Hellobee Boards

We did not boil water, we have excellent tap water. Used the Dr. Browns pitcher to mix, filled bottles, kept in fridge for up to 24 hours max. Easy, peasy!

@Goldengirl: My pediatrician said the World Health Organization recommends boiling water, but that water treatment in the developed world is far and away above what it is in other countries so it's completely unnecessary in the US/Canada. Can't hurt to check though!

One other tip: if your baby is still waking up in the night, get him/her used to room temp bottles - we'd pre-fill the proper amount of water into three bottles (or however many wake-ups we were anticipating) and leave them on our dresser so we'd just have to add formula and shake. So convenient!

I've never heard of boiling but I've heard of using distilled.
It's been a while so I don't recall exactly but I used gallons of distilled for a while (maybe like 8-10 months? It was annoying and now I don't think I'd do that again.)
I would premix 24 hours worth of bottles in the Dr Brown pitcher. Worth every penny!
Then I would pour it into bottles so they were easy to just grab. And heat in a mug of hot water or the bottle warmer.

Fwiw, my pediatrician told me for sure I could use tap water. I was a paranoid FTM though (and maybe PPA) so I did the distilled anyway.

I used bottled distilled water, mixed it at the time of feeding. Did not warm bottles, baby drank them cold.

I didn't boil. Made large bottles and poured into smaller...served cold.

@Pollywog: this is what my sister did, except she kept the pre-boiled water on the counter in a jug. If she was away from home, she would premeasure the water into the bottles and then just pour in the powder when baby needed to eat. We're in Canada, if that makes a difference.

We supplement and the easiest thing for me was to get a hot water dispenser, keep it filled with filtered water, and then mix a fresh bottle with a mix of the boiling water and cold water. Then it's already warm and ready to go. We have a water filtration system in our house so it comes out of a countertop faucet. Both my boys had problems with gas so I put gas drops in the bottle when I mixed it up (key is to swirl the bottle) and you had no bubbles. When we are out I just keep warm water in one of those Swell thermal hot bottles.

@raspberries: Great tip! I feed my LO BM at night, but I plan on weaning soon. I was pretty sad about the thought of having to get up and warm a bottle if he still needed an overnight feeding. I started doing this with formula when we are traveling and never thought to do it overnight.

I use bottled distilled water that I buy by the gallon at the grocery store. I use the Dr. brown pitcher and make up 24 hrs worth of bottles. Babies are drinking 150 ml at each feeding so I make a pitcher by adding 550ml of distilled water first and then 10.5 scoops of powder. (My babies are on higher calorie formula (24 cal) so more scoops are needed then what the can says. I try to make sure the formula is used within 24 hours per the directions on the can. Not sure if the formula goes bad. Though, there have been instances where the bottle is not used within 24 hours and I still give it to the babies. There's usually one bottle ready for the next feeding.

Oh, I use distilled since I'm not sure if I wanted all the extra minerals and sometimes fluoride that is added to nursery water. I figure the multivitamin that I give them each night is enough. If I'm traveling, yeah, I'm completely fine using tap water.

As for warming up the bottles, I have an electric kettle that I use. I turn it on and boils the water and I place the bottles in mugs and pour hot water from the kettle to warm the outside of the bottles. I do this before I wake the babies so by the time I change their diaper, the bottle is warm. It's not too warm, sometimes enough to take the chill out of the refrigerated bottles... I said early on I wanted to babies to take room temp bottles. The babies don't like cold out of the fridge bottles.

Oh, if the formula is just made (using room temp water), I don't need to warm up more.

I'm in the uk and we are supposed to not only boil the water, but add the formula to it while it is still boiling. I have a tommee tipee bottle machine that makes it easy, but all the machine does is put a little bit of boiling water in, you add the powder and shake - then it tops it up with cold water to get to the right volume. When we are going out I just use the cartons although it's so expensive as my LO takes 10oz so 2 cartons each time!

@Goldengirl: Are you in the US? I can't remember.

I followed the instructions on the can. I was in Europe, and the instructions basically said not to premix too far in advance, make a bottle at a time. They were primarily concerned about separation, and that if you made a big jug, you would get separation in the fridge and that you wouldn't be able to get perfect ratios of powder to water per portion.

So what I did was boil water in my electric kettle, transfer to a glass pitcher and let cool to room temperature. Then, I would pour the water into the bottles (I had enough bottles for one day of feedings). When it was time to eat, I heated the water again in the bottle using a small warmer and then I would put the powder in and feed.

Regular water from my refrigerator water dispenser (so I guess it's filtered?), using Dr. Brown's formula pitcher (can't recommend the pitcher enough!). I did that every morning and poured some into a bottle as needed. Never once boiled water.

@FannyMae: Yeah, I think most nursery water includes fluoride.

http://www.nurserywater.com/products.php

ETA: Apparently this company makes nursery water without fluoride.

I am curious to hear what a pediatric dentist or maybe even a pediatrician would say about fluoride in nursery water. When the babies were born, I was thinking that added fluoride might not be necessary. I'm curious now because my family has very soft teeth and always had dental issues.

@FannyMae: Is your water treated with ozone or chlorine? My husband (European) was horrified to read that drinking water in the US is treated with chlorine (where we currently live), so when we visited the US, he insisted we use nursery water, becuse in his home country, water is ozone purified.

my baby nurses would pre-mix the formula with filtered water and store in a pitcher in the fridge for 24 hours, pouring it as needed, and then warm up the bottles under a hot tap or in the warmer.

i preferred to measure out the powder for all bottles of the day the night before, and then add filtered water as needed.

If the formula also contains probiotics, you don't want to heat it up too much or it negates the benefits...at least this is what my husband told me (I couldn't read the package, not my native language).

@looch: looking at the melbourne water website, our water goes through a few different treatments (including chlorine). Our water tastes clean, it can be drunk straight from the tap without an extra filter, but I would still boil it for a baby, just in case. http://www.melbournewater.com.au/whatwedo/supply-water/pages/water-treatment.aspx

@Goldengirl: the thermos was an absolute LIFE SAVER when travelling. I went to Greece when my eldest was little, and the water where we were staying was't great at all - I boiled a batch at night, put it in the thermos, and used it for night feeds as needed. Bottles were always perfect temp because of the mix of hot boiling water and pre-boiled cooled water that was already in the bottle. Obviously, just be cautious with the boiling water when you're sleepy and mixing bottles!

My dr told me there was no need to boil. I used filtered room temp water that I pre-poured into bottles. When i needed a bottle in the middle of the night all I would have to do was scoop the formula in and it was ready to go.