There is nothing that wakes a snoozing parent quicker than the sound of a hungry baby. There is also nothing quite as exhausting as leaving your warm, cosy bed, possibly for the 4th/5th/6th time that night to feed said baby. Add in a trip to the kitchen to warm up their milk and it’s the perfect recipe for intense sleep deprivation.

While we can’t stop your bub from waking up overnight, we CAN eliminate that trip to the kitchen saving a whole heap of time. Bonus? If your little one sleeps in your bedroom in their bassinet/cot/co-sleeper then you may not even need to leave your bed for their perfectly warmed night-time feed. Here’s how.

Before we dive into the magic of the portable bottle warmer, let’s take a quick look at WHY babies wake overnight (hint: it’s not just to drive their parents crazy). In terms of nutrients and growth, babies need to eat and they need to eat regularly. With a relatively tiny tummy, your newborn will likely be hungry every couple of hours as they are very efficient at processing their milk. Feeding regularly is also important for building and fully establishing your milk supply when breastfeeding.

There is also the biological or evolutionary side to things. Babies like being near their caregiver. They know, instinctively, that next to you is the safest place for them to be and will often make their demands loudly and often, even if they aren’t overly hungry. It’s important to remember that infant sleep is ever changing. It ebbs and flows as your little one develops, eventually settling into more of an established pattern though night waking beyond 12 months is still considered extremely normal.

Remember how we mentioned cutting down those valuable minutes out of bed? It’s all thanks to the magic of a portable milk warmer, like the Lactivate® Portable Milk Warmer. A portable milk warmer means no more late night trips to the kitchen as it quickly and effectively heats breastmilk, cows milk and formula to the perfect temperature. Simply pop your chosen milk into the BPA-free container, choose your temperature between 37c-50c and the warmer does all the work for you! And thanks to its lightweight, rechargeable and, possibly most important, quiet design, you can keep your Portable Milk Warmer in the bedroom for perfectly warmed milk, whenever you need it. With an extended battery life of 11 hours, you can even chuck it in your nappy bag to take out the next day before plugging in the USB-C to quickly and easily recharge.

Product Feature: Lactivate Portable Milk Warmer

Breastmilk, generally speaking, is drunk at around 37c, the same approximate temperature of the human body. While some bubs aren’t bothered by what temperature their milk comes at, just like adults who prefer a hot coffee to a lukewarm one, many prefer it to be on the warmer side. If you’re offering expressed breast milk, warming it up can also help emulsify any separation and also make it more appealing to your breastfed bub who is likely used to body temperature milk! Formula can be served at room temperature but, just like with breastmilk, many bubs prefer it on the warmer side.

While the microwave may be a hugely helpful invention, using it to warm milk isn’t ideal. Microwaving can cause ‘hot spots’ in the milk which may not entirely disappear, even when you shake/mix the milk after heating which is the last thing you want for your little one. Depending on the containers you are using, microwaves can also cause some types of plastic to leach into whatever you are heating, including formula and breast milk.  Heating breast milk can also negatively impact some of the valuable nutrients and immunological components of the milk.

What about the saucepan method? Traditionally, milk was warmed using a saucepan of boiling water that the bottle or bag of milk would be added to to defrost and/or warm up. While this technique heats milk in a safer way than microwaving, it’s not the most convenient, nor the safest, especially with babies and children around!

Heating formula or breast milk slowly, in a device specifically designed for the job is the best way to ensure milk that is the correct temperature, without any hot spots or nasty leaching of plastics. It’s also far more convenient than waiting for a saucepan to boil!

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