All about breastfeeding

Preparing Your Baby’s Bottle

Your guide on how to prepare a baby bottle

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.

MAM Easy Start Anti-Colic Bottle in Microwave

Self-Sterilising the MAM Easy Start Bottle

The self-sterilising feature of the Easy Start Bottle is proven to be effective for killing common household germs and bacteria. For best results, please follow all instructions carefully:

Clean thoroughly as instructed above before self-sterilising.

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.

After the process is complete, if the bottle is left as assembled in step 3, it will remain disinfected for up to 48 hours. When self-sterilising on the go, you should self-sterilise, allow to cool, then assemble your bottle and make up your feed straight. After cooling time, remove from the microwave and pour away any leftover water carefully. Shake parts to remove excess water. When assembling do not worry about any water remaining on the bottle parts, as this has been disinfected.

Preparing a baby bottle with formula

If you’re preparing a formula feed, it is important to make your feed up fresh every time. Below you’ll find a step-by-step guide on how to prepare a bottle including recommendations by the NHS. The NHS (National Health Service) provides trusted healthcare advice and standards in the UK.

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.

MAM Midwife Zoe shares her tips on preparing a bottle with formula.

If you found Zoe’s video helpful and want to save it to watch again later, you can also find it on our Instagram.

For more information on the specifics of formula feeding, check out the NHS website.

Preparing a bottle with breast milk.

You can also make up a bottle using breast milk that you’ve previously expressed. Preparing a bottle in this way follows the same initial steps. Clean and sterilise, leaving your sterilised bottle to cool for at least 10 minutes before reassembling.

Warming breast milk

You can offer expressed milk straight from the fridge (if your baby is happy to drink it cold) Alternatively, you can gently warm the milk back up to body temperature by using a bottle warmer, a jug of water, running water. Never heat or cool a sealed bottle, always remove the teat and collar.

The NHS does not recommend using a microwave to heat up or defrost breast milk, as this can cause hot spots, which may burn your baby's mouth.

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.

Once defrosted, if the milk has separated, give it a gentle shake before pouring into the bottle. Use straight away, throwing away anything that your baby hasn’t drunk within one hour. Never re-freeze milk that's been defrosted. You can find more information about expressing and preparing breast milk on the NHS website.

The MAM Electric Steriliser & Bottle Warmer is perfect for preparing expressed milk. This will heat the milk in just a few minutes and can even defrost frozen breast milk in as little as 10 mins and 10 secs.

For more info about specific MAM products check out our FAQs.

Full instructions of the MAM Bottles can be found here.

Key Takeaways:

Make sure to follow this guide when making up a bottle with formula 🍼

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