- Use before the expiration date on the label
- Use refrigerated, opened, ready-to-feed and prepared formula within 48 hours.
- Don’t leave bottles of formula out of the refrigerator for more than two hours.
- Throw away the formula left in the bottle after a feeding, since germs from baby’s saliva will multiply in the warm formula.
- Refrigerate any formula saved from one day to the next.
- Be very careful if you are using a microwave oven to warm formula. It’s better not to microwave. Because of uneven heating, hot spots develop. If you do use the microwave, shake the bottle well before testing the temperature on your wrist.
- Avoid bottle propping, and don’t let a baby fall asleep holding his own bottle. He could choke or aspirate the formula into his lungs. Falling asleep with a bottle allows the sugary formula to pool in the mouth, in contact with teeth, causing dental caries. When bottle-feeding in the lying-down position, formula may travel from the back of the baby’s throat up through the eustachian tube into the middle ear, causing ear infections. Remember, bottle-feeding, like breastfeeding, is a social interaction, in addition to a method of delivering nutrition. There should always be a person at both ends of the bottle, and babies should go to sleep attached to a person, not a bottle.
