Me and my partner have decided for us bottle feeding would be the best option, just need some advice as my mum never gave a bottle to any of us do not very helpful!
Do I bring milk to the hospital? Do I have to make them hot in the night or can you use cold water? Could I make them up in the evening to use throughout the night? Are some brands better than other? And anything else that may be useful for me to know would be greatly appreciated, thank you
Ask your midwife about milk at hospital as my hospital had some and just asked us what brand we wanted to use.
You have to make bottles hot to kill bacteria but I highly recommend the tommee tippee prep machine. It takes about 2 mins to make a bottle so no screaming baby. You can pre make bottles but I found it a faff.
We used aptamil and eventually changed to Aldi’s own and wished I used it earlier as it’s half the price. All the milks have to follow guidelines so they are pretty much the same xx
Thank you x
I second the tommee tippee prep machine and a lot less colic I found from a warm bottle! 
x
Most hospitals won't provide milk anymore unless breastfeeding is tricky etc. So do check with your midwife about that. but you can buy packs ready prepared little bottles.
Formula is all pretty much the same, I used cow & gate with no issues. it's all trial & error as to what your baby will prefer more than anything & no one formula is better than another.
Guidelines for making formula up are to make fresh, adding powder to water that is above 70degrees, I used to take a flask of hot water up to bed with my milk powder measured out into little pots & made them up fresh that way.
But I know lots of people who premade theirs, so it's whatever you find easiest to be honest xx
I would say take your own milk to hospital as you don’t know how long you’ll
Be in for. Also take a couple of bottles as well as the hospital will have a steriliser. I used aptamil and baby seems fine with it and definite must have is the tommee tipee prep machine. Xx
Hi, not sure about where you stay but the hospital where we stay provided bottles of milk for me to help myself to, just had to say which brand we wanted (we are using Aptamil) also we went about a week making up bottles during the night then bought the perfect prep machine. What a life saver! No howling baby waiting on bottles cooling. Xx
Is there a particular reason you have discounted breastfeeding? Is there something you would like help, advice or support with? It is a lot more nutritious than formula and in the long term saves a lot of money among a huge list of benefits (eg instant, no making bottles). It can be challenging to begin with but there is support from BfN and sounds like your mum may have experience?
If thats a definite no, then check with your midwife about formula in hospital, our hospital provided unbranded, ready mixed formula. As it has been said, the law requires all 1st infant formula to contain the same basic ingredients so chosing an own brand is a valid option. Following the instructions on the formula pack is the safest way to make up formula. Some devices can be unsafe to use as they don't kill the bacteria.
Another vote for the perfect prep machine here. A life saver during those early weeks.
My hospital provided milk. We use cow and gate with no problems. That was purely because thats what the hospital gave us and because he wasnt feeding very well in the begining we didnt want to mess about changing his milk.
We bottle fed and made bottles fresh each time. You can be prepared and make them early so they cool. I’ve seen bad things about the prep machines and most HV do not recommend them 
but maybe that’s changed it was almost 3 years ago! Good luck x
as above ask your mv about taking milk with you as my hospital provided me with milk.... ive got a prep machine and its brilliant.... I have read about making bottles you can make them in advance with cooled boiled water and store them in the fridge and heat them when need to.... but the best person to get advice from is your mv and your hv when you start to see her xxx
Cow and Gate make a starter pack of 6 ready made formula bottles and sterilised teats which are ideal for the hospital as they can be given at room temperature.
tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/p...
Good luck with the birth. X
I’m 39 weeks tomorrow and will also be bottle feeding, as I’ve had a double mastectomy previously. I was going to use the perfect prep machine from the get go, but have been told by my midwife and health visitors at classes that it is not recommended due to bacteria issues. I had already got a perfect prep before this was mentioned, so have decided to use ready made aptamil for the first couple of months and then move to the perfect prep a little later and try Aldi formula. Ready made is quite a bit more expensive, but much less faff. There’s no real reason for using aptamil, apart from the fact I was gifted some. As mentioned by pp, you can give the ready made formula at room temperature, but I’ve got a Tommee Tippee bottle warmer for upstairs and downstairs in case baby prefers warm milk (have heard warm milk can also help them get to sleep). Good luck! xxx
I guess it depends where you are from because my health visitor loved the fact that I trialled and error for his colic and digestion and that I found the prep machine worked best for my son. As long as you change the filters regularly and put it through a cleaning cycle, they see no issue here. x
Not trying to judge here, but I was adamant I wanted to use the premade formula. Financially it is ridiculous. Especially when they are only newborn. They don’t take the full bottle, so you end up putting it in the fridge and still having to wait for it to warm up. If you are out and about you can’t save the milk because once opened it needs to be in the fridge. £3 for a pack of 4 and my newborn was feeding around 8 times a day. Just a thought, as my health visitor advised agains mixing the type of feed that you give as it can give babies an upset tummy even if it’s the same brand.
I was so against a prep machine because of all the negativity around them. I’ve since caved and got one, and wish I had used it since day one. Makes the night feeds so much easier.
My SIL has advised us to take the premade aptimal bottles to the hospital incase they don't provide anything. She also told me to be clear to the MW that we want to bottle feed etc otherwise they will try to encourage you to BF. We have also bought a prep machine based on her recommendation, but I have read lots making sure it's maintained by the tubes, filter and descaling etc.
We took sma pro milk with our little one, we just had to ask for teats and she didn’t like the rounded ones.
I also second the tommee tippee prep machine, but we used MAM bottles as they’re better than the tommee tippee bottles for colic. They’re also self sterilising too! So you wouldn’t need a steriliser! I also use the MAM dummies as they’re self sterilising too so again no steriliser needed! You just wash and put them in the microwave with a Bit of cold water in!
We never messed around internally as it was always clean as we changed filters every 2 months and didn’t wait for it to tell us, much more sterile and cleaner inside can get a bit grubby but can easily be washed with a sponge and soap. Just make sure all of the soap has been washed away so there’s no contamination.
Ignore comments about wasting of milk, it’s your choice if you want to not breastfeed hun. I was exactly the same and I found that if you put your powder in a powder container you didn’t actually waste the formula, and you put how many ounces in of kettle boiled water then when baby is ready you mix and give baby your bottle. It’s not wasteful if you know your baby and how many ounces your baby would drink.
To me as long as she was getting enough milk I wouldn’t bother another the waste and that’s in a tight budget.
Again this is from my experience hun, hope this helps xx
Thank you very much big help xx
No worries hun xx
Prep machine, we didn’t have 1 till about 4 weeks after our LG was born, buts it’s a life send.
We used too make bottles up before bed, so you boil the kettle (tap water, not filtered water) once boiled leave for 30 minutes, then fill bottles up. Leave too cool too room temperature and then put in fridge.
You will get people saying no don’t do this, better too make fresh, but if you haven’t got a prep machine, no other way. We done this until we got our prep machine and LG is fine, I still do it now, if we are round family
As for what formula, it really is trial and error, we tried Aptamil but LG didn’t get on with it, we have been on cow and gate for a while now and LG loves it x
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