Let’s talk Formula

So I have been wanting to do this update for a couple of days but my life has been crazy. My son keeps wanting to do bedtime routine early and then play forever and not go to bed. Plus I'm on a new medication that makes me feel sick if I don't go to bed at a decent hour. Not to mention Rhys was seeming to want to sleep early and went down easy so I was going to do this update and then he woke up til 12:30am and that was an awful experience for all involved. Thanks to my meds I had to have everyone in my house chip in at trying to get him to sleep and eventually his dad came home around midnight and was ultimately the one to put him to sleep. And of course, he didn't sleep in much. But, he is 4 months old now so sleep can be a testy subject with him at this point in his life. We are trying our best. Definitely a bad time to mess with my medication for sure. But, I had to deal with my post partum depression before it took over my life and made it impossible to care for my son alone.

Anyway, the last couple of days I have been thinking about formula. The shortage, the proper bottle care, proper preparation, all of it. Not sure why. Likely because I'm on my last container of formula and I may have to switch brand's because the brand I'm currently using is completely sold out in my area. I live in Woodstock Ontario and I have to go to Toronto to find formula. If you don't know how far that is, let's just say it's very inconvenient. Especially because there is a limit of 2 containers per customer and that doesn't last me a month. I'm looking to switch to either Good Start or Parents Choice. I've heard good things about both and as far as I can tell they are always available. Maybe it's because they are "discount" formula, just cheaper and not "top quality" but still very good in their own way. Rhys has a very sensitive stomach and already needs a laxative once a day and changing his formula could make the problem worse for a week or so. I have talked to many moms that have this issue and some say Parents Choice while others say get prescription formula. Well, I went to every pharmacy in my area and they all said it's almost impossible to get formula in. Back orders everywhere. I almost wish I lived in a bigger city because they are the places that get shipments. They take priority. Dumb system but that's how it works. I like my small town living too much to give it up.

Now, maybe you follow the direct rule by rule that doctors give about sterilizing bottles and boiling formula water. I personally don't know anyone who follows that rule by rule. Including myself. I'm not doing any harm and I still make sure everything is clean and his water is safe. But I use purified or distilled water. Those are safest. Distilled water is just water that was boiled and then put in a bottle. No different than boiling your water and making formula to put in the fridge for later. I'm not saying that there aren't moms out there that follow the rules and get up every morning and boil water to make bottles for the day. There is nothing wrong with that method. I personally prefer my Baby Brezza formula dispenser. Public health says they are bad because they can be full of bacteria and they don't boil the water they just heat it up. But, if I'm using previously boiled water and heating it up with the brezza, isn't it the same as boiling water, making formula and heating it later? I think it's the same so I do it. Formula dispensers wouldn't sell as easily as they do if they were hurting children. Another no go that I tend to do is when I'm away from home, I should say there is a couple of no go's here but they aren't frequent and they don't seem to bother Rhys one bit. When I do go to someone's house or have someone outside of the house babysit. I have them use bottled water, which you apparently should never use. I know mom's who have used bottled water for most of their kids and they have all been fine. Bottled water is still purified so it's not the worst thing I could give a child. But I'm not asking people to lug around big jugs of distilled water and I'm not boiling water per bottle while I'm away from the house, not to mention sometimes it's on the road in the middle of nowhere. My second big thing is I microwave the water and stir it well and then as powder, then stir again. At this point if it isn't all the same temperature then I'm stirring wrong. The only reason you're never supposed to use a microwave is because it warms it unevenly. Just stir it. Just to recap I use bottled water, fill the baby's bottle to the correct oz, microwave it, stir it, and then add powder and stir again. This is only when I'm at someone else's home. At my home I use the baby Brezza. It's so convenient and makes my life easier.

Now let's talk bottle sterilization. I am low income and don't have enought bottles to premake a day's worth, let alone have time to sterilize all of them daily. That being said, I so use extremely hot water, to the point if it touches my skin it hurts, every time I rinse out a bottle. I do try to either use my sterilizer or boil them for 5 minutes every once in awhile to be sure they're actually clean clean. I don't do it everyday like some people. I find that because I have a brezza I don't tend to use my warmer much as a warmer. I typically use it to sterilize bottles and soothers occasionally. Should I do it more often? Likely. But is my child alive and healthy? Absolutely. Being that I am home alone a lot and my son doesn't give me much alone time during the day, I don't have a lot of time to do things "properly". Now I put that in quotation marks because "properly" looks different for every family. I'm sure if you have multiple children you are doing things similar to how I so them. If that isn't the case I hope you know I am not meaning to offend anyone. I just know how hard it is to raise children and sometimes you just have to do things the quickest way possible. There is nothing wrong with how anyone feeds their children or how they keep things clean. As long as you're not using expired formula and you're not using dirty bottles, your child will be fine. I have a friend that has 4 kids and I know she does things similar to me because I learned from her that fed in a clean bottle is better than just not feeding and not cleaning at all. Everyone has to do what works for them and their situation.

Please don't come at me for the way I do things because my son is healthy and well. My son is fed regularly and sometimes I do refrigerate bottles when he doesn't eat all of it. I use as much of the formula as possible especially because it is so scarce. Everyone does things differently and that's ok. I'm here to explain my life and not to hate others. I'm hoping for support as well as to support others. At this point again my son is sick of his Paw Patrol and I need to tend to him so this is goodbye for now and I hope to post again soon.

One last note for this post. I did try to breastfeed and ran out of supply so my son was borderline starving and that's why I feed formula. Again, every family is different, every child is different and every mom is different. Fed is best. Do what you need to do.