Feeding our baby: the products we use

Francis is 4 months old today as I write this, so I thought

I’d take some time pull together what we’ve used when it comes to feeding.

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I’m not here to debate bottle over breast as no fibre of my being considered breast feeding, as long as your little one is fed, thats all that matters.

Our set up when at Centre Parcs

Formula

Choosing your formula is one of the first decisions to make and I offer no wisdom on that. In the UK the regulations mean that formula brands can’t do much with their product so they are all very similar. I use Aptamil* for no reason other than we decided to try that one first knowing we could swap if it created any issues for Francis. Price-wise you’ll find no discounts on stage 1 formula, but we buy ours from Costco as it’s the cheapest we’ve found.

You’ll need the tins of powder formula but you’ll need a starter pack* or 2 for when you are in the hospital. These are great as you don’t need to worry about bottles and sterilising until you are home. Once you are home, you’ll be able to make up bottles using the tinned formula. But I’d also recommend some premade bottles* for times when 1. your little one is screaming and you need a bottle fast or 2. for the times you venture out and haven’t quite mastered bottle making whilst not at home. Even at 4 months I still carry at least 1 in my bag just in case.

Aptamil have recently released their formula into tablet form* which are supposed to be great for on the go. However, Francis didn’t get on very well with these and I actually thought it took forever to dissolve!

Bottles

We bought Tommee Tippee bottles initially and picked up a few MAM ones for free at various baby events. Of course he hated the Tommee Tippee ones so we had to buy more from MAM. I actually really like these bottles as you don’t need to buy a steriliser, you can do it in the microwave. Just remember to add the water because someone (me) has melted more than a few…

If you are looking at MAM bottles, you can pick them up in packs of 1, 2, 3 and even a starter pack*. I think if I was doing it again, I’d only get a few of the 160ml* ones as they grow out of them so quickly and start taking ‘too much’ formula for them. The 260ml* ones last a lot longer, we’re currently on 7oz of formula for Francis and theres plenty of room left.

When it comes to how many bottles you should buy, its personal preference. The washing and sterilising cycle is never ending. The more bottles you have the more time you buy yourself between having to wash and sterilise again.

Making up feeds at home

I’m going to start this section by saying, I am well aware that this product isn’t recommended by some health professionals. But for us, the Tommee Tippee prep machine* has been an absolute life saver. So much so, that when Francis was a few weeks old, I bought a second to go in his nursery so we didn’t have to go downstairs to make feeds at night.

We ensure it’s cleaned regularly and test the temperature and haven’t had any issues with it. You do need to change the filters every 3 months, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s quite inexpensive given the amount of bottles you can make on one filter.

Feeding when we are out

Initially when I was first venturing out, I was using the premade bottles of formula and popping it into a sterilised bottle. I know plenty of people who do that the whole time their baby takes formula but it was getting very expensive.

During my pregnancy I was hearing a lot about the Nuby Rapid Cool* and as a lazy girl who lives for convenience I bought the biggest kit* they did over Black Friday. There are hundreds of TikTok’s on how to use this, plenty with a hack on being able to use it without sterilising it in between. Personally, I use it as intended and love it. I’d go as far as to say, it’s my favourite thing I bought. It’s definitely the most useful and makes it a lot easier being out and about with Francis.

The kit comes with a hot water flask which I wouldn’t recommend as I don’t find it keeps the water boiling for very long. I know a lot of people who have bought flasks from Amazon but I can’t recommend a specific one. If I’m going for a shorter journey, I know it will keep it hot enough but if I don’t think he’ll feed for a few hours I carry it empty and ask wherever I am for it to be filled with boiling water. I’ve asked at coffee shops, soft play, restaurants and even at the football, for it to be filled up. It’s crazy how before having a baby I hated even ordering my own food and now I’m so much more confident!

Edit: since writing this, one Slim Chickens restaurant wouldn’t give me boiling water (I’m well aware why some places don’t etc.) but in 4.5 months of asking, it was the only place that said no. Do with that information what you will, but since then I’ve bought a better flask.

Other essentials for feeding on the go include formula pots, we have this one by MAM* but also Tommee Tippee ones*. I actually scoop out the formula into these and use them at home so I’m not having to measure 7 scoops whilst hes crying for a bottle!

Sterilising fun

As I mentioned, the MAM bottles are self sterilising, aka you don’t have to buy a steriliser. I know a lot of people opt to buy a steriliser for these, but we prefer to pop them in the microwave. It’s really easy, one bottle takes 3 minutes and you can do up to 4 at the same time (takes 6 minutes). I have melted a few as I forgot to add the water but it’s all good, sleep deprevation with a newborn is fun and games! You’ll also learn very quickly not to grab them from the microwave straight away, best to let them cool!

You will however need to sterilise the Rapid Cool* if you opt for one. The best way we’ve found is to cold water sterilise, it’s pretty cost effective, easy and quick to do. We use the Milton cold water sterilising tablets* (and pretty much every other Milton product) as well as their bucket*. You can easily buy a bucket that fits 5L of water in and save yourself some money, the Milton one is over £20 and its literally just a bucket. Although, I do like the lid feature as when you move the handle is ‘locks’ the lid on, so no spills!

To cold water sterilise, I’m sure you’ll follow the instructions, but you add one tablet to 5L of water and it’s good for 24 hours before the water needs changing. Anything you want to sterilise: the Rapid Cool, toys, dummies, bottles (if you choose to do it that way) will need to sit in there for 15 minutes and then you are good to go!

One thing I picked up from a friend, is 1/4 of a tablet in your Rapid Cool with cold water whilst out, works the same. I’ve only had to do this a few times but it’s always handy to keep them in your changing bag! There are plenty of hacks on TikTok to use your Rapid Cool in a way to avoid having to sterilise it, but I feel more comfortable using it how it’s intended as the temperature was always off when I tried!

Cleaning bottles

Arguably the most boring of the lot but something we do a lot - cleaning bottles. We use the Milton Bottle cleaner* to clean the bottles, have a washing up bowl just for them and make sure we have a separate brush*, too. One thing we do have which is not an essential but one of my favourite products, is this space saving bottle drying rack*. It isn’t cheap, but it fits loads of bottles on and doesn’t take up too much space in our tiny kitchen.

If there is one thing I’ve learnt in my 4 months being a mum (and 9 months pregnant), everyone has a different opinion. You may have read this and disagreed with how we do things, but if you listen to every single piece of advice you wouldn’t do anything. So, this is just a snapshot into how we do things and I hope it was helpful in some way. As always, if you have any questions - DM me!