Boiling water for formula

[Anonymous]

OP here, thanks everyone for chiming in. Obviously it’s a confusing topic, ha.

I’ve been following the CDC/WHO guidelines and using hot water to mix/sterilize the formula. It’s not so bad, I’ll take boiling some water over BFing and pumping any day. Tomorrow we have an appointment with a new pediatrician so I’ll ask her.

I wish we could do RTF but since DC is a preemie, the hospital told us we needed a specific formula and I haven’t been able to find it RTF.

Who knew feeding your kid could get so complicated??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am so confused by this thread. Is this specifically a question on how to use recalled formula?? The CDC guidelines make no mention of boiling water and say tap water is generally fine. I was instructed to use distilled water for my full term baby upon discharge from the hospital. I still use it and only avoid tap to avoid any fluoride. https://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/downloads/prepare-store-powered-infant-formula-508.pdf

If you read it closely it also says: If your baby is younger than 3 months old, was born prematurely, or has a
weakened immune system, you may want to take extra precautions when preparing infant formula.
Visit https://www.cdc.gov/cronobacter/infection-and-infants.html to learn more

Note the you MAY want to. Not you "should" etc. Only 2-4 infections/year are reported to the CDC it is a rare risk much more rare than burns due to boiling water infants... In any case I used filtered tap to prepare formula when my baby was less than 3 months and she was fine. Really depends on resources and risk avoidance. I would be more risk avoidant if she was a preemie or had immune system or other health issues.

You are being defensive maybe because you want to justify you did right by your baby. Best practices is to used boiled water. If those four babies had formula that used boiled water to sterilize even though the formula had cronobacter they wouldn’t be dead or seriously injured. Your baby is just lucky he or she didn’t encounter contaminated formula. It’s a BEST practice, just like you shouldn’t eat deli meat or sushi or go to a hot tub. I don’t understand why you keep stressing this point, deal with your mom guilt. We are discussing best practices in view of recent infant deaths.

I have ZERO mom guilt and I’m the one who provided the links to best practices in the first place and pointed out to the pp the fine print in the CDC‘s instructions. I did the best I could for my child when it comes to formula. I am a rational person not an anxiety driven one.

Best practice is to sterilize formula powder or use rtf under three months. You cannot avoid cronobacter. Cronobacter is under reported as hospitals are not required to report it. It’s a best practice. You keep insisting you used room temp water so it’s ok. It’s time to give it a rest. OP is asking for best practices.

Yes and I’ve provided multiple links about best practices and pointed out the flaw in the pp reasoning about the cdc link. Not sure what your reading comprehension problem is.

All I can tell is that you had your baby awhile back, you did things a certain way and are resistant to new information telling you a better way to be safer. Your opinion also don’t count because you don’t have a baby during this formula recall. Food safety is going down the tubes and parents need to be aware of a safer practice that is standard in other countries.

My baby is 10 months old and I have thrown out formula due to the recall. I have said that if one is concerned boil water or use RTF. In fact after my DC was hospitalized for intussusception at 7 months and I saw how swollen her bowel was on ultrasound I did switch to RTF for a while because I knew it was sterile and felt it was safer while she was recovering.
But is also true that as the first link I posted pointed out there is inconsistency in the best practice recommendations and one has to weigh parental burden, other risks (burns) etc. Neither the hospital nor my family practice doc recommended boiling water so I didn’t. My doula did actually mention it (dc was already 8 weeks) and it seemed like an impossible thing to do for me. It is impossible as a parent to do everything according to best practice (I was also told to pump 12x a day which certainly would have helped my supply and enabled me to avoid formula altogether but that was impossible for me. I still think I did the best I could for my baby given my circumstances and resources. OP can read the links I posted about best practices, including my recommendation for RTF as an alternative if worried, consider feasibility and risks and make her own decision. Maybe it’s NBD for her to buy the machine that keeps water at the right temperature. Maybe she decides it’s ok not to boil because the risk is so very low. All are good choices and she should do what works best for her and her circumstances. No matter what you think given the extremely low risk of infection from formula this is not a black and white issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am so confused by this thread. Is this specifically a question on how to use recalled formula?? The CDC guidelines make no mention of boiling water and say tap water is generally fine. I was instructed to use distilled water for my full term baby upon discharge from the hospital. I still use it and only avoid tap to avoid any fluoride. https://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/downloads/prepare-store-powered-infant-formula-508.pdf

If you read it closely it also says: If your baby is younger than 3 months old, was born prematurely, or has a
weakened immune system, you may want to take extra precautions when preparing infant formula.
Visit https://www.cdc.gov/cronobacter/infection-and-infants.html to learn more

Note the you MAY want to. Not you "should" etc. Only 2-4 infections/year are reported to the CDC it is a rare risk much more rare than burns due to boiling water infants... In any case I used filtered tap to prepare formula when my baby was less than 3 months and she was fine. Really depends on resources and risk avoidance. I would be more risk avoidant if she was a preemie or had immune system or other health issues.

You are being defensive maybe because you want to justify you did right by your baby. Best practices is to used boiled water. If those four babies had formula that used boiled water to sterilize even though the formula had cronobacter they wouldn’t be dead or seriously injured. Your baby is just lucky he or she didn’t encounter contaminated formula. It’s a BEST practice, just like you shouldn’t eat deli meat or sushi or go to a hot tub. I don’t understand why you keep stressing this point, deal with your mom guilt. We are discussing best practices in view of recent infant deaths.

I have ZERO mom guilt and I’m the one who provided the links to best practices in the first place and pointed out to the pp the fine print in the CDC‘s instructions. I did the best I could for my child when it comes to formula. I am a rational person not an anxiety driven one.

Best practice is to sterilize formula powder or use rtf under three months. You cannot avoid cronobacter. Cronobacter is under reported as hospitals are not required to report it. It’s a best practice. You keep insisting you used room temp water so it’s ok. It’s time to give it a rest. OP is asking for best practices.

Yes and I’ve provided multiple links about best practices and pointed out the flaw in the pp reasoning about the cdc link. Not sure what your reading comprehension problem is.

All I can tell is that you had your baby awhile back, you did things a certain way and are resistant to new information telling you a better way to be safer. Your opinion also don’t count because you don’t have a baby during this formula recall. Food safety is going down the tubes and parents need to be aware of a safer practice that is standard in other countries.

12 years ago the recommendation was to use ready to feed early on.

And that recommendation ready to feed was for the same reason as now - possible contamination from cronobacter. With the push for breastfeeding the education on how to safely feed formula has been lost. There are breastfeeding classes but no education on formula prep. The rec now is still the same, for at least the first three months use ready to feed or sterilize formula powder. Parents take so much pains buying nursery water or filtering water, but there is no education on the formula component.

The PP using one formula study and harping on about how her kid didn’t die and hence it’s ok is ignoring new information (or relearned information).

She's not the only one who thinks you have reading comprehension issues. She's just the only one who thinks you're worth arguing with. Pp 00:01 explained it well without arguing.

In any case, Op was advised to heat water and does have a premie, so there's little reason for the rest of us to belabor the point.

[Anonymous]

OP back with an update!

Spoke with my pediatrician and she said to follow the WHO/CDC guidelines of adding powder to hot (158 degrees) water to sterilize the powder. And to continue this practice until DC is 6 months old. So, that's what we'll continue doing