Steam bags, nursery water make baby feeding easier

I know I'm getting old, but things seem a lot different than they were 13 years ago when Maddie was a baby.

First and foremost, bottles. Paisley, just like Maddie, is bottle fed. But the process for dealing with these bottles seems much simpler than it did back then. At least as I remember.

Back then we used to boil water on the stove and sterilize all the bottles, nipples, pacifiers, etc. Then I would make a large batch of formula up and make 5-6 bottles at a time. I'd put those in the refrigerator until they were needed. Then we'd get them out and put them in the bottle warmer to heat up. And then we'd give them to Maddie.

Now  we take all the various parts of the bottles and put them in these plastic bags we bought at Walmart. They are the Munchkin Steam Guard Microwave Sterilizer Bags. Each bag can be used 20 times (maybe more) and they cost about a dollar a piece. You load up all the stuff and put a little bit of water in the bag. Then you microwave it for three minutes. When your done, you pour the water out and remove the items. Everything is fresh and sterile.

We also only make one bottle at a time now. We use nursery water. It's a dollar a gallon at Walmart. We keep it at room temperature. What we've found works best is to pour the water in a mixing cup and then add the formula. To get it properly mixed, we use a small whisk. When we do this, we seem to get less residue at the bottom. Then we pour it in the bottle and serve.

Why not just shake it? You can but you're increasing the amount of bubbles and therefore increasing the possibility that the baby is going to take in air. And remember, your baby's gas pains will bring you to your knees. You'll do whatever it takes to avoid them.

I can do that entire process in the amount of time it used to take to properly warm up a bottle in the fridge.

It gets a little more complicated on the road, but we're working it out.