Bottle Feeding tips for new parents.
Its not always possible for parents to breastfeed baby, and we
know that it is very difficult to find advice on bottle feeding your child due
to strict World Health Organisation rules for marketing formula. As
long as your baby is happy and healthy, then you should know that
you are doing a great job as parent!
How Often to Feed:
Baby will probably feed around every 4 hours. So you will need a
clean sterile bottle
and bottle teat for each
feed. The number of bottles and teats that you purchase will depend
on how often you plan to wash and sterilise them.
The quantity
of formula that you need will depend on the brand of formula
you are using, and the age of your baby. Follow the instructions on
the tin.
Equipment Required
Bottles and Teats
We suggest the Avent Bottle Set, this comes with 2 small
bottles, 2 large bottles, and 6 baby teats, plus a brush. The baby
teats are the "newborn" size, so as your baby gets older you will
need to purchase the age appropriate teats. These just mean the
milk flows faster to suit your baby's development. Avent teats are
available here.
We also sell the Avent bottles in twin and triple baby bottle
packs of the large 260mL size. Purchasing the large size bottle is
the most economical, as when your baby is very young they will just
drink 100-150mL, and when older they will drink around 200mLs and
you can use the same bottle.
The Avent Baby Bottles are really great for formula feeding, as
they have a very wide neck bottle so its really easy to put the
formula scoop powder into the bottle. We do also sell the Avent
Breast Pumps if you are thinking of doing a mixture of breast and
bottle feeding.
We also have Medela bottles, these accompany the medela breast
pumps. You can use these with the Chu Chu teat which works
FANTASTICALLY and is a great way to combine breast and bottle
feeding.
Steriliser
You will need a way to sterilise your equipment. The most common
method is using a microwave steriliser,
the Avent brand can fit 6 large avent bottles. So with this model,
you can sterilise the day's worth of bottles in one go. The
contents remain sterile as long as the lid is on the steriliser. We
also have the IQ Electronic steam steriliser, which is a bench top
model.
Other methods of sterilising include boiling your items in a
saucepan (but make sure you remember so you don't boil the pot
dry!). You can also purchase sterilisation tablets at the
supermarket. With these you put all your bottles and teats into a
large plastic box with a lid, and then add water and a
sterilisation tablet.
If you are going out, or are on holiday etc, we also have
Sterilisation Bags. Each bag can be used up to 20 times. Just pop
all your items into the steriliser bag, with a bit of water, and
then put into the microwave. These are actually really handy to
have in your nappy bag - and if you are out at a friends house, or
even shopping you can use the microwave in a Parent Room to
sterilise your equipment.
Breast Pump
If you are planning on expressing breast milk for your baby,
rather than formula, you will need a breast pump. We sell the
Philips Avent Manual and Electric and Medela Manual and Electric
brands, these are all great pumps. The model that you choose will
depend on how often you are planning onexpressing. So please
contact us and we can help determine which breast pump is right for
you. If you are expressing breast milk, you will also need to store
it. Our storage options for breast milk include: Via Pre-Sterilised
containers, Breast Milk Containers, & Milk Freezer bags.
Formula
There are many different brands of formula available. You can
purchase these at the supermarket. Some brands also sell formula in
Single Sachets which are handy if you want to try one to see if
baby takes to it. Then you can purchase large size tins. There are
also formula brands available if your baby has allergies, like
having goats milk rather than cows milk. Your doctor may also be
able to prescribe special brands of formula if your child has
allergies so that you can get them at a subsidised cost.
Water
Ensure that you make up baby's formula bottle with water that
has been boiled and cooled.
Cleaning
After feeding your baby, ensure that the bottle and teat are
washed in warm soapy water. They can then be sterilized.
Preparation
Some parents like to mix up all the baby's bottles for the day,
so that they just need to be heated and are instantly ready for a
hungry baby. If you do this, make sure that you use cooled boiled
water, mix with the formula in one bottle, and store in the fridge.
Then just heat.
Some people boil their water, and store half in a thermos to
keep it hot all day, and the other half they store in the fridge.
Then you mix up Hot and Cold water to get warm water ready for the
formula.
Heating Bottles
FOR FORMULA: This can be done using your microwave -
but it is very important that you first test your microwave to see
how long to heat it for. Different microwaves all have different
heating intensity. The length of cooking time will also depend on
the volume of water, and what temperature the water is you are
starting with. Obviously chilled water will take slightly longer to
warm.
FOR BREAST MILK: We do not recommend using
a microwave, as it can heat unevenly and destroy the vitamins in
breast milk.
You can also heat by resting the bottle of formula inside a jug
of hot water.
You can also heat by using an Avent Bottle Warmer.
Test the bottle formula temperature yourself before feeding to
baby!!!!! Read some of our other bottle feeding
tips for heating and cooling bottles.
Out and About
If you are going out for the day, you will need to take enough
formula and clean sterilized bottles and teats for your baby's
feeds. Alot of mums use Formula Containers which
are plastic containers which have 3 or 4 compartments where you can
scoop the powder out from the tin and put into the container. (We
can supply these for you just email us to order these). Then you
also put your boiled water into the bottle and seal with the lid so
that it doesn't leak into your bag. Some mums put hot boiled water
into the bottle, so that by the time they are ready to feed baby in
a few hours, the water will have cooled to warm and be suitable for
baby to drink. Then you just add the formula powder and shake to
mix well.
Some mums prefer to make up a bottle ready mixed. So while still
at home preparing for the day - add the formula powder, add the
cooled boiled water and shake well to mix. Then put the bottle into
an Insulated Bag - to keep the bottle COOL. (We can supply these
for you just email us to order a bag.) It is important to keep it
cool if the formula powder and water are mixed. Then when you are
out, just heat in a microwave; or heat the bottle by resting in a
jug of hot water.