Sorry, I should have clarified.
I live in Vietnam but I came home to have the baby. The hospital there was a bit too scary and my Vietnamese isn't good enough to deal with medical issues.
I'm in Queensland and this is the advice from Nambour hospital. I go back to Vietnam in January. We drink bottled water there (imported from France), so it will be the same procedure, just really expensive!
I would only boil filtered/bottled fresh water (ie. not tap water) and then do it as we do it ie boil the water in advance etc. The amount of crying bubs would do before a feed could lead to cronic wind and feeding pains. Would you like to eat after crying uncontrollably for 10 minutes?
We did the whole sterilising thing until the Brisbane Baby Whisperer and my lactation consultant both said to just wash the bottles very well in warm soapy water. Boil the water and let it cool in the kettle (otherwise the formula always clumps on the spoon!). They both said pre-making 24 hours worth of bottles is not a problem at all.
I use an antibacterial washing liquid and wash and rinse the bottles very, very well. I have been following this procedure since our monster turned 8 weeks. He is now 3 months and he is just fine. The principle behind not sterilising to to build up their immune system in a "safe" way.
Let me just clarify that I am an absolute cleanliness freak and it was so difficult for me to not sterilise! Now that I have seen that nothing bad has happened I am thankful for all of the extra time I save during the bottle prep for the boy
In my opinion, hospitals (and formula tins) often give you really stringent instructions simply because they don't want anything bad to happen and for you to then turn around and blame the institution or the product in question. Having said that, you need to do what you are comfortable with.
I Bottlefed Oscar. I used to make up the bottles the night before and store them in the fridge. I would sterilise up until he was about 6mths then just as someone else said wash the bottles thoroughly before using. I used to line up about 6 bottles and measure the formula according to what was needed with his age into each then put the boiling water in, give them a shake and put them in the fridge. I also used to reheat when he needed a feed the bottles in the microwave and then give another shake and feed him. Pretty sure it was about 20secs in the microwave. Have a read of Robyn Barker's Baby Love, it was the only book I found at the time that gave sensible advice of more than one page on bottle feeding, I call it my bible and it was well used with both boys and will be with this one too It became my 'coffee table' book.
The other thing I used to do was make up one or two extra than what I thought in case he was having a voracious day or take an extra if we were going out. He also used to drink it cold from the bottle when we went out..something I started from a young age so that I didn't have to worry about heating it up when I was out.
The formula will only last 24hrs so what you don't use you throw out and start all over again. You will find you will get into the swing of things and be very organised.
Thanks everyone for your advice.
What I've been doing so far is using boiled water from the kettle. I'm staying with my parents, who drink tea like nobody's business. So the kettle water hardly ever goes cold. It's left more than half an hour though. And in the night it's quite cool.
I tried putting the water in the fridge but it seemed to take longer to warm the water up than it did to cool the water down! And she's only really drinking 60mls now, so it's a bit tricky to half-fill bottles, although I think that's a good idea for when she's a bit bigger.
So far so good. Although my Dad seems to have an uncanny ability to boil the jug about three seconds before the baby cries. Luckily she's doesn't really get worked up and is happy to suck on a finger for a little while, just making small complaints about the service.
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It became my 'coffee table' book.
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