Sterilising and making up bottles

Sterilising is the most important part of bottle feeding and not something you can cut corners on if you want to ensure your baby's good health.

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Below we explain a bit about sterilising baby bottles as well as how to safely make up, store and clean your baby's bottles.

Sterilising baby bottles

After using a bottle, all parts of it need to be cleaned properly. Use a bottle brush to make sure the bottle is thouroughly cleaned and that the teat isn't blocked. Once you've cleaned and rinsed your baby's bottle it can then be sterilised. There are several methods of sterilising bottles:

Steam Sterilisers - These take about 10 minutes. You put all feeding equipment into the unit, plug it in and it creates enough steam to sterilise everything. You can buy electrical ones or systems that go into your microwave.

Chemical Sterilisers - These take about 30 minutes. The container (like a small bucket) is filled with cold water and then you add some sterilising liquid or dissolvable tablets. Make sure all the bottles are full of the solution and nothing is floating above the water line.

Boiling - You do not need any special equipment for this, just a large saucepan. Put all the feeding equipment into a pan of water making sure they are all full of water, bring to boil and leave boiling for 10 minutes.

Making up your baby's bottle

As with everything you do for your baby, good hygiene practices in preparing and storing formula feeds from powdered formula is vital.

There will be full instructions on the packaging of the formula you buy, telling you exactly how much powder and water you need to use. This cannot be varied from - adding extra formula will not fill your baby up for longer. Failure to follow the manufacturer's guidelines may increase the chances of your baby becoming ill.

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Guidance issued by the Department of Health and Food Standard Agency states that the risks associated with using powdered infant formula milk are reduced if:

• feeds are made up fresh for each feed; storing made up formula milk may increase the chance of a baby becoming ill and should be avoided.
• any left over milk is thrown away.
• parents who require a feed for later are advised to keep water they have just boiled in a sealed flask and make up fresh formula milk when needed or use a liquid ready-to-feed formula.

Click here to read a copy of the NHS guide to making up infant formula

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Our health visitors and nursery nurses are on line Monday to Friday evenings to answer your queries on feeding, sleep and child health.

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Top tips

• You need to use freshly boiled tap water which has been allowed to cool down. Feeds should be made up using boiled water that is greater than 70ºC; in practice, this means using water that has been left to cool for no more than half an hour.
• Do not use water that has been boiled more than once as this changes the mineral content of the water, so always start with a fresh kettle full.
• Pour the cooled water into the sterilised bottle, using the measurements on the side to make sure you are using the correct amount.
• Add the correct amount of formula to the bottle. A scoop should have been provided with your formula and it is usually one level scoop, not pressed too firmly down and leveled off with a sterilised knife
• Put the top on the bottle and shake until the powder has all dissolved.

Storing and transporting baby bottles

If you are away from home - travelling abroad or out on a day trip, for example - it's important to follow careful guidelines to ensure you feed your baby safely. Take a look at our page on bottle feeding while out and about

More advice

Read more advice on bottle feeding, including tips on helping your baby to feed from a bottle, and how to bond with your baby while feeding on our bottle feeding basics page.

Need advice?

Our health visitors and nursery nurses are on line Monday to Friday evenings to answer your queries on feeding, sleep and child health.

Ask our experts now