In this blog post, we will discuss Some Helpful Tips for Storing Baby Formula and preparing it. Parents never bother themselves about storing the conditions of baby food when breastfeeding. Others who buy baby formula must be aware of the best conditions for its preparation and storage. How long is formula good for in the fridge? Is there anything special one should know to prepare baby formula properly? This article has valuable tips to help new and advanced parents feed their newborns correctly.
Preparation Rules to Follow
A baby must eat only sterile formula of proper temperature to get everything required safely. What should you do to guarantee the best cooking conditions?
1. Keep your hands clean when preparing baby formula. One can find hand-washing rules that social media released at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
2. Moreover, bottles, spoons, and cooking space must also be clean. One can find instructions about how to sanitize bottles and nipples to promise the required sterility.
3. The ready baby formula mustn’t be cold or hot. First, you need to read an instruction on a package about how to cook it. If it’s ready to feed formula, you can give it right away. If it says ‘mix the powder with water’, you should boil filtered or special water and cool it down till it’s warm before using. You can also warm a bottle under running water or by steaming it. Use your wrist to check if the ready mixture is of proper temperature.
4. Follow a baby formula manufacturer’s recommendations concerning water quantity. If you add too much, the mixture will be less nutritious, and your baby can spit it out or not feel well-fed. If you add too little, a baby can choke when eating because the consistency will be thick. Besides, a lack of water will lead to digestive problems and dehydration.
5. If you are a parent of a prematurely born baby, sterility is the priority, and other safety measures should be followed. Liquid or ready-to-feed formula is the best variant for such infants because they are sterile, unlike powdered formula. Besides, a parent’s hands must be clean when feeding, dressing, or changing diapers because germs can get into a baby’s mouth, and it can suffer from Cronobacter diseases like meningitis or e-coli. The same rules are significant for newborns whose immune system is not strong enough to resist infections.
As you can see, baby formula preparation is a serious and demanding process that you should follow to avoid burns, germs, and health problems.
Some Helpful Tips for Storing Baby Formula
One should know how to store opened packs with baby formula and their prepared variants. It is not a problem to store a not-opened formula by following the manufacturer’s recommendations.
As a rule, it is a cool and dry place indoors. Open packs must be appropriately closed with their lids to prevent moisture, germ, and bacteria penetration, and a refrigerator is not a suitable place for their storage. How long is the formula good for in the fridge?
*The safest variant is to prepare baby formula quickly and use it on the spot. The fresh formula is sterile because it has not come into contact with a baby’s saliva. After the contact, bacteria penetrate a bottle, and a mixture starts spoiling. The reason is simple – the main component is milk, and it becomes sour quickly, especially when it’s warm and non-sterile.
*One should not store a bottle with formula at room temperature. Parents should use the ready formula no later than two hours after it’s been prepared. If they don’t use it, it is necessary to put it into a fridge and give it to a baby within a day. One mustn’t feed a baby with a formula that was prepared for more than 24 hours.
*The feeding process should not exceed one hour because bacteria start spoiling it later.
*Sometimes, babies refuse to eat the whole portion. In this case, one must throw away the remnants. Afterward, it is necessary to wash, rinse, dry, and sanitize a bottle and a nipple.
*The opened formula should be used within 30 days. So as not to forget the day of its opening, write the date (expiration or opening) on a package or a bottle.
*One should definitely refrain from using formulas whose shelf life has expired.
Parents who fear hurting a baby should buy ready-to-feed formulas like HiPP Bio Combiotic. Such formula is sterile compared to powdered formula, and one can travel without worries about sterility and feed a baby when it requires it. Nevertheless, it is more expensive, and its lifespan is shorter.
Another thing to regard is the formula ingredients. The healthiest formula is organic because it is based exclusively on natural ingredients without stabilizers, flavors, pesticides, antibiotics, sugar, and other harmful components. Famous European companies such as HiPP, Jovie, Holle, Premibio, BebeM, and others, create hypoallergenic, anti-reflux, comfort, and special formulas to satisfy the demands of the youngest customers. All of these formulas could be found at The Milky Box highly reliable online store with the most affordable prices. Make sure to visit their website and insure healthy development for your little one.
Do you have anything to add to my post about ‘Helpful Tips for Storing Baby Formula’? If you do, please leave me a comment below.