Sorry to rant but i think the title says it all. Whats this latest 'rule' telling poor new mums that they have to make every bottle up as they need it and it has to be with freshly boiled water over 70C?? FFS where do they think these poor women would find the time? And to tell them that if they dont follow these guidelines they risk making their baby ill is disgusting. Has anyone else always made bottles up the old way of making them up in advance and storing them in the fridge or at least putting cool boiled water in the bottles ready and adding powder when needed? Almost all of us no doubt, and are all our kids ok? Yes! Well apparently now by making bottles up in these ways we are putting our little ones health at risk. What a load of bollocks. I for one am sick of mums who formula feed being punished by various health professionals for not breastfeeding, because thats what they are doing, trying to make mums feel guilty for using formula and trying to make it as difficult as possible for them and some women listen to this advice and get really stressed out. Its not fair!!! Ok rant over xxx

Totally agree with everything you've said.
At some point they need to realise that a mums mental health is extremely important for the well being of her baby and making us feel guilty and anxious about doing every little thing wrong isnt good for anybody.
Arrrggghhhh!

It is sooo irritating. I make my bottles by putting the cool boiled water in and then adding the powder when needed. So looks like I'm doing it wrong too! But I will continue to make them this way - its convinient, the milk isn't left standing and you dont need to warm bottles.

Me & my 4 siblings were bottle fed and we're all fine, no allergies, no health problems! Also 10 yrs ago when my bro was born I remember my stepmum would make up 24 hours worth of bottles in the fridge...that's what everyone did...

If the new research is correct then how come the majority of babies are fine with the bottles made up in the old ways? It really is a load of crap! Some so called experts just like to try and make things as awkward as possible for new mums when dealing with a newborn is challenging enough as it is without having to worry about poisoning your baby with all this so called bacteria. What a load of nonsense! I do genuinely believe it is a round-a-bout way of attempting to 'punish' mothers for opting not to breastfeed. Where on earth are or rights to choose for ourselves going??

ok - don't tell anyone but i make the bottles with water and then add the powder when required. if my baby doesn't drink it it gets put in the fridge and if i need to warm it up i do it in the microwave. all big no-nos but I'm really hygenic about everything else. i think there are problems wih germs and stuff but you can't get your baby to avoid all of them! how are they meant to build up an immune system?
some people i am sure are not following any rules - sterilising, washing hands etc and i am pretty sure the strict guidelines are aimed for them so that there is some slim chance they might follow some of the rules to prevent bugs etc!
or am i just being cynical?

Hi EmmaLou85,

I had my little girl nearly 6 wks ago, and its mine and oh first child, so we wer completely new at everything. So we listened to everything Hv and Mw told us. For the first 4 days after bringing lo home we made her bottles up wen she wanted a feed. It was so stressful for us, my little girl wud be crying in the middle of the night screaming to be fed but we had to wait 30 mins every time. It was horrible. And she was feeding roughly every 2 hrs. So it was constant. Then a friend of mine whos had 3 children came round and i told her wat we wer doing, she was discusted that we wer told to do this.
After I spk to my mate, we started making her feeds in advance, and shes had no problems, shes a very happy little girl now, except for a little bit of colic.

Naz
xxx

I agree!!

I followed all the gidelines to the letter ( as advised by HV ) and as a result had a screaming baby, as I was feeding on demand when he first came home, and as he had no routine, when he awoke we then had to prepare his bottle - makin him wait for 30 minutes each time ( in the meantime he was screaming his head off )

It was driving me nuts, and when I asked HV could I make up in advance she said NO WAY!!!

That lasted for 10 days - then I came on here for advise and haven't looked back since.

I make 4 bottles up at a time, and leave them out - then add the formula to the cooled boiled water and serve (!!) at room temp, so much easier!

Use the tommee tippee formula pots if we are going out! Easy! and so less stressfull

Sam x

Hi Naz and Mummyclyders, sorry to here that your health visitors caused you so much stress. They are supposed to be there to help you and make things easier, not to cause you hassle,which most seem to do. Glad though that you now make your feeds up in the way you find easiest, which is what everyone should do. They just make up these new 'rules' to make things difficult for people and i honestly believe that health visitor is the most pointless job on earth, half of them have never had children of their own and then try to dictate to mums how to bring up their children and they seem to try to pick fault with anything they can. I do not consult my health visitor about anything,in my experience, they are full of s***,they are my children and i know best, the best people who can offer advice i find are other mums.

I'm just sooo glad I came on here before I had my lo so I knew what other mums did about making up their bottles!

There was no way I was making as I went, it would be ridiculous imo, also it's a lot of work cooling down a hot bottle in the middle of the night for a new mum, what if she was stressed with a screaming hungry baby & accidently didnt cool bottle down enough??? Could happen to anyone particularly if you were single and half asleep

Surely that is much more dangerous then making in advance.

My HV told me to make them as I needed them too...we don't anymore. She also made me feel guilty for not breast feeding...I cried and cried I felt like I was doing somethign so bad to poor Lily then for not doing it, but I just didn't feel I could breast feed her. It all came flooding back in the last week as we've had trouble with her throwing back up her feeds (they think it's relfux) and I felt like it was all my fault for not breast feeding.

Louise.

My hv told me that we should not keep the made up feeds after 12 hours and that really we should making the baby a fresh feed every time, which is a nightmare. What we do now make up the water and store it in the fridge and just heat it up either in the microwave or the bottle warmer when needed. We have also bought tommee tippee milk powder dispensers which hold the amount of milk needed which i make up ready for the night time feeds. Alot easier than trying to measure the powder when half asleep. I think if we did everything the hv said we would have a lot of worn out mams.

Nat

Jellyfishpink dont feel guilty for not breastfeeding, i dont and never have. There is nothing to feel guilty about. There are lots of breastfed babys out there who have reflux and contrary to what many will tell you, breastfed babies do get constipated, colic etc, so it has nothing to do with formula feeding. It is a shame that in this day and age many people seem to think they have a right to a say on how other people feed their children, which they dont. After years of women having virtually no rights of choice whatsoever in all aspects of life, it seems that some small minded people are trying to take away our rights of choice when it comes to feeding our babies, its a free country, not a breastfeeding dictatorship, be proud of your choice, i am xxx

i am pg with no4 my other 3 are 11 10 7 and i made all there bottles in advance and not one of them had any problems at all so what has changed???

i am pg with no4 my other 3 are 11 10 7 and i made all there bottles in advance and not one of them had any problems at all so what has changed???

I agree, they are just making us feel bad for not breast feeding. I work in a nursery where we provide the formulae to parents and have been told by the food standards agency that it is fine to make the bottles in advance due to the amount needed, so surely parents can do the same!

xxx

I am so glad that someone else has experienced this stupid rule about bottles. My HV said that you cannot make them up with the formula in and put them in the fridge but you CAN make up your bottles in one go for the day. Put the boiled water in the bottles, cap them and then let them go to room temp, add the formula as & when you need it, but remember only lasts for 2 hours once added! This doesn't work if your little one is on easy digest milk as apparently that is thicker and the cooled water doesn't digest it!
It is sooooo much easier making the bottles up for the day in one go, means he is not screaming first thing in the morning because his bottle is not ready! - Water stays sterile for 24hrs once in the bottles

x

well i made them up in advanced with my other 2 children 1 is 5 1 is 2 they are both fine, but we have one of them tefal quick cup kettles which boils water in 3 seconds it also depsenses cold water so i might fill kettle and make up a feed will cold filtered water and water just boiled as they have both come from the same kettle

hi guys like u i was told to make bottles up wen i needed but it was a nightmare as matt wanted feeding every two hours and took an hour to feed. Matt had an operation at three weeks old and the hospital made up 24hours worth of bottles at a time.im preg with no 2 and gonna make bottles up in advance leaving me time to enjoy my family. Hv are so annoying . ive got 3 hv attached to my gp and have seen them all and theyve each got sumin different to say. Even got told off for weaning matt at just b4 4months even though i had discussed it with hospital drs x

Well said Emmalou - i totally agree! I hadn't thought of it before about rules so that bottle feeding mummies feel guilty but I'm sure you are right!

i'm sick of the bloody 'my daughter is a star for breastfeeding' poster in the asda baby room... i am sick of people harping on about how every mum can bf their baby if they persevere, and its best and formula is bad etc ect. Formula fed babies will be obese kids my arse!! Its more likely to be the junk food fed by bad parents that makes their kids obese!I I was formula fed and the only reason I'm a tubby so and so is cause I eat too much chocolate...nothing to do with what I ate as a baby!!!

I barely got any info on bottle feeding as i had gone to the bf-ing classes and therefore 'wouldn't need to know about bottles'!! I had to ask for a leaflet on bottle feeding and it was rubbish! We wanted to be prepared for using bottles before Cole arrived even though I wanted to bf.

I'm not a bad mum for choosing to give Cole a bottle at 2 1/.2 weeks old...sure I could have carried on trying to fill him up by bf-ing, but my husband was due back at work and couldn't carry on staying up all night with cole, I was still on medication for my blood pressure, and still recovering from 5 pints of blood loss and was shattered and we needed sleep and to not have a baby that cried every time we tried to get him to sleep in his basket at night! It hasn't killed him, and he was sleeping through by 6 weeks with a bottle for his last feed (from around 10 - 6.30) which was good for us because we actually got some sleep! Happy mum=happy baby!

My friend is persevering with bf-ing her new little girl every 2 hours night and day and is knackered cause baby doesn't sleep at night but won't give her a bottle and I think she's mad! Fair enough she wants to bf ... but I'm sure sleep would do her good. Both hers and Cole had jaundice and the hospital told me jaundice babies were lazy feeders and thats certainly true for both of them! Cole fed so much better from a bottle. Still..its her choice, I've told her what i did and fair play to her for persevering...b ut that much sleep deprivation wasn't for us..plus cole was much happier with a full tummy for longer!!

I'm just glad I got all my bottle feeding info from here before Cole was born .. we do 24 hours worth of bottles at a time with just the boiled water in there and we use powder containers and mix when we are ready. Much easier.. I can't imagine anything worset han making him wait 30 mins for a feed when he's hungry...its just cruel! Especially in those early days when you are a new mum and struggling cause its all new anyway..you really don't need the hassle.

The bloody government should stop trying to ram their opinions down our throats and accept that we are adults and perfectly capable of making informed decisions ourselves and should provide non biased advice on both breastfeeding and bottle feeding so that new mummies nad daddies can make their own minds up. formula is designed for babies so its not poison!

I partially bf for 5 months but Cole mostly had formula from around 3 months - he's now 7 months old and is very healthy and he's definately thriving on formula! bollocks to them..thats what i say!

I make my bottles up in advance, the night before after his last feed so they are there 24 hours. Then i add the formula when he's ready. And he's fine! I did this with my first to and he is also fine. I tell my health visitor nothing! I dont like her. I weaned him when i was ready to, and didnt tell her. when she found out i got wrong but i dont care. he was ready!

I hate it how formula is sooo expensive! It drives me mad!! xxx

I just dont see why the government wants to waste millions of taxpayers money on breastfeeding campaigns. I ff both mine from birth and never wanted to bf, and they could have thrown all these campaigns, leaflets,posters, manifestos etc at me and i would still have ff. I never wanted to breastfeed and would never ever want to in future. Its not because i couldnt, its because i didnt want to. And its my body and my children, what the f*** has it got to do with anyone else??? This is a subject that really makes my blood boil. Trying to make mums who breastfeed out to be 'superior' or 'special', WAKE UP CALL!!!! Theyre not! Theyre exactly the same as ff mums, they just feed through a tit rather than a teat. Theyre no better than those of us who ff x