Craig, Dexter and headed to the London ExCel for the Baby Show this weekend. As well as an opportunity to stay in a posh hotel as a belated Valentine’s treat, we were there for a major product launch by Tommee Tippee. Their latest offering has been shrouded in such intense secrecy we’ve all been gossiping about what it could be.

All we had been given prior to the event was a teeny clue: “What can you do in two minutes?”
- I won’t tell you some of my other half’s cheeky guesses…

Well you won’t believe what these guys have gone and done… they’ve created the bottle-feeding mother’s must-have gadget! A machine to prepare the perfect bottle for baby in just 2 minutes - The Perfect Prep machine!

Let’s face it - those nice guys from the NHS haven’t made things easy for us poor bottle-feeding mummies. The recommended advice is to pre-boil a kettle, fill a pre-sterilised bottle with this newly boiled water up to your required level (risking burning yourself), bring it to body temperature (to simulate breast milk), then add your powder… for every feed. In the early days I remember physically blowing on the water in desperate (and fruitless) attempt to cool it for Dexter.

As if all this wasn’t enough of a faff - doing it at midnight, 3am, 6am etc, under such intense sleep deprivation… it’s easy to look for shortcuts that would make your midwife cringe.

Well NO MORE.

The Perfect Prep machine is designed to make preparing bottles that little bit easier. Night-time hell feeding is now made simpler and you no longer have to spend 30 minutes placating a hungry crying baby before you can show them a teat. The Perfect Prep machine filters tap water, delivers a ‘hot shot’ (72 degrees) to kill bacteria, dispenses the correct amount of water per scoop of formula and ensures this dissolves quickly. You’re left with a perfect bottle to offer baby in just two minutes. Result.

It’s so simple to use. You simply fill the machine with tap water and it’ll filter the water for you. You then set the correct feed in fluid ounces and machine will prepare your feed. It’ll hold enough water for 6 large bot bots and has handy warning alerts to let you know when to change the filter or de-scale. The filter also lasts for 3 months and is only £8.99 for a replacement.

You could even keep the machine in the bedroom to avoid negotiating the wooden hill (stairs) during the night. It’s so quiet you’re unlikely to wake up your other half and you won’t have to brave a freezing cold kitchen at an ungodly time in the night. This *might* even mean you could find yourself back in your bed in just 20 minutes.

You have to give Tommee Tippee extra ponts for making the machine compatible with most bottles too. You can adjust the height of the bottle stand to accommodate the heights of most brands and, given Tommee Tippee bottles are one of the widest on the market, widths too. They’ve really thought of everything.

So, will this product work for us? Well for Dexter we already have a good (albeit not recommended) system in place. At the moment we bulk-sterilise and fill with freshly boiled water. This means all we have to do is tip in the formula and shake. We don’t serve at body temperature as Dexter is used to having his at room temperature. As Dexie sleeps through the night we’re also through the worst of it and no longer have to worry about night-feeds.

For the next baby however, this will be invaluable. Although, I’m hoping this time around I’ll be able to breastfeed (with Dexter this wasn’t possible), when the time comes to wean him / her onto bottles - this will be a godsend. I won’t have to ask family and friends for tv box sets as baby shower presents (to ease the pain of middle-of-the-night feeds)!

Unfortunately you will have to wait until the first week of May to get your hands on one. But you can pre-order now from ether Babies R Us or Amazon.

If you are wanting to buy one I can offer you a fantastic 33% off a pre-order through Amazon, just use the code 9DIC8VIU expires 3rd March 2013. This makes the machine an amazing £66.66!