EASY AND EFFECTIVE METHODS TO WARM MILK BOTTLES IN THE NIGHT

As a new mom, in those early few weeks with your baby, you are tired, exhausted and sleep-deprived and there is no worse feeling than your little one waking up in the middle of the night crying hungry for food. It can feel really exhausting at that time to try soothing your little one while trying to warm the milk bottles and hoping that your other kids or family members don’t wake up.

With my daughter after going through many incidents like these, I was able to figure out a plan on how to heat the milk bottles as quickly as possible. Although I did breastfeed my daughter for her nighttime feeding for the first few weeks, I quickly realized that offering her a milk bottle with expressed milk or formula for her nighttime feeding was a better way to go. It was convenient to feed her with a bottle in the night, it also kept me awake from falling asleep in the night while breastfeeding her and this rarely broke her sleep in the night, and she continued to sleep for longer stretches.

In this blog post, I will go through different methods on how you can warm freshly expressed milk bottles or formula bottles in the quickest way possible!

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When it comes to warming breastmilk or a formula bottle there are a few different methods and techniques that you can choose from. Also, I wanted to bring to your notice that you should never microwave breastmilk or formula milk as it can create hot spots that can burn your baby’s mouth and affect the overall quality of the milk by reducing its overall nutrient value.

Guidelines for storing breastmilk

Freshly expressed breast milk bottle can be kept at room temperature (61-79) anywhere from 4-8 hours, although 3-4 hours is what is preferred. If your room temperature is a little cooler, then you can keep the bottle out longer than 4 hours. Formula milk bottles need to be fed to the baby within 1 hour of being prepared and then it needs to be tossed off. Otherwise, if you keep the formula bottle in the refrigerator as soon as it is prepared then it can last you up to 24 hours.

Nighttime feeding with freshly expressed breastmilk

If you are giving your little one a breastmilk bottle in the night, then the easiest way to feed your little one without warming the bottle is by pumping a bottle of freshly expressed milk right before your bedtime. You can keep this bottle on your nightstand. And when your baby wakes up after a couple of hours you can feed with this bottle. Now there is a downside to it if you and your baby oversleeps and the milk bottle is sitting out for more than 6-8 (depending upon the room temperature, can go up to 8 hours if the room is cooler), then you will have to dump a perfectly pumped milk bottle.

How can you store a cold milk bottle?

Now if you have a formula milk bottle, you can either prepare it beforehand and keep it in a small cooler in your bedroom. And when it’s time to feed your baby, you can warm the milk bottles with any of the methods you chose to go for (from the list below). Also, another convenient way to go is, you can microwave a bowl of fresh water and fill it in a thermos and keep it on your bedside. Along with this, make sure you have bottled water at room temperature and formula handy. Now when the baby wakes up, you can quickly milk the warm water from the thermos and the room temperature water bottle to make sure that the milk prepared is at the right temperature for the baby as otherwise, it can take additional few minutes to cool the bottle. Add your formula to it and it’s ready.

Now that you are aware of how to store milk bottles, let’s look into the different methods of how you can warm the milk bottles in as little time as possible:

Method 1: Running the milk bottles under warm tap water

This was the very first method that I had started with. Although this is a great trick to warm milk bottles if you are traveling but trying this out at home felt very time-consuming. It takes some time for the warm water to run through the tap and then add some time to warm the milk bottles. Also, this method can cause noise which can wake up your baby as well as if you are warming the milk bottle all by yourself then that means you will have to leave your hungry baby alone in the crib crying while you take care of this. This can be a very stressful situation at times.

Anyhow if you have someone to help you out to warm the milk bottles then you can go for this method. All you must do is hold the cold milk bottle under running warm water and keep testing it to make sure that you don’t overheat the milk. This method can take anywhere between 5-8 minutes or even longer to warm a cold milk bottle.

Method 2: Using a bottle warmer to warm the bottles

I found this method really effective. While looking for a bottle warmer I wanted something that was universally designed to fit multiple brands of bottles so that if I have to change the milk bottle for my baby girl in the near future I would not have to purchase a new warmer. I found that the Avent bottle warmer suited to the best of my needs. It's easy to use and compact in size. Although it is only designed to warm a four-ounce milk bottle, I am able to warm my eight-ounce bottle as well using the same warmer.

This method took anywhere between 3-4 minutes to warm the water in the bottle warmer. And then 3-4 minutes to warm the milk bottle. Also, with this bottle warmer there are two settings. If you set the setting of the warmer on the left side then once the water is heated up, the warmer still keeps the water warm. This way you can completely skip the 3-4 minutes that you would need to warm the water.

Method 3: Use a formula dispenser machine

This method is perfect for formula feeding babies. The formula dispensing machine is designed to dispense formula instantly and at the right temperature. One of the best machines with great reviews to go for is Baby Breeze formula dispenser. This machine works very well with all the formula brands and it automatically mixed, warms and dispenses formula in perfect consistently and the milk bottle is ready within minutes. The only downside to this method is that the formula dispenser machine is on the expensive side, but it is so amazing to have this in your nursery especially for those times when your baby is crying inconsolably for milk and you are extremely sleep deprived. All you must do is, set this machine near your baby’s nursery with the bottle and formula and use it when it’s time to feed.

Method 4: Warming the milk in milk packets vs bottles

This is an extremely effective way to warm the milk in as little time as possible. The milk packets can get warmed up quickly as compared to milk bottles due to their larger contact surface area. The milk in the milk packets spread evenly and is in direct contact with the hot water everywhere and so gets warmed up quickly. You can either warm the milk packets by running them under a tap of hot water or keeping it in a bowl of hot water for some time. The only downside to this method is that you will have to transfer the milk to the milk bottles after it is warmed up. An effective to transfer milk from a milk bag to a bottle is via funnels. Pouring milk through the funnel helps prevent milk from spilling.

Method 5: Warm the milk in a bowl of hot water

This can be done in a few different ways. The first one is to fill a vessel (probably wider in shape so that your bottle has the maximum surface area of contact and can get warmed up quickly) with hot water and place your bottle in it to warm. While your bottle gets warmed up, you can cater to your little one, change their soiled diapers and be able to console them. Also, make sure to keep the hot water vessel as away from you as possible so that there is no way that you can spill it accidentally. The idlest way is the bathroom sink top.

The second method is to use a small crockpot and keep it in your room. Again, make sure that the crockpot is as away from you as well as from the baby. The crockpot can keep the milk hot for a long time and all you need to do is place the bottle in the crockpot when it’s time to feed.

And the last one is to heat water in a bowl in your microwave and then place the bottle in it. This is also a convenient method if you have someone to help you put while you take care of the baby's needs.

Whatever method you go for, chose it according to your convenience. You will also notice that as your baby grows your requirement and the methods will also keep evolving.

I hope this post was useful to you all and you all did find what you were looking for!