How do you warm your bottle - feeding?

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In our unit If it is just a litlle of milk, we do it under the warm water but if dont we do it on the microwave, but i and my colleagues dont agree and im trying to change it .... We now have the possibility of having a machine that warms the bottles, till a programated temperature by the water steam. How do you warm your babies milk, and what do you think about this equipment?

Thank you

sofia

Specializes in neonatal.
We warm milk and formula in water. .

But how long does it take to warm a 90 ml of formula in a botlle?

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Some babies definitely prefer it warmed up and tolerate it better that way. Breast milk w/fortifier needs to be warmed to help the HMF mix in. And, imho, it's nicer that way. Normally, breast milk would be given @ "body" temp, anyway.

Unless it's been in the refridgerator we never warm formula. I've never noticed the babies had a preference.

If it's been in the fridge we use warm water. It it's breast milk we use warm water so's not to kill the antibodies in the milk. It'll warm it up to about room tempeture, which again, I've never noticed a baby not to take it because it's not hot enough.

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Specializes in Neonatal ICU (Cardiothoracic).

We never warm room temperature formula.... We do warm frozen/thawed MBM in a graduated cylinder of warm water before feeding. If we're using breast milk "shot glasses" you can usually thaw those under running water in a few minutes.

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Specializes in NICU.

We feed forumla room temp unless the baby seems to scoff at it, then we try warming.

We have a hot water only tap in our milk room (not boiling, but certainly "ouch" hot). It comes out hot enough to warm a few oz of refrigerated milk in about 5 min or so. For less volume we can add cold water. We have on occasion had to use a microwave to heat the water, which we then put the cold milk into.

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We use cups and water from a hot water spigot to warm bottles. Our babies aren't on a standardized unit schedule.

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Specializes in LTC , SDC and MDS certified (3.0).

Why warm it? doesn't warm itself by the time it hits the stomach?

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Specializes in NICU.

Totally agree that warm water works just fine. Depends on what are you trying to do : to warm up to a body temp - 37 C Or just a room temp which is about 20 C?

It is not the same thing. We, nurses, are hot sometimes in the unit and have it set on 70 degrees F, so one nurse gives baby 37 degree milk and then another 20 degree milk. Mmmmm... I'm not sure it is good. At least machine warms to 37 degrees and everyone is on the same page. But.. it's just my opinion. Have a good weekend everyone!

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Specializes in nursery, L and D.

We never warm room temp milk, we use cup and warm water for breast milk.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, educator.

It's either room temp or with MBM we warm in a cup of water. You shouldn't be nuking MBM...it kills the protein and the antibodies, and you can over heat anything liquid in the microwave...it doesn't warm evenly and can have a "hot" spot that can cause a burn.

We feed on schedule unless it is a big kid getting ready to go. Sometimes we have about 20 kids eating at the same time, so we would need a whole lot of warmers!

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We use sth we called "warmer" in the unit,just put water inside and swith on,put the bottle in (only for 1 bottle ) for several minutes.it's quick and pretty good.Personally i like giving baby warm milk.

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Specializes in OBGYN, Neonatal.

Where I did my preceptorship we warmed them in a styrefoam cup in a sink with the warm water running down on it, the same way I did it at home with my son.

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Specializes in NICU, CVICU.

We have individual bottle warmers at the bedside of each baby that's eating, they are cleaned regularly and between patients. We don't warm up formula that is room temp, but everything that's coming out of the fridge is placed in the warmer with a specific amount of water so that it is warmed before we give it. There are directions on each bottle warmer so that the correct amount of water is added, proportionate to the size of the feed that you are warming, as long as that is followed the mbm/formula won't be overheated. The only thing that you can't use them for is to thaw mbm.

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