When making up your baby’s bottle, whether that be with expressed breast milk or formula milk, correct preparation is important to protect your baby’s immune system. Careful hygiene is vital in protecting your baby’s health. To help get you started we have put together this handy guide, to walk you through the steps of preparing your baby’s bottle so you can keep them happy and healthy.
1. Cleaning
First things first, your bottle needs to be washed in warm soapy water or facing down in the top rack of your dishwasher. Rinse well in clean running water before sterilising. It’s important to wash your bottle as soon as possible after feeds, using a clean bottle brush (that is kept just for bottles). The MAM Bottle brush is non scratch and has a special teat-brush at the end, to ensure you can reach any remaining milk residue from inside the teat itself. If you’re using a MAM Easy Start anti-colic bottle, make sure to separate all 6 parts before washing (including the silicone valve in the base, and removing the teat from collar). Do not leave items standing in the cleaning detergent longer than instructed as this could cause the design and scale to fade/come off.
2. Sterilising
Until they are 12 months old, your baby’s feeding equipment should be sterilised before every use. You can sterilise using one of the following methods:
- Cold water method (using tablets/liquid solution)
- Boiling for 10 mins
- Steam sterilising either electric or microwave (according to manufacturer’s instructions)
- Self-sterilising with the MAM Easy Start Bottles
UV sterilising the MAM bottles is not recommended.
Be sure to never screw the bottle parts together by sterilising or self-sterilising. As this can distort the threads. Do not leave the bottle in sterilising solution longer than recommended as this could cause the print design and scale to fade/come off. After sterilising we recommend leaving your bottles for at least 10 mins to cool, before making up a feed.
Self-Sterilising the MAM Easy Start Bottle
- Step 1: After cleaning, assemble the bottle parts in the following way: base with white silicone valve, teat with screw ring/collar, bottle body and lid.
- Step 2: Using the scale on the bottle lid, measure 20mls of tap water and pour this into the base (with the white valve in place).
- Step 3: Place the screw ring/collar with teat on the bottle base with water. Place and rest the bottle body over this. (DO NOT SCREW DOWN). Place the lid on top – your bottle is now ready for self-sterilising.
Set your microwave timer according to how many bottles you are cleaning simultaneously. Set microwave from 500 to 1000 Watts.
After self-sterilising allow the bottle to cool down before removing from the microwave.
Recommended cooling time: 10 minutes with opened microwave door. Be careful to hold the base and keep the bottle straight when removing from the microwave to avoid spilling any left-over hot water.
Preparing a baby bottle with formula
- Start by filling the kettle with at least 1 litre of fresh tap water (do not use water that has been boiled before).
- Boil the water. Once boiled the water should be left to cool for up to 30 but no less than 20 mins. The NHS recommends a temperature of 70°C when making up a bottle. This is the perfect temperature to kill any possible bacteria in the formula, but not so hot as to destroy the nutrients within the milk.
- Follow the manufacturer’s instructions, pouring the correct amount of cooled, boiled water into the bottle before adding the powdered formula.
- Mix well, by stirring/gently shaking over a sink
- Allow formula to cool to body temperature.
- Always test the temperature before giving to your baby
- Never pour boiling water into the bottle as this can put a considerable amount of pressure on the bottle, which could affect the product function and increase the risk of scalding. But also destroy the nutrients in the formula. This is why it is extremely important to allow boiled water to cool.
- Please also NEVER prepare a bottle with a baby or toddler close.
- If any formula remains in the bottle after feeding, please discard it.
Preparing a bottle with breast milk.
Warming breast milk
Defrosting breast milk
For frozen breast milk, it is best to allow the expressed milk to defrost slowly in the fridge, in its storage container. If you need to use it right away, you can follow the same steps as you would for warming milk, it will just take a little longer.
Key Takeaways:
- Sterilise/self-sterilise your bottle (make sure not to screw bottle parts together
- Allow the bottle cool for at least 10mins before reassembling
- NEVER make up a bottle with boiling water
- Fill the kettle with at least 1 litre of fresh tap water (do not use water that has been boiled before).
- Boil the water. Then leave the water to cool for no more than 30 minutes, so that it remains at a temperature of at least 70°C (to kill possible bacteria in the formula, but not too hot as to destroy the nutrients)
- NEVER prepare a bottle while holding a baby/whilst a baby is present