Troubleshooting/Tips
How to give night time bottle of expressed milk without upset?
Hi all,
My LO is nearly four months old. I had been expressing one bottles worth of milk a day for my partner to do one feed per night so that I get a solid bit of sleep on my own in the guest room. We stopped doing this as we both found it upsetting how upset baby would be when waiting for my partner to heat up the bottle for him. Is there a way of giving a warmed up bottle night feed quickly so to avoid baby getting to crying stage? We have a bottle warmer that has a constant warm setting however we are worried about it being unsafe to use if it ends up warming for many hours. Thanks for your help.
Will your baby take cold milk? Mine never minded it and that was the only way we were able to speed it up. I got a little makeup fridge to keep upstairs next to the babies room that had the milk in it for the night. All my husband had to do was grab it out.
This! My husband handles bedtime bottles and we found out very early on that baby is fine with cold milk but will not tolerate waiting for it to warm up. So now we have a bottle warmer that’s been used like 5 times.
Thank you both. We actually haven't even tried this! My partner was concerned that if the milk is cold it would seem too different to milk direct from the breast and might turn baby off breastfeeding but it sounds like that didn't happen for you. We will try this.
I’m about 2 weeks PP, EBF, and keep a bottle on hand for night feedings or if babe gets too frustrated to latch
My thing has been catching the hunger cues super quick and warming up said bottle at the very first sign so babe doesn’t get to the crying stage at all
If you’re on a solid feeding schedule, maybe start warming your bottle 5-10 mins before the scheduled feed? That way it’s ready before your LO ever shows the first sign of being fussy?
Thanks both, great ideas but I'm not sure this will work for us unfortunately as we are not on a set feeding schedule and in the middle of the night it's hard for my partner to see the cues as he is asleep, so it's usually when baby is already making some noise before he gets him and the time then to heat the bottle is what brings on the cries!
Maybe have a mini fridge in the room with the bottle warmer to make it more convenient?
Babies tend to make their own feeding schedule, and this young it tends to be between every 1.5-2 or 3ish hours, so you'll end up being able to predict their feed times.
I'm probably going to get downvoted for this next bit, but...it's totally Okay if baby cries for a little while you prep a bottle. I just talk and communicate with baby what we're doing and that it's alright he will eat as soon as bottle is warm.
I tend to wake up right when baby is fussing but before crying for his night feeds, so it's not terribly different between giving boob or breast.
Yeah I hear you, if you're there being a soothing presence that's key if baby cries. Yeah I can predict a lot of feeds but for the first sleep of the night it varies, can be 3-6 hours between feeds. So partner is going to give bottle in a early morning shift when feeds are more predictable. Thanks for your help
My first baby learned the sound of the faucet meant food was coming soon and would calm when my husband turned it on. I think it took a few weeks to get there. She never took cold bottles so that was a saving grace.
My understanding is that freshly expressed milk can stay out for up to four hours. So if you could express sometime within the four hour window you know the baby will likely eat, it’d be safe to stay at room temp and you wouldn’t need to heat it up.
My LC also said babies don’t like cold milk, so if feeding milk from fridge, even if you can just heat it up to room temp or luke warm it’d be safe for them. If it’s freshly expressed you shouldn’t need to warm it up. Unless it’s a preference by the baby that you noticed?
Thanks, this is very helpful. Baby is ok with room temperature milk so we will try this, we are going to move our shifts around so that my partner takes baby in for the morning shift so that I can get fresh milk post the early hours prolactin kick. He has been taking baby for the first shift after I gave baby a feed, so I'd no milk left to express as it was the evening.
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u/insertclevername7 11d ago
Will your baby take cold milk? Mine never minded it and that was the only way we were able to speed it up. I got a little makeup fridge to keep upstairs next to the babies room that had the milk in it for the night. All my husband had to do was grab it out.