How do you thicken formula?

Specifically with a 6 oz bottle, Dr. Brown bottles and Thick It?

TY :)

You need to ask the doc what thickness to start with. Usually they have a base they start with and move up from there until something seems to help. I don't know about thick-it. we are give rice cereal a try again to see if she reacts. we use the walmart dr brown's knock offs. i shake it all up befor i put the straw contraption in it.

I also use rice cereal, but with thick it, which I have used with adult patients, we would just slowly add it to liquid to the desired thickness. I would say start out with a little, make it just a little thicker and increase as needed. I use the Y cut nipple with Dr. Brown's. I was having a problem with it plugging up, but now I use the blender and it makes it really smooth, so I don't have that problem anymore. Good luck! Maureen

I was wondering about the nipples. I don;t think the Y-cuts fit the normal bottles either do they? I suppose I could buy a blender....do you make one bottle at a time? I'm not sure what thickend formula should look like either, Neocate is as thin as water.

The Thick It website has charts on how to make things thick... here you go. (http://www.thickitretail.com/usagechart.html)

Also the Y cuts do fit on the regular bottles... but you probably dont need one for these bottles because it should come out smooth. We use a size 3 and we thicken with Rice as well. So it should work and even if a level 3 nipple is too fast, you could try a 2 even depending on the thickness.

Anyway, I'm not sure about the thick it, but when I make my bottles, I make up 40ish ounces in the blender and store it in the fridge... it gets me through 2 days or so.

I do suggest you make it one bottle at a time for now until you get the thickness figured out instead of making a whole batch and having it be wrong, ya know?? :)

Good luck and hope that helped!!

P.S. I'm moving this thread to the Formula Feeding forum! :)

We were always having problems with the thickener plugging up the teats and blending the bottle has really helped.

i ended up buying a handblender for formula. it was easier than washing a whole bender. i always make formula in a batch, not bottle by bottle. i've used simply thick & thick it with neocate. i'd say for thick it to get a good but not super thick mix:
21oz water
1 cup neocate
mix well with blender
add
3 scoops thick it from the big side
3 scoops thick it from the little side
blend for about 10-15 seconds

The y cuts do fit the regular Dr. Brown's bottles. That is what we use. I also cut the nipples, **I know, not supposed to** but I was having to make it so thick for Jackson that I had to or he could get nothing out.
Now he doesn't have to have it as thick. I use rice cereal and my doc. suggested 1 Tbsp. per 1 oz. of formula. But, I used more than that in the beginning. I hope that it helps Mason. I think that it will!

21oz water
1 cup neocate
mix well with blender
add
3 scoops thick it from the big side
3 scoops thick it from the little side
blend for about 10-15 seconds

Pooka, I am confused on the consistency. The Thick It box says 1-2 TBSP per 4 oz. So for your recipe of 24 oz of formula it would be 6-12 of the big scoops (one big scoop is 1 TBSP).

Does Thick It make it too thick by the directions? I made Mason a 6 oz. bottle with 2 big scoops and it had the consistency of heavy cream.

The problem is that it is VERY grainy so I like the idea of making it up with a blender and then warming it up. Just trying to figure out how to do this without wasting a bunch of Neocate. Can formula be TOO thick...i.e. would it hurt him?

If I make up a batch and after 10 minutes in the fridge when it settles in (as Thick It is pretty much just cornstarch) if it is too thin, could I blend more in and put it back in the fridge?


Geez, I must sound like an idiot, lol.


P.S. One more thing.....if I warm the formula up after it's been in the frisge, and he falls asleep on me (lol) before eating any of it, can I re-fridge it and re-warm it?

when i made it per the instructions it seemed fine, but 2 hours later when i went to get one out of the fridge it was thicker than pudding. she couldn't get any out of a cross-cut nipple. thick it seems to keep getting thicker as it sits (simply thick too), so if you do batches you need to make it thinner than you want the final product to be. made the way i listed is about the same as heavy cream or maple syrup.