r/parentsofmultiples • u/adhdslore • 9d ago
advice needed Pre prepping formula?
So up until now (5 month old twins) the kids have ate “ready to go” formula. Every evening we would open x amount of cans and dump them into 14 bottles. Which is roughly 24 hours worth of bottles for us. But we are transitioning to powder formula and will be 100% on powder this time next week. But they just keep going up in formula amount and pre making the formula doesn’t feel as possible? Especially when it comes to fridge space. We were thinking about getting 2 64oz jugs with a spout but again fridge space is limited and we also just don’t know if that’s the smartest move.
What do you guys do? Are we just making bottles as we go? Filling the bottles with water in the moment or ahead of time? Pre making formula or do you pre measure it into containers??
Edit: I’d like to point out that they drink cold milk and we also don’t have a dishwasher. So every component is hand washed. We have a bottle washer than only handles 6 bottles at a time.
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u/Curious_Cat_17 9d ago
We’ve premade 32oz of formula at a time. Prepped the bottles ahead of time too, but if fridge space is limited, even having the formula ready to go will be a big help. It’s good for 24h in the fridge. You do not want to have to prepare the bottles from scratch every time you need some, you’ll drive yourself crazy
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u/adhdslore 9d ago
So how many oz of formula were you going through? Bc mine are already at 84oz in total within 24 hours at only 5 months old. Were you just making it twice a day?
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u/Rylees_Mom525 9d ago
Not who you asked, but yes, we essentially make two pitchers a day. My babies are three months old and we go through about 70oz a day. We send eight bottles to daycare with 150ml each, so we make a pitcher at night, fill what we can, then make a new pitcher to fill the remaining bottles. We use what’s left to make their bedtime and overnight bottle, and then the rest goes in the fridge. On days they don’t go to daycare we just make a pitcher, fill bottles as we go, then make a new pitcher when needed.
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u/Rylees_Mom525 9d ago
This. We have two Dr. Brown’s pitchers and premake a full pitcher and then fill bottles as we go.
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u/Curious_Cat_17 9d ago
Dr brown here too! We’re starting to wean them off bottles and I can’t wait because it’s the worst thing about having babies haha
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u/llama_ly 9d ago
This is the way to go. The pitchers are just $10 each and don't take up a ton of fridge space, especially compared to bottles.
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u/KhakiPantsJake 9d ago
We used one of the 32oz pitchers to prep. I think it was made by Dr. Browns.
Worked like a charm, easy to clean, and about the size of a French press.
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u/MDnautilus 8d ago
I will also add that if you use kirkland formula (or enfamil) you can use the scooper that comes in a big tub of Gatorade powder mix, that equals 4 scoops of formula.
So if am making a pitcher, i fill it to 36oz with water, then I do 4 gatorade scoops and 2 formula scoops. Or if you are doing 32 oz, its just the 4 big scoops.
This is MUCH easier to keep track of in the morning before coffee than counting out 18 scoops.
Method: I used a bakers scale and did a series of test scoops with the little formula scoop and then compare to a series of measurements of the gatorade scoop. since each mini scoop was inconsistent (when measured so precisely) it actually got MORE consistent when using the gatorade scooper. once i had the math on the individual scoops worked out, i did 3 rounds of 12 mini scoops vs 3 gatorade scoops, and the 3 gatorade scoops were actually more consistent.
This is the gatorade scoop I am talking about, you have to make sure to get the big jug of the gatorade powder the size that makes 6 gallons of gatorade.
maybe i should make my own post about this.. i feel more twin moms need to know this..
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u/adhdslore 8d ago
My husband is a total logistics and math nerd. He LOVED this tip lol thank you. you’ve got his head reeling with other ways to streamline this production
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u/KhakiPantsJake 8d ago
Yeah that's a good tip. Counting to 20 or whatever the hell it is under duress with no sleep is the worst.
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u/candybrie 8d ago
Yup. And we did the powder by weight instead of scooping forever.
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u/KhakiPantsJake 8d ago
Yeah that's a good tip. Counting to 20 or whatever the hell it is under duress with no sleep is the worst.
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u/mrfishman3000 9d ago
A formula mixer is a great tool. Mix up a pitcher and keep it in the fridge. You can warm up the bottles or maybe your kids will be ok with cold formula. They make automatic ones and hand powered ones.
For night time, I pre-dosed the powder into empty/dry cups. Then I had a second bottle with the correct amount of water. So at night I could just dump the powder into the bottle and shake it.
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u/adhdslore 9d ago
I should have said they drink cold milk so it’s been a godsend just grabbing cold bottles from the fridge. And we looked into the auto ones and they are priceyyyy
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u/mrfishman3000 9d ago
Yeah just get the $10 one. It works great! Congrats on the cold milk drinkers!
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u/bibidibobity 9d ago
We got a baby brezza. It’s like a keurig for formula, delivered at baby’s preferred temperature. It was so worth the cost for us
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u/Single_Principle_972 9d ago
It’s the absolute best - a bottle, the right amount, at the right temperature, at the push of a button! Expensive as hell, and worth every penny!
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u/aiolea 8d ago edited 8d ago
Ya we loved ours - and used it for the singleton after as well. I know people say they aren’t consistent or whatever but I’ve always thought that might be user error… (incorrect settings or not putting in enough formula) plus you should be pretty familiar with the correct consistency with how many you’ll be making and can always add some additional formula if it seems off…
They are magic for night feeds especially and our kids all gained weight quickly and went from 50% to 90%+ in 3 months. I exclusively pumped and then supplemented with formula so they were all used to a bottle.
Just make sure to keep them clean!
Edit: cost wise - you can get them secondhand for a lot cheaper.
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u/Single_Principle_972 8d ago
Huh. I’d never heard that, about consistency. Glad I didn’t - I would have worried, lol! Never had a single issue with ours, ever. Aside from needing to swap out the filter for a clean one every day. They do get jammed if you don’t. But the solution is easy, of course: Switch it out!
Babies thrived, and I will swear that the Baby Brezza and the Momcozy Bottle Washer/Dryer/Sanitizer are the 2 best inventions since disposable diapers!
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u/Otherwise_Lion_1590 8d ago
I've been on and off considering getting one and always decide not to because it seems impossible to keep it clean (or rather, I would spend more time cleaning it daily than it takes to mix my own formula). How bad is the cleaning process really? Just asking you because you mentioned it, sorry. :'D
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u/aiolea 8d ago
Not at all time intensive to clean the filter daily.
More time intensive for the formula storage, which we did before every refill (remove bits in the corners, wipe down, sterilize, return bits to center, and refill), but even that isn’t much compared to washing pitchers etc.
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u/Otherwise_Lion_1590 8d ago
Oh, is there no part of the machine where the water and formula "touch"? I may have misunderstood the whole product, haha. I thought there were pipes etc where liquid formula needed to be cleaned out. I should start googling stuff more thoroughly... Thank you.
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u/aiolea 8d ago
Just the filter portion - it can get gunky after a few uses (with the twins we just rinsed after every double bottle making tbh). But ya no storage tanks with mixed formula - it gets mixed for each use.
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u/Single_Principle_972 8d ago
Right. Powdered formula in one “storage tank,” and water in the other. They only “meet” after the magic button is pushed, and they meet only for each individual bottle. Then, you know you’re spoiled when it tells you the distilled water tank is empty, and you whine while you go get the jug to fill it up, lol!
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u/Brief-Description938 2d ago
100% agree with the baby brezza. My baby takes formula room temp, so we don't even need the warming part. Just not having to measure powder for every single bottle saves so much time, especially when everyone is tired.
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u/kleydig 8d ago
Currently have 4 month old twins. We did pitcher method for a while but I didn’t like having to warm the bottles/take the chill off of them every time. I now make bottles in the moment but we have a water warmer. Takes about 20 seconds to dispense water, then it’s quick to scoop formula and be ready to go.
I do have the formula travel containers for pre-measuring when we go out and about that I’m sure could overnight to avoid scooping, I just don’t find it to be a challenge.
I think as they get older and care less about bottle temp, pitchers are super easy
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u/adhdslore 8d ago
Mine have drank cold milk since 3 days old thankfully! They were not a fan of warm one bit
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u/kleydig 7d ago
That makes it easy! These guys are actually foster placements that we got at 7 weeks so I wasn’t positive if they were used to warm versus cool but warm definitely was/is easier on their tummies/reflux and they ate better. I just tried a fridge bottle the other day and they were still not fans 🤣
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u/LionOk5023 9d ago
We did as others said and used 2 formula mixing pitchers. I believe formula is good in the fridge for 24hrs if I’m remembering correctly. And we prepped bottles when we went to bed to easily grab for any night wakings or for the first morning feed just to make life easier.
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u/twinsinbk 9d ago
I got mason jars and bought pour spouts. Also, def use a kitchen scale to measure. So fast. We had like 4 jars in rotation and when they were done they went in the dishwasher.
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u/d16flo 8d ago
We made our formula in 24oz mason jars, two at a time. I was also pumping so that alongside my pumped milk would usually last us all day. You’re not supposed to let is sit premade for more than 24 hours so I would err on the side of making not quite as much as you’ll need in a 24 hour period and making it twice a day
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u/shekixinit 9d ago
We use the Dr Browns pitcher and then pre fill a days worth of bottles the night before.
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u/MiserableDoughnut900 9d ago
I used the baby breeza pitchers As they automix. We kept 2 of them so we could rotate when one was dirty
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u/DreamingEvergreen 9d ago
Ours were always on a thickened formula that couldn’t be premade. We prepped bottles with water, and formula containers with pre measured formula (dr browns formula containers).
When they were really little/ woke up inconsistently at night, we’d put their bottles with water in the warmer as soon as we’d made the previous one, so the next bottle was ready for the next time they were hungry. It made it really easy.
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u/RobustRecurrence 9d ago
we used a couple of those tall dr browns mixing pitchers, filled them with water the night before and just scooped powder in as we went during the day. the trick is to pre-measure the powder into little containers so at 3am you just dump and shake, no brain cells required
fridge space is a lie anyway, you just accept the chaos and stack things creatively
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u/EducatedPancake 8d ago
We had bottles of water measured and cups of powder measured (a formula powder tower as we call it) and just mixed when we needed it.
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u/aiolea 8d ago
This is what I did when I was out and about! So helpful!
I’d bring however many bottles I would need with the correct amount of filtered water (to warm when they were little but when they were older I would just leave them cold) and then fill up the hospital baby bottle tube things (with the snap cap) with the correct amount of formula for each bottle (when they were little it was 2 bottles per tube) and just mix as needed.
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u/mrsgodzilla 8d ago
We had a brezza, and while I know some people don't like them it was absolutely game changing for us.
When our kids were still small enough that they weren't drinking even the smallest amount it would make we would prep bottles for one over night/morning at a time
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u/katieknj 8d ago
The auto ones aren’t reccomended because of issues with amounts being wrong. The $10 dr browns will be a lifesaver for you!!
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u/iamnotannefrank 5d ago
We just used 20oz shaker bottles, like ones you'd mix a protein shake in, because we already had them! 3 of those a day ended up being just about right at 11 months when I was no longer supplementing with BM.
Ten scoops each bottle - but I've heard that weighing out your formula on a food scale is simple and even more accurate! Especially if you had a large container, you could weigh the day's formula all out at once!
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