I have come across a debate on one of the parenting boards I frequent, where some mothers refrigerate and reuse formula if the baby doesn’t finish it. As a breastfeeder, I don’t know much about formula, but I have always read that you should throw any unused out immediately. The mothers on the board who do refrigerate and re-use have reported no ill-effects on their children.
I know the standard rules are there to protect the formula companies from being sued but I also know the formula cans say to ALWAYS boil the water and sterilize all utensils yet most of the mothers on the same board use ordinary tap water to prepare the formula and just wash the utensils and bottles in how soapy water, with no ill effects on their children.
I thought I would ask the teeming millions what the REAL risks are and how long it takes for bacteria from the baby’s mouth to multiply in refrigerated formula enough to do harm? (Cites please so I can take them back with me :))
I am trying to find something about preparation, but in the mean time - here is a report about bacteria in formula prior to preparation that is rather daunting. Glad I breastfed, too. (World Health Organization - doesn’t get any more respectable than that, although rather technical and not so easy to follow.) report
There wasn’t anything in the second link that I could really use and the first link was for formula before preparation. Anyone else? Anecdotal evidence will be interesting too
A mother of three checking in.
I don’t have any cites or anything. Just what I had done,if it was wrong or right I have no idea. But all three of my childern had no ill effects of what I did.
I reused formula. And after the babies were able to pick up things and put them in their mouths,sterilizing stopped too. Now I always did buy bottle water, and that is just because we had well water. But most of the time I bought the ready made formula, just because it was easier at 2am…
My own data point is that it depends on your local water supply. Babies are more susceptible to disease from bad water. If the local water supply is questionable, boiling water is a good idea.
The supply where I live is pretty good. In the two or so years I’ve lived here, we’ve never been under a boil order. If I were unsure of the supply, I’d’ve boiled at minimum, or used bottled water, and when we traveled, I usually used filtered water (the city where my parents live has lousy water. They use both a water softener and a filter). However, that was not necessary at home.
As for sanitation of bottles and other feeding supplies, we used the Playtex nursers with the inserts, so cleaning the insides was not an issue. When the daycare insisted that we not send those anymore, we went to plain 'ol Gerber bottles. Those are easy to keep clean with antibacterial dish liquid and hot water. Once a week or so, I’d boil the nipples to prevent thrush infection, particularly once the baby got to be a bit more mobile and started setting his bottle wherever.
Now, if I could just keep track of sippy cups, life would be wonderful!
Strictly anecdotal: I boiled the water I made the formula with (powdered formula) for about the first month, then after that, switched to plain old tap water. With my first baby, we had no dishwasher, so I washed the bottles and nipples with hot soapy water; with the second two babies, I had dishwashers, so I used the sterilize setting on the dishwasher. No ill effects from any of this. I think that babies are a lot sturdier than we think they are.
Oh, btw, I always thought the “dispose of unused portion” warning was not just to avoid lawsuits, but also to sell more product.
You know how if you feed a baby directly from the jar, and then put the jar back in the fridge, it gets all watery and nasty in a hurry? That’s from bacteria. I would imagine the same thing happens to formula, if there is any of the baby’s saliva making it back into the bottle via the nipple. Just MHO.
I never re-used, because he ate a whole bottle at a time.
I supplemented for the first and last months I pumped (as my supply went up and down) and generally stuck with the “discard any formula not consumed within 2 hours of a feeding.”
However, my kid has “sampled” bottles at 8pm and been topped off with the same bottle (spent the interim in the fridge) at 2am and managed to not die on me.
But, like I said, I was a very occasional supplementer; I’m not sure if that happened more than once.
I have to agree that a lot of this depends on the water supply and the water lines (we grew up with well water and lead pipes, joy!).
I used “bottled for baby” water at first, as there are nasties in our water supply and in some bottled waters that I didn’t want to subject the kid to.
After learning what was and wasn’t in our water supply, I started to just boil a bunch of water, seal it in a jug and leave in the fridge, tapping it as needed.
But bear in mind, formula doesn’t have the microbiological bits that make it as safe as breastmilk for refeeding. Sure, the stuff is expensive, but so is the wear and tear on a sick child.
Big ass grain of salt: Was sick as a child from eating from dirty dishes a couple of times. I sterlized everything insanely until he was about 8 months old; my breast pump parts until I stopped pumping.
by the way, having witnessed … ‘discussions’ about formula feeding and how breast-feeding mothers are generally treated when they dare venture in … I’d caution you to tread carefully when you head back there.
