Formula Feeding General Chatter

Po5 - I still sterilise, I find that after washing the bottles/teats they have kind of an icky residue left on them. I'm not as strict with sterilising as I used to be though - I have an Avent electric steriliser and sometimes once the cycle is done it will be left sitting for up to 40 mins if I'm busy doing other things. So I don't know if the bottles would still be sterile after that time, but at least I know they have gone through the process itms.

I think I'll do it until she goes onto cows milk, it doesnt take that much extra time. I dont think it ever occurred to me not to sterilise!

we just rinse fill with water and wash later but i steralised till 7 months i used milton i really dont know how they drink it smelling like that but he did lol but when he was little he got thrush and then i boiled to teats and dummys :)

I stopped steilizing when Bella started putting eveything in her mouth! And when she started cows milk I didnt see the point so now I just wash them in hot hot hot soapy water and then rinse them in warm water to get rid of the residue and put the bottles together straight away and put the cap on.

We feed our boy straight after his bottle...he always seems to fit it all in, even if he had the whole 270ml! He is only on two meals a day, but as of this weekend he will be having lunch as well. I found when I waited an hour then he wouldn't want his next bottle and I would struggle to get all 4/5 in.

P of F, I stopped sterilising his bottles his bottles at 8 weeks on the advice of his nurse and a lactation consultant that I know. They both said that warm soapy water, a good bottle-brush and a thorough cleanse was all that was necessary. Apparently it is a really good way to build up their immunity slowly and consistently. So that was the reason I stopped doing it, not because of convenience haha. It was a big step for me because I am an absolute cleanliness and hygeine freak! Our boy had no problem and to this day (touch wood) hasn't been sick :) I have and still do use boiled water, though. I also sterilise the bottle brush weekly because I know how cleaning implements harbour bacteria.

Notwithstanding the above, if I have to FF bub no.2 I will sterilise for the first 2 months as I did with our boy. I think you need to check out their resistance before you stop sterilising (i.e. if they are catching colds etc. at the drop of a hat I would continue sterilising beyond 2 months).

Is it ok if I join you guys in here? I had my DD just over 3 weeks ago and have had to FF since she was about 2weeks. I'm feeling pretty guilty about it but her being happy & healthy is more important I think. BF was going perfectly She latched on like a pro and I had more than enough supply even had enough to express extra so DH & DS could have a turn at feeding her. Unfortunately about the 2nd week, she would be sick after EVERY feed and eventually projectile vomit it ALL back up. I tried again yesterday but again same thing. My mum & almost everyone else is being quite anal to keep trying to BF but atleast DH & his mum are on my side and reassure me that her health is more important.
I BF DS until just over 2mths (just after his 1st immunisations) but I was only 17 yrs then & stopped basically out of laziness & not knowing the importance of it. So I guess what I'm trying to say is, now that I can't BF when I want to, I'm feeling guilty also that I just threw it away with him.

But hey, DD is thriving on the formula and I'm going to focus on being proud of her weight gain and not dwell on where it comes from!

Thanks for the feedback. I'm thinking I might slowly move him to 3 hours and see how that goes.

As for sterilizing, I have a microwave one that works well for me. I wash first then pop it in there. I don't have much room so it's just as easy to do it in there.

Fionaw - how is his sleeping? You didn't mention it in your initial post. Just be aware that if your baby is used to taking 4 hours to digest his formula (like many are and which would explain why he only demands his food at that interval), that popping fresh formula on top of partially digested formula can cause bloating, tummy stretching and additional possetting. I found this out from a nurse when I asked her about feeding our little man more frequently because I thought he was hungry all the time! Just passing on this info, I cannot confirm its accuracy though, as we have a happy chucker anyway!

Welcome Daytonas Mummy :) Sorry to hear you have had such issues with bubs vomiting. Glad to hear things are on track now.

welcome Daytona :D Sorry you had troubles with bfing, it is fantastic to hear she is thriving on the formula though. You gave her 2 weeks of pure gold, just remind yourswelf of that whenever you feel guilty.

:wall::wall: last night Milly settled really well and slept for 5 hours...today she has started spewing :wall::wall::wall DD1 was happy chucker so im used to it but it still sucks

I know it's not ideal to change to a new formula so soon, but try giving her some Karicare AR - it is a thickened formula and it really helped with all the vomiting DS2 was doing. He was still chucky, but I might get 1-2 spews a day compared to about 3 after every feed.

I used a thinckened formula for reflux for a couple of months too. It didnt stop his spewing at all but it made the spew a bit thicker so that when he did power chuck his spew was easier to catch and contain. I think I used S26 AR, and I didnt need to get bigger teats, I used Nuk standard silicone teats and they were fine.

its strange she only spews once or twice a day...they are huge spews with me needing a shower lol but it doesnt seem to bother her I might just see how she goes for a few more days before changing her because she has started going 6 to 7 hours over night :dance:

sounds like she should be fine on the current formula, if she is a happy chucker I would just leave her be :)

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Is there anyone still FFing an older child? Sam's been on Nan HA since birth with very few issues, but we seem to be having no success at all in getting him on to cows milk. If he has cows milk on his cereal he will spend the day puking, yet he can have cheese cooked into his dinners and be fine.

BW

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I read somewhere cheese and yogurt are lactose free and that's why you can give them to babies under 1 year. Tried lactose free milk? it's in UHT milk sectionthat I couldn't breast feed

I had a prem baby and she was weak to suck but on top of it had silent reflux and would want to snack every 45 mins including in the night. Charlie couldn't build supply and I felt a nasty pressure. After 6 LC trips, over 100 motillium tabs and 3 months my supply STOPPED because i was so stressed. i had lost all my prego weight plus 8 kilos and I felt ill because of lack of sleep and constantly seeing Charlie get all screamy after a very thin milk feed. Charlie started losing weight so i cracked it and got a tin of formula. We have both been happier since.

That said i do have the odd guilty pang that I couldn't breastfeed consistantly.

That's the thing - cheese and yoghurt also cause puking. I've got some lactose free milk for him to try, but he's got a cold at the moment so we will wait until he's over that. My gut feeling is that it isn't a lactose problem, but it seems like the next step so that's what we'll do.

BW

hi there can I join in...

with my first we had a rocky start with pre-labour at 27, 29, 34 weeks with a final emergency c-sect @ 37 weeks after being flown 11 hrs from home.. I attempted b/f and expressing while Jack was in SCN...where he was having formula dumps...we started FF on day 4 as I had no milk nothing...by the time my milk came in on day 9 or 12 can't remember we were in a lovley routine was not aware I could re-attach after FF oh well, he was a healthy happy baby and is still a healthy toddler well I suppose little boy now :) has rarely had a sick day in his life :) he was on S26 step 1 till a yr then step 2 till he was 2 he wouldn't take cows milk he stopped bottles around 2 yrs 4mths he had maybe 4mths on cows... even now he isn't mucg of a milk drinker but then we aren't either

with Luke I had every intention of BF but we had attachement issues from word go, elective c-sect made it hard to get into a good position, so in hospital i was hand expressing and following up with a FF, once home i continued expressing we were up to half EBM and half FF a day then my supply droppped off to nothing :cry: after a month then i had to start medication for post partum odema so even had my supply been ok i would have had to make the decision EBM or medication...... so my body made the decision for me, occassionally when i have to double up my medication dose i leak like crazy :wall:but Luke is thriving he is on 5 x180ml feeds a day.. we use S26...Luke was a chucker big time so we add karicare thickener to his feeds and no spews :dance:

as for sterilising aas long as Jack had a bottle his were sterilised, Luke will be the same...

HI Ladies,

I'm joining into this thread also!
My first baby, Zoe will be three weeks tomorrow.
She has been FF fed since she was just 1 week old, so I'm fairly new at this.
I never got a fabulous supply of milk, and tried to combination feed- EBM, FF AND BM for a couple of days, but Zoe was always starving after the EBM and BM.
And then my BM dried up after some stressful news last week :(

Now my problem is that ocassionally after a 120ml bottle of S26 Gold, she'll be looking for more food within an hour?
Should I demand feed her whenever she starts looking for it?
Its usually at night, and this morning 5am, I was up for 2 hours before I gave in and gave her another bottle.....

Any advice would be much appreciated :D

Emma are you doing the 4hrs feed routine ??? Luke would and still does on occasion have a bottle within 2hrs... other times it can be 3-4 hrs or more before he wanted more, why not give her the 120ml then if she seems to want more make up a 60ml...dont force her to take it but if she wants a little more than so be it, Luke moved onto 180ml ones at just shy of 2mths

how many bottles/feeds a day is she having ???