Monday, February 21, 2005

Nu-q-lar

So we're not supposed to microwave formula. Both Dr. Spock and Tracy Hogg say it doesn't matter anyway - "studies have shown" that infants have no preference between warm and cold formula. Well, all I can say, is that Sofi was more and more reluctant to take the bottle. (See previous post about feeding her in the bathroom because of its calming influence.) Then I started nuking her formula. Now it's easy. (In fact, I was able to watch multiple episodes of The Tick--illegally downloaded, since that's the only way you can get access to the glory that is The Tick--"Where, *indeed?*"--while feeding her over the last couple of days.)

Of course, to be truly scientific, I'd have to do the double-baseline: skip the nuking and see if she goes back to her crying ways. But once I've got something that works I'm loath to fuck with it.

But hey, I take precautions:
* 4 oz of formula get 20 seconds of nuking.
* Nipple off while nuking so no pressure builds.
* Shake after nuking to make sure there are no hotspots.
* Test on my wrist - after 20 seconds, it still feels cool, but not cold.

3 comments:

Mark said...

I would always nuke water for 15 seconds, shake, then add formula powder and shake again.

Anonymous said...

There's a lot of superstition and CYA involved in standard official baby advice.

Different babies like different temperatures. I've bottle-fed three children and each one had a different formula temperature preference. (From warm to hot.)

With the first kid we started with elaborate water baths (warm up the water in the microwave and then use it to warm up the formula bottle). Later on we switched to powdered formula and microwaved the water (like Mark suggests).

The second and third kids were twins, so we had to get more efficient. We calibrated our microwave and made a table of how many seconds it took to heat a bottle based on how many ml of formula were in it. And we heated the formula in the bottle with the top on. The amount of vapor produced is not enough to cause problems. (This is with Avent bottles, perhaps that makes a difference. I like Avent - minimizes burping.)

So far (about 9 months) this approach is working very well.

If you adopt this regimen, the only trick is to check for the case where you reheat a partially used bottle before it gets completely cold again. If you aren't careful you can end up with pretty darn hot formula. :-)

Anonymous said...

I have recently managed to convince my 1 year-old son to give the Tick's warcry ("SPOON!") while holding up his own spoon.

It's very cute, and he and I crack up whenever he does it. The wife's not a big fan (espescially when the spoon is full of yoghurt...)