logistics

[aryanhwy]

So tell me, just how exactly is this supposed to work?

- When preparing formula, the water should be heated to at least 70 degrees, if not boiling, to kill bacteria in the formula. Once the formula has been mixed, it should then cool 20-30 min.

- Water should be boiled fresh each time. Formula should not be mixed in advance, even if it is then stored in the fridge.

- Babies should preferably be fed when they first display hunger cues, i.e., before they start crying from hunger.

- The amount of time between when Gwen wakes up and displays initial hunger cues (hands to mouth being the most reliable) and when she starts screaming and clawing at her face because I have not provided food fast enough is about 5 minutes (if I'm lucky).

This is one riddle I simply don't see a solution to. (Oh, wait. Quit with the formula and nurse! That's the magic ticket.)

Comments

[mamamoira.livejournal.com]

I've never heard the "to kill bacteria in the formula" thing. Is that something new in the last, uh, 6 years?

I'd always thought heating the water was just to get it to about the same temp as, ah, fresh breastmilk because some babies might be picky about temperature.

My kids both "came" already used to room-temp water used in their formula, which made it soooooo much easier to deal with; had a filter on the tap water in the kitchen, and/or used bottled (filtered) water. That way the time from mix to mouth was approx 1 minute, max, sometimes less than that. (I had this nifty multi-compartment container, into which you could pre-measure formula, so when the time came all you had to do was put water into a bottle, dump in one compartment's worth, snap on the lid and shake. Whee!)

Even with heating water, that should only add, what, 30 seconds tops? Still not as convenient, of course, as a breast, but there you go.

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's just the brand I've got -- Nutrilon.

Heating the water is quick, especially with European water boilers. It's cooling it back down to non-scalding temperatures that takes time!

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

Hah, funny! That reason has so far never come up in anything that I've read.

[mamamoira.livejournal.com]

Try sticking it in the freezer to cool it quicker? :)

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

Ah, there's a topic for a whole 'nother post! The house didn't come with a freezer, but we figured, that's OK, we have a basement! We'll buy a small chest freezer! We like our freezer! (We need a freezer, given how much soup we make in large quantities and then freeze.) So we dutifully measured all the dimensions, and finally ordered it on Sunday and it was delivered on Wednesday.

Whereupon we found out we didn't measure all the relevant dimensions, namely, the doorway to the basement. It doesn't fit.

The freezer is now living next to the bathtub. It will be plugged in as soon as we get a splitter that fits into the nearest electrical socket, hopefully tomorrow.