Question for the moms out there

[sal_amanda]

This has the potential to be a dumb question, but I'm totally clueless.  So say we're out shopping at Target or Wegmans or some such place and it's time for Nora to eat.  I'm not a public nurser and will be weaning her in a month or so anyway.  So say I've got a bottle packed for her.  How the heck do I warm it up?  I give her a bottle of pumped milk everyday to keep her used to it for when I really need it and I have a bottle warmer that my friend Jen gave me, but I can't really lug that around with me.  Thus my confusion as to how I warm a bottle when out in public.  Anyone?

Also, along the same lines, and this may be one more for Kristina since she has older ones, when do you stop needing to warm up the bottles anyway?

These are the things that aren't in any books and my mom can't remember.

Comments

[busybusymama.livejournal.com]

are we talking formula, or breast milk? You could pump and carry THAT milk with you, because it can stay our for X number of hours at room temperature. I can't recall the number offhand, but it is a pretty darn long time. You could google to find it out.

There are also bottle warmers that plug into the car. But that only helps if you are NEAR the car.

Some people get a hot cup of water and warm it that way. But, I also know someone whose older child had to spend time at a Shriners burn hospital because she spilled the baby's scalding water on herself.

As for what I did -- I never warmed bottles. I nursed exclusively for the first few months. Later, when we were using expressed milk that had been refrigerated, we just gave it to them without being warmed. I started doing that because Jacob absolutely refused to take pumped milk that had been warmed.

Hope that was somewhat useful.

[sal_amanda]

Hmm. I wonder if she would take cold breast milk. But you're right about room temperature freshly pumped milk. Supposedly it can stay out for 8 hours. I have no idea why I didn't think of that. Must be the sleep deprivation.

[kristyfrey.livejournal.com]

We never let Zack get too used to really warm formula - room temperature is what we aim for. When we were in target with him once and I knew he was going to need to eat, I stuck the cold bottle in the waistline of my pants and within ten minute my body heat had warmed it enough. The problem now is that when Z is hungry - Z IS HUNGRY - and waiting 10 minutes will not do - and if he's super hungry, he'll take it cold.

For formula fed babies, some people take little bags of formula and mix it with room temp bottled water at feeding time. I won't though, because to get the powder dissolved you have to shake the hell out of it and then its full of air bubbles. I always premix batches of formula so that it will have time to settle.

Our newest challenge is that sometimes we take all day trips and in the summer I really don't want to lug a big cooler full of bottles around everywhere so we are going to try this (although this won't help breastfeeding moms):

- use a small tupperware containers to premix enough powder for one bottle in each with just enough water to dissolve the powder while it sits in the fridge or cooler.

- take bottles of just water along (which won't need to be kept cold).

- at feeding time pour a cold concentrated formula into the room temperature bottle of water and just swish it a little

I'm thinking that, theoretically, I'll be able to quickly make a bottle that is almost room temp and doesn't have a lot of air. If this works, then the only thing I have to worry about keeping cold are enough of the small tupperware containers for the day - which means a much smaller cooler and less ice packs! I plan to try this over the weekend. I'll post an update on how it goes.

-

[sal_amanda]

That actually sounds like a really smart idea. Let me know how that works out for you and I will tuck it in my bag of tricks for future reference.

[kristyfrey.livejournal.com]

It worked wonderfully! We were out shopping and it just took seconds to mix with water - no lumps or air in the final bottle!

Nuke it!

[(Anonymous)]

Depending on where you're shopping, some places have a microwave actually available to you!

Wegmans, for example, has microwaves in the area where you'd sit and eat, which incidentally would probably make a handy place to sit and feed a baby.

Many, many gas stations and convenience stores also have microwaves. I guess you are supposed to buy those processed meat/cheese thingies and microwave them.

If you are afraid that microwaving baby's bottle at the gas station will make you seem weird, you can rest assured that there are far weirder people doing weird things at gas stations all the time.

If you're worried about the cleanliness of public microwaves, that could be a valid concern. But people with babies are always packing lots of products for wiping and cleaning things, so I assume you're covered there.

From Liz T., urban survivalist.

Re: Nuke it!

[sal_amanda]

That would be too easy. But you're not supposed to microwave bottles. For breastmilk, it destroys the antibodies or something to that effect, but even for formula they say not to because it heats unevenly so one part could feel cool enough, but there could be part that would scald the baby. I suppose in a pinch, though, I could microwave a cup of water and put the bottle in the water to warm that way.

[beatmbg.livejournal.com]

I thought I heard though that you can't microwave breastmilk. This makes sense to me, but I wasn't sure how true it was. It would denature the antibodies if it got too hot (thats the part that makes sense) I suppose careful microwaving is an option. Have you heard anything about this?

[sal_amanda]

That and it heats unevenly, which can be dangerous if it feels cool enough when you touch it, but has a part that could potentially scald the baby.

[kristyfrey.livejournal.com]

We microwave - but for a very short time and then swish the bottle around. For a five oz bottle, 20 seconds takes the chill off perfectly.