Becoming a new parent is more than just hard; sometimes, it can feel like taking proper care of your little one is downright impossible! Especially when breastfeeding isn’t an option, it’s natural to be worried about your baby’s nutrition, and even after you’ve found the perfect formula for your purposes, your work isn’t over yet. You still need to find out the best ways to make formula and serve it to your baby, and quite a few new parents find themselves asking this common question: Is it safe to reheat baby formula?
It Isn’t Safe to Reheat Baby Formula
Unfortunately, reheating baby formula just isn’t safe. Baby formula is only designed to be made and consumed once, and as tempting as it might be to simply reuse unfinished formula instead of going through the whole process of making a new batch, you could be putting your baby’s health at risk if you cut corners in this way. Here are a few examples of reasons why you should never reheat your baby’s formula:
1. Nutrients Are Lost
Reheating formula once might leave its nutrients intact. Every time you reheat formula in the microwave or on the stovetop, however, nutrients are lost, which makes your baby miss out on the opportunities for proper development that each feeding provides. Formula only has its full nutritional content the first time it is made, and every time you reheat formula, you rob your little one of the nutrients he or she needs to grow and thrive.
2. Bacteria Breed
You might think that popping unused formula in the fridge for later will kill any bacteria that might be present on the bottle. Many types of bacteria, however, can live in refrigerator temperatures, and in most cases, putting a formula bottle in the fridge doesn’t even significantly slow down bacterial growth. Formula bottles are only safe right after they’ve been thoroughly cleaned and filled with fresh formula, and even if you only set your formula bottle down for a few minutes, it’s probably safest to make a new batch.
3. Foodborne Illness Risk Increases
Bacteria are one thing, but putting unfinished formula aside and reheating it later can even expose your child to foodborne illness. All sorts of icky critters like to breed on both the inside and outside of your baby’s formula bottle, so if you want to prevent your child from being exposed to potentially fatal conditions, you should never cut corners and reheat unused formula.
How to Avoid Reheating Baby Formula
We’ve explained that it isn’t safe to reheat baby formula, but so far, we haven’t provided any proactive tips on how to avoid finding yourself in a situation where you feel the need to reheat formula in the first place. Every time you waste formula, you waste money, and the pressing financial concerns of new parents are common incentives for saving time and reheating formula. However, it’s possible to avoid wasting formula in the first place.
If you tend to make a full bottle of formula every time, you might want to rethink this practice. Your baby will want to eat different amounts of food at different times, and making too much formula is one of the easiest ways to waste money on your baby food budget.
Take some time to pay attention to your baby’s feeding habits. If your little one generally eats a lot in the morning but tapers off in the afternoon, try making 30% less formula for the afternoon feeding. Keep observing your baby’s habits and altering your routine until the amount of formula you make perfectly fits the amount of formula your baby wants to eat.
You should also take some time to make your formula production process as streamlined as possible. If perennial clutter is making it hard to find clean formula bottles, set everything else aside, and get your kitchen in order. Streamlining your formula routine will get rid of the incentive to store uneaten formula in the fridge and reheat it later.
Why Picking the Right Baby Food Is So Important
It isn’t any safer to reheat organic formula than it is to reheat conventional baby formula. No matter how high-quality the formula you’ve selected might be, partially used baby formula bottles are ideal breeding grounds for bacteria, and the mere fact that your formula was produced in accordance with organic standards doesn’t make this unsafe practice any safer.
In every other way, however, choosing organic formula is much safer than sticking with conventional options. Conventional formula might contain nasty preservatives and synthetic chemicals that cause serious damage to your baby’s health that persists all throughout your child’s life.
At the same time, however, many organic formula options on the market aren’t much better. According to Consumer Reports, both conventional and organic formula products commonly contain heavy metals and other toxins that could seriously harm your child’s neurological health. Organic cultivation and production standards are designed to protect consumer safety, but in the United States, regulatory loopholes allow baby formula manufacturers to include dangerous substances in their products that could seriously compromise the health of your little one.
The Tastyganics Difference
Here at Tastyganics, we only offer baby formula products that have been certified as organic by the European Union’s organic certification organization. Unlike the USA, the EU has a comprehensive regulatory framework in place that prevents bad actors from including toxic ingredients in organic baby food. Whether you’re looking for baby formula for your newborn or your toddler, purchasing EU organic formula is the best way to protect your child’s health.
Traditionally, it’s been hard for American parents to purchase organic formula made in the EU. Here at Tastyganics, however, we’ve made things easy by shipping formula products made by prestigious brands like Holle, Lebenswert, and HiPP directly to the doors of U.S. consumers all over the country.