How To Prepare Formula Milk For Babies?

Congratulations on being a mommy! Life now is all about cuddling your little one and taking in that beautiful milky scent of your baby!

As a new mommy, you have probably heard that it is important you exclusively breast feed your baby for the first six months.

While that is true, you may sometimes face issues that need you to give formula milk to your baby. You could be facing low breast milk production, or may counter an infection where you cannot feed baby. Also, once your baby is six months, you need to start giving your baby top feed.

Formula Milk For Your Baby:

Preparing formula milk for your baby can sound like quite a task. While the first few times may be a bit difficult, you will soon see that it is quite easy. As this is the first time baby will have anything other than your feed, remember to follow all hygiene and precautionary measures while preparing, storing and feeding the same.

Steps To Follow Before Preparing Formula Milk:

Ensure that you follow these steps before preparing baby’s formula milk:

• Sanitize the surface that you are going to use for making milk.
• Wash your hands with sanitizer.
• Do not use boiled water that is not fresh. Boil fresh water and keep it aside for 30 minutes only, not more than that.
• Rinse the feeding bottle with fresh boiled and cooled water.
• Formula milk is always available in powdered form.
• Follow the instructions given by the manufacturer.
• Remember that different manufacturers give different instructions as per their products.
• Ensure that you use up the opened formula within a month. Dispose remaining contents if not finished within the month.

[ Read: How To Sterilize Baby Bottles ]

Method For How To Prepare Formula Milk For Baby:

Here are the steps you need to follow while preparing formula milk. Remember to read the instructions on the pack, as some brands may have some additional method or requirements.

• Pour hot water in the bottle up to the level as instructed by the manufacturer.
• Take an instructed amount of formula milk powder in a scoop provided by manufacturer. Level the powder using sterilized knife or spoon.
• Add the powder into the hot water in the bottle, put the teat and cap it.
• Shake the bottle well until the powder is dissolved.
• Cool the milk. You can do this by holding the bottle under water running from the tap or in a container of cool water. Make sure the water does not touch the cap.
• The milk is ready to feed.
• Dispose the remaining milk after feeding.

Storage:

Storing the milk properly is equally important.

• Store the milk in the refrigerator.
• You can use it again by immersing the bottle in a hot water-bed to make the milk warm.
• Do not store the milk for more than 10 hours.

[ Read: How To Store Formula Milk ]

Caution:

Take care to remember the following in relation to the formula milk.

• Follow the manufacturer’s instructions strictly. Do not add more or less amount of water or powder. Adding more amount of powder will cause constipation and less powder will not give required nourishment to your baby.
• Do not add sugar or cereals to the feed.
• Do not heat the milk in microwave. The uneven heating can burn your baby’s mouth.
• Never keep the milk at room temperature, as it supports multiplication of harmful bacteria.

Risks:

If not prepared or stored correctly, there are always chances that something may go wrong with the feed. Do keep the following in mind:

• A slight contamination in preparing and storing formula milk can make your baby ill. This can sometimes cause life threatening diseases like typhoid, diarrhea and so on.
• Only giving formula milk can lead to malnutrition in babies.
• Formula milk builds lower immune system in infants.
• Mothers who do not breast feed have a high risk of breast cancer in later ages.
• Babies on bottle feed may face digestion problems.

Benefits:

Bottle feeding your baby does come with certain benefits too.

• Formula milk is useful when the breast milk is not sufficient. This could be due to any illness you are facing or when there is low production of breast milk.
• There is no need for you to exclusively feed your baby frequently. Any member of the family can feed the baby.
• You can easily calculate the amount of milk your baby has taken.
• Your social life will not be affected.

There are both advantages and disadvantages in feeding formula milk to your baby. You should however remember that it is always best to exclusively breast feed your baby for the first six months.

Use bottled milk only when required. Choosing a good brand of milk powder will ensure your baby does not have any health issues.

We hope the above information will help you how to prepare formula milk for baby. We wish you a happy and wonderful motherhood!

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