best way to warm milk for babies?

[MB]

There is probably an obvious answer but i've never done this before and i'm trying to get my ducks in a row before the baby gets here.

[coso]

Warm water bath is how we usually do it. Just water straight out of the tap into a small bowl then put the bottle in the bowl. You want the bottle at about 100 degrees. If you want to do it faster do a double boiler on the stove.

[CookingPam777]

Well I just heat it in a pan at first you can heat it to 103 with a thermometer. But you eventually can just pretty much feel when it warm enough after that. You just want to break the chill and make it a little warm. As they get older I find they are not as picky. You don't want it to be to cold because it gives them scours from what I've heard. I have never experienced scours before. I have only had the problem to where my buck couldn't go. Hope this helps!

[mary,tx]

I do it the easy way, in the microwave. I always use a probe kitchen thermometer to check the temperature, shaking it up first. You want about 100 degrees. (Hint: best to underheat, and try again than overheat and have to cool it down.)

[CountryHaven]

Whatever you do, do NOT microwave it. It will kill all the beneficial attributes of both colostrum and/or milk. Hot water bath is best.

[mary,tx]

Originally Posted by CountryHaven

Whatever you do, do NOT microwave it. It will kill all the beneficial attributes of both colostrum and/or milk. Hot water bath is best.

I'm sorry, but I don't see how heating it to 100 degrees, even in the microwave, is going to ruin anything. You keep water-bathing, and I'll keep doing it the easy way.

[jBlaze]

If I feed goats milk I use warm water bath, using hot water from the tap, and it heats pretty evenly. Since we are feeding cows milk from the store, I am using the microwave to warm it, since all the goodies are pasturezed anyhow. For 8 cups of milk I nuke it 9 minutes at 60% power. It gets hot on the top and stays cool on the bottom, so I stop and stir it ever 2 minutes or so.

For frozen colustrum, I use the baby bottle warmer we got for our baby (who is now one) it works great. I got it at walmart for like $9. I just keep shaking the bottle to mix in the frozen top part.

Oh, and if you tnink nuking is easy, just think, by using the water bath you don't have to wash the container you use to nuke in, it's already in the bottles. Yes, I do both ways depending on how many i have to do. Takes about the same amount of time either way. Also you can pack your bucket of warming bottles in hot water to the barn and do some chores while they warm, and then rinse your hands in the nice warm water befor eand after you feed kids. It's nice. Now, my dd likes to eat her breakfast while the milk is in the nuker.
hth.

[mygoat]

Most of us heat treat/pasteurize to feed to kid goats - Recommended if you are raising on the bottle anyways, prevents the spread of CAE. If that's the case, heating THE MILK in the microwave from then on out is fine. For colostrum, heat treat it, pour into bottles, and swirl it under cold water till it's the proper temp. Or if it's frozen, get it up to temp in a hot water bath.

[NYSaanen]

While we drink the milk raw, we pasteurize it for the babies for CAE prevention. We use stainless steel saucepans or stock pots (depending on how much they are getting at the time). We heat it up to the proper temp to pasteurize, then let it cool back down to 102 or so. By the time bottle season gets into swing, we get to know how long before feeding to heat the milk so it is near proper temp at time of feeding without having to cool it down in a water bath.

[BlueHeronFarm]

We use hot water for colostrum, the microwave for milk. And we heat the milk less each day until we can get them down to cold milk. I only heat it for the bigger kids if it is also cold outside...but here we give cold milk on warm days.

[Chinook]

We try to feed the kids right after milking and that way it is already pretty warm. We only milk twice a day though and feed three times. So for the afternoon feedings we warm the bottles on the stove.

I have always heard that microwaving the milk kills all the good stuff in it too. I've always heard the slower it heats the better. I would research it anyway before trying it, considering that it seems to be a controversial issue.

[homeacremom]

If you are bottle feeding it just takes a few minutes with the bottle in hot tap water. This is my preferred method.
Microwaving is different because of the way it heats not the actual temp it reaches.

[havenberryfarm]

CAE prevention: Conventional wisdom says that you should heat-treat the colostrum to prevent CAE. However, it is very difficult to heat colostrum to high enough temperatures to kill the virus without turning the colostrum into cheese! Hopefully, your doe was CAE tested and you know her status. If she is positive, then try hard to get some colostrum from another dam who has been tested negative within the past year. Use that for the first 24 hours, then colostrum replacer after that for a day or two. Follow with powdered goat or sheep formula. If she is CAE negative and you just want friendly kids, go ahead and use her milk.

You can heat the water in the microwave and then add powdered milk. Or you can use a hot water bath to heat milk. The microwave heats unevenly and can destroy some of the antibodies in the milk. If you do use the microwave, shake the bottle well to avoid hot-spots that can burn baby's mouth.

If you don't know the CAE status of your goat, assume the worst, just to be safe. Bottle-feeding is a lot of work to end up with CAE+ animals! I know. I heat-treated + colostrum and found out the hard way! Now I keep extra colostrum every year from my negative herd.

[Wendy]

Whatever you do, do NOT microwave it.

I use the microwave all the time.

[ozark_jewels]

I use a water bath. Very easy and quick.

[Cat]

I use a water bath, too. If I'm taking a lot of bottles out in cold weather, I even fill the bucket which holds the bottles with warm almost hot bottles. I absolutely refuse to feed a baby that's requiring milk as its sole food source cold milk.

[Minelson]

I don't use the micro for anything but popcorn. Micro cooking/heating zaps out all the enzymes. Enzymes unlock the nutrition in food so it can be absorbed into the body. No enzymes = no nutrition. No nutrition = non-food. When I eat popcorn, I'm not eating it it for any nutritional value...it's truly just entertainment

[MB]

Thanks for the replies guys. Thankfully the breeder is sending me off with a gallon of goats milk. I'll have to get her switched over to cows milk from the store unfortunately. No mama goats at my house. The microwave makes me a little nervous because I have a tendency to leave things in there till they are boiling lava hot. I'll try submerging the bottle in warm water bath while I do the morning chores.

[crazygoatgal]

I used to microwave the milk and colostrum, but have heard from several very reliable sources that it does kill the beneficial bacteria, so I do a warm water bath. I take it one step further and put my bottles in an insulated zipper cozy thing a ma bob so they don't get cold while I am busy feeding the first babies. It works great.

[dosthouhavemilk]

Hot water bath here.
The lambar buckets get set in bigger buckets and bottles at the house are put in a crock pot with hot water from the tap and I check my e-mail or check a couple threads and the bottles are the right temperature for bottle feeding.