I don't know why I haven't thought of this sooner, but there has to be a better way to go about feeding my daughter than what I'm doing now.
My question has two parts asking about how you do feeding time:
1.) While you're home all day, and
2.) While you're away from home, and on the move all day. (The more important part)
At home:
Up until this point, I've just been making bottles as she wants/needs them. It's fine, but it gets stressful when I have other things I'm trying to do, and then I have to stop when she's ready to eat. Sometimes, I'm not sure if it's a bottle she wants, and so she's screaming while I'm getting a bottle clean and preparing the formula, and I always find myself wishing I already had bottles ready so that we didn't have to go through this ordeal. I just feel like it would save time (and nerves for both of us).So, preparing bottles in advance seems to be the best alternative, but my daughter is so finicky with how much she drinks at a time, and I don't want to waste so much formula every time she leaves a few oz, because according to what I know, you can't re-use it after an hour of when she starts drinking. When I just prepare the bottles myself, I start with a certain amount depending on how much she's been eating that day, and then I add more if she's still hungry. If I prepare the bottles in advance, then making sure she doesn't waste any just seems like more trouble than it's worth, so I just stick to making them "to order", if you will. This gets especially tedious late at night when I'm exhausted, and when she wakes up at 1am. I just can't bring myself to make them in advance only to waste the formula, though. The pre-made formula is SO convenient and SO tempting for these times, but it's also SO expensive.
2. When I have to go to class, or anywhere that I'll be away from home for an extended period of time, I do pre-make the bottles, bc it's just too annoying to have to lug heavy water bottles around with everything else that I have to lug around, and to have to stop in public to assemble everything (especially if she's screaming for it). BUT, I have a fridge pack that only fits two bottles. It's the only one I've been able to find that stays cold for 12 hours. The other ones that claim to stay cold for hours, only stay cold for an hour in my experience. I don't remember where I got the 12 hour one, and instead of carrying two around, I was wondering if anyone knows of anything that stays cold for 12 hours, AND carries multiple bottles. Now, I have two bottles prepared in advance, but if I need more, then I'm stuck trying to figure out the water situation and bottle making in public.
Does anyone have any better ideas for preparing the formula/feeding your babies? Any routines? How many bottles do you use in a day? Do you have a lot of bottles and wash them at the end of the day, or just use one or two? I have a lot of bottles, and I soak them to sanitize them and then wash them at the end of the day. I'm starting to think this probably isn't the best way to go about doing this.
1. I bought a formula pitcher at Babies R Us. It measures in oz. I had pretty good idea how much she would drink a day and would make it up the night before. Then you can just pour it into a bottle as you go!
2. Our formula, Similac, sold formula in "singles" so you could make it up as you went. I eventually bought this cool little thing at Target that would separate formula (powdered) in 3 compartments. I would put in the amount of formula i needed, 2 scoops or whatever, in each compartment, sthen in the bottle I would have 4 oz of water ready and just mix when it was time to eat. So they didnt need to be kept cold or anything.
I dont know if you have a dishwasher, but mine had a sanitize setting, so they all went in the dishwasher.
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F.S.
answers from
St. Louis
on
For at home I just made the botttles as I go it really doesn't take that much time. When I was in public I just used a formual dispenser and I had my bottles prefilled with water so I just poured the formula in and went!! Good Luck
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J.L.
answers from
Los Angeles
on
At home I pre-made 24 oz of formula in a rubbermaid sports bottle that had measurements on the side of it. Formula in the firdge, premaid, will stay good for 24 hours. When I never knew how much my baby wanted, I gave her 4 oz to start then added more is she wanted more.
On the go I used the formula singles packets and a bottle of water (no need to keep anything cold). Think about it, 1 16 oz bottle of water will make 4 - 4oz bottles. Plus, if you run out there is always a gas station around and you can easily pick up more (I used to go through drive thru's to get water too). They also have disposible bottles at babies r us now. So if you dont even feel like taking your own bottles, you can use them once and toss them.
Good Luck. =)
Oh I wanted to add, I started off with 12 bottles, thinking I needed that many. Honestly, I use 1 or 2 now. I will never have more then just a few bottles ever again (even when I have my next one).
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K.H.
answers from
Washington DC
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I used to make the bottles in advance , you can keep made formula in the fridge for 24 hrs , once you have rewarmed it you need to use it within an hour , when you make it fresh and it has not been rewarmed you can keep it longer than an hour. For when we were going out , I put the water in the bottle ready and then had the formula powder in those containers that has 4 sections and you put the amount of powder you need and just add it to the water when needed. For your issue of making them in advance and then wasting some , is there an average amount that she takes? For example 4oz , if so then make that amount and then after if she still seems fussy and hungry make another 2oz , that way you don't waste any.
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A.T.
answers from
Oklahoma City
on
I would make formula in a pitcher and just keep it in the fridge and fill up a bottle as I needed. It saves on having to wash a bunch of bottles too. I only used a few a day and would just put them in the dishwasher. When I was out and about I would also use the pre-measured formula sleeves and just add them to the bottles of water. No need to keep anything cold and only takes a sec to tear the packet open, dump in the bottle and shake up.
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J.R.
answers from
Philadelphia
on
what i did was buy a formula dispenser... it has 3 or 4 compartments, and you scoop in the number of scoops you need for each bottle into each compartment, then you fill the bottles with the correct amount of water.
when the baby is hungry, dump one compartment in, shake and serve! I didn't even have to get out of bed when the baby was sleeping in our room!!!!!!! :)
as for not being sure how much to make... what's the average? if you waste a little bit everytime, i don't think it's the end of the world. also, if my daughters barely touched it, i didn't necessarily go by the 2 hour rule. They never got sick from it.
I probably had 10+ bottles so I didn't have to wash them so often.
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C.F.
answers from
Cincinnati
on
At home, keep track of how much she is eating. Make up that much in a pitcher in the fridge-it will keep for 24 hours only-discard the rest. OR just do this for nighttime feedings so you don't have to mix at night. After a few days you will figure out exactly how much to make so you wont' waste it. Heat GENTLY in microwave and mix well, then put in bottle. I used the disposable liners, so the only washing was the outside of the bottles and nipples. On the go, premeasure formula into liners already in bottles with nipples. When you need it, add water (what is the big deal about either carrying it in the car or ordering when you are eating?), mix and you are done. How can you heat up the cold formula in your cold pack anyway? You can keep extra formula in a zip bag and use the small water bottles instead of a gallon so it is not so heavy. Good luck.
