Do I Really Need to Boil Water for Formula?

Do you really need to boil and cool the water when making formula? When can I stop doing this?
—Boiling Point

Of all the things we ask of new parents, this stands out to me as among the most salient examples of how we simply ask too much of people for no reason. We tell new parents to boil water for formula every time. This is a tremendous amount of boiling!

The idea here is to avoid bacterial contamination in formula. This can happen, and it can be serious, but it is extremely rare, an estimated 1 to 10 cases per year in the U.S. This makes the value of boiling water extremely limited.

Among my favorite academic writings is this “Pediatrics Perspective” from 2019. The researchers take on this very question of water boiling and argue, in essence, that the risks from constantly handling boiling water may actually outweigh any tiny benefits. As they say:

“Asking tired parents to boil water upwards of 8 times per day to prepare formula on demand makes little sense given the amount of risk involved with burns in comparison to a C sakazakii infection. This is especially true if we are recommending they let the water cool before adding it to the formula.”

Bottom line: assuming you have access to clean tap water — which will be true for any municipal drinking water in the United States — you can stop with the boiling now.