest just room temperature water. A small bit of water in a pot will boil in 2 minutes, then mix with room temp water. Maybe an ounce of boiling water to 5 ounces of room temp....you'd have to play with that during the day with just plain water to get the ratio right. So much faster than placing the whole bottle into the hot water, kwim?