He is also a recreational fisherman.
He would catch a salmon, filet it, wrap it tightly with butter, aromatics and lemons in several layers of tin foil, and bury it in the middle of the truck full of hot mix asphalt. When they reached the fish, it was time for lunch.
Less dramatically, when I lived in Germany, where I had radiators for heat, I stored baby bottles of water on top of the kitchen radiator. It kept the water the perfect temperature for my infant with zero risk of it being too hot, so zero risk of scalding. All I had to do was add powdered formula when he got hungry.
Took almost no time to train and a tap is usually available.
Against: Nothing really, I guess the baby might not drink it (in theory they’re expecting warm breast milk). It’s not recommended to use straight tap water here, only filtered, due to bacteria which is harmless to older children/adults but could be a problem for a newborn.
I’m very currious about the filter you mention. How do you filter bacteria out in a household setting? How do you keep the filter itself clean and how do you QA your solution?
I find it likely that any filtering done by average people is more likely to add bacteria than to remove it. But maybe there is some magical method I don’t know about yet.
But there is also a different reasoning. A more philosophical, heuristic based one: The water where I live is treated by professionals with professional grade equipment. They also take regular samples and try to grow the bacteria to be able to tell if they are doing their job right or not. And the quality, at least where I live, is generally good. To improve something from good to excelent you often need to put in as much work as it was already put in to move it from mediocre to good. It is possible of course, but I would expect the process to be either energy intensive, or fiddly, or resource intensive, or require even more specialised equipment. Most likely all four at once. A simple, easy to use, and convenient filter doesn’t pass my sniff test. Like if it is that easy why wouldn’t the pros just do it at the water treatment facility?
Now of course this is just a heuristic, it can go wrong many different ways. And I admit I can be wrong of course. This is very far from my expertise. But this is how I was thinking about the question.
1: https://www.livestrong.com/article/193977-what-do-carbon-fil...
The filters are things like this https://www.tommeetippee.com/en-gb/product/perfect-prep-repl...
For older babies (6+) then maybe not so important.
In the weaning period when I took over with a night bottle and the wife shut down her boobs I would just sleep with a pre-mixed (not from powder) formula pack next to my body. It would be more or less body temperature and the kiddo would like it :D
https://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/InfantandToddlerNutrition/form...
Edit: This also seems like a recent development. My children are grown.
https://foodpoisoningbulletin.com/2022/timeline-chronobacter...
The NHS in the UK for example, says to do so (under "Reducing the risk of infection"):
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/baby/breastfeeding-and-bottle-...
However some, in particular Emily Oster, argue that the risk is negligible and that having an overly complicated set of steps for tired parents to follow is counter-productive:
From my understanding the current general advice from public health authorities is to use 70C/160F water.
I left my original comment as a fun anecdote in response to another fun anecdote. In reality, I think it's probably not a good idea to cook food in hot asphalt but didn't feel that really needed to be said, so didn't say it. (How many people are even going to have the opportunity to try that?) Now I am feeling like perhaps it does need to be said and cringing in anticipation of people hating on me for saying it and thereby raining on their party.
I looked up the info rather than go "citation needed." My children are grown. They have already survived whatever mistakes I made in raising them and life has changed, so some of what I did worked just fine at the time but is no longer a good idea.
I provided citations and accurate information to the best of my ability and as neutrally as I knew how in the interest of promoting food safety for people currently or in the future in need of actually feeding babies.
I am also a bit pragmatic and think that it’s most likely not dangerous. But I liken it to using a seat belt. You don’t need it until you crash.
If I was unlucky and my kid got really sick because I was lazy with water handling I would feel bad.
The recommendation appears to be just another attempt by the government to coddle and infantilize (no pun intended) their constituents.
Unless of course you were being sarcastic, in which case i recommend denoting it as such.
> If you do decide to warm the bottle, never use a microwave. Microwaves heat milk and food unevenly, resulting in “hot spots” that can burn your baby’s mouth and throat.
This seems wrong to me. How can any fluid have a “hot spot”? Can’t you just, you know… swirl it a bit and let the temperature even out? Wouldn’t this take no more than 5 seconds?
I diligently followed this advice with my first child and had to wait 5+ minutes every time for my bottle warmer to warm up the milk, while he was crying with hunger and getting both of us stressed out. Now with my second child, I just toss it in the microwave for ~18 seconds for a 4oz bottle, and it’s fine. I swirl it for 5 seconds and drip it on my wrist to be sure.
I sometimes feel like recommendations like these are written for the most braindead possible person, who would put the milk in the microwave for 5 minutes to boiling and feed it to the baby without checking the temp first. I don’t see how the slightest bit of common sense couldn’t prevent any issues here.
I think America could learn a lot from other cultures about improving quality of life just in terms of housing practices.
Now, I know what you're thinking: "Cave, isn't that dangerous?" Well, listen up, sport: science isn't all rainbows and unicorn farts. Sometimes, it's polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons! Those big, fancy words might scare the lab coats, but not us. We're the brave souls, the pioneers who push the boundaries and get our hands dirty.
That's the spirit we need to keep alive! Remember, fear has no place in the laboratory. If we're going to make the next big breakthrough, we've got to be willing to take a few risks. So what if we end up with a little cancer? A little cancer never hurt anyone! It's just another challenge for us to overcome in the name of progress.
Let the fumes fuel your passion for innovation.