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NHS (2021) Bottle feeding Advice. Available at https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/baby/breastfeeding-and-bottle-feeding/bottle-feeding/advice/ [Accessed 6 December 2021] It’s also recommended that babies stop drinking from bottles with teats by the time they are one year old as drinking through a teat leaves the teeth coated in milk and can lead to tooth decay (NHS Choices, 2015; Oral Health Foundation, 2017). Read more about this here. You place the washed bottles in the steriliser with a small amount of water, fasten the lid, place it in the microwave and operate according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Sterilisation takes about 10 minutes.
Teats are either latex or silicone. Although there's no great difference between them, silicone teats have a reputation for being more durable, while latex teats are said to feel more like a nipple. Cons: Pricier than other types of steriliser, the inside of the unit can get hot enough to burn your hands. Microwave steam sterilisers You’ll want to have six bottles or more if you're solely bottle-feeding. If you're breastfeeding, or planning to, some people still like to have one or two bottles to hand. And you’ll need them if you plan to express breast milk.Cons: Generally these only take four bottles (other types take six or eight), some sterilisers can’t be used in the most powerful modern microwaves, some may not fit in smaller microwaves. Cold-water sterilisers Bottle brush You'll need a bottle brush to clean your bottles properly before sterilising, and a teat brush to get into the tips of the teats. John Lewis offers bottle feeding accessories as well as weaning products in its baby and child range. You can even book an appointment with one of its nursery advisors (in store or virtually) if you need help with what to choose.
Bottles come in two sizes, small ones which hold 150mls (5 fl oz) and large ones which hold 250ml (9 fl oz). For the first few weeks, newborns feed little and often because their stomachs are so small (Unicef, 2019). The smaller bottles are more suitable for this period. Babies who feed from larger bottles consume more milk, which may lead to overfeeding (Wood et al, 2016). Parents who bottle feed find that they may need to move onto using larger bottles as their baby grows and milk consumption increases. Every baby is different so there isn’t a set age for when this should happen (Unicef, 2019). It’s important to follow your baby’s feeding cues and signs that they need more milk, such as finishing each feed and seeming to want more (NHS, 2015; Unicef, 2016). What type of feeding bottle is best? Slow flow is generally preferable for newborns, while you’re both learning how to feed. If the flow rate is too fast it makes paced feeding more difficult. In which case babies would have very little control over how they feed: milk would flow into their mouth faster than they can swallow it. This might make your baby cough or splutter, or struggle to keep up with the flow of milk so it dribbles to the side of their mouth. This could also mean they feel upset, get indigestion and bring up lots of milk. Wood, C. T., Skinner, A. C., Yin, H. S., Rothman, R. L., Sanders, L. M., Delamater, A., Ravanbakht, S. N., & Perrin, E. M. (2016). Association Between Bottle Size and Formula Intake in 2-Month-Old Infants. Academic pediatrics, 16(3), 254–259. Available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2015.08.001 [Accessed 3 December 2021] Cover-all bib Usually made from plastic-coated fabric or flexible PVC, these bibs are designed to provide maximum protection especially if baby-led weaning. As well as covering the front, some versions have full sleeves while others cover the shoulders and upper arms.These come with grippable handles, which make it easier for your baby to hold, though keep in mind that it could get messy if they use the handles to wave the cup about and it's not leak-proof. Some advantages of using these bottles are that they can be easy to fill and clean. On the other hand, they can take more space in a steriliser so you probably won’t be able to clean as many bottles at once (Which? 2019). Ready-to-feed bottles
Sterilisers with drying cycles included mean you can use the bottles straight away, rather than waiting for them to cool down. If you think you'll be using the bottle warmer to heat jars of food as well as milk, choose one that has an adaptor for holding jars at an easily reachable height – otherwise you can end up having to reach down into the hot warmer for your jar. Some warmers have the facility to heat food in a bowl, too. Other types of bottle warmers
When should I throw away my baby’s bottle?
Once they’re older and used to bottle-feeding, you could move to a medium flow. Just follow your baby’s lead to see what teat is right for them. Some babies prefer to stay on the slow flow teats for many months. You can also buy variflow teats where the flow rate can be varied by changing the angle of the teat (Which? 2019). A compromise is a ‘travelling’ cup, with a spout that you can lift up when your child wants to drink, and put down when he or she has finished. When your baby is first starting to use a cup, a small cup with a soft plastic spout is ideal as a transition from a bottle. Once your baby has got used to holding it, you can move onto a hard spout or straw cup. Leak-proof cups
If you're making up formula to feed your baby, you shouldn't need a bottle warmer, as the government advice is to make fresh formula for every feed. Herman (2021) How you offer a bottle can be more important than what’s inside, Available at https://www.todaysparent.com/baby/breastfeeding/paced-bottle-feeding/ [Accessed 6 December 2021] If you are mixed feeding (feeding from both bottle and breast) it may help to choose a teat that will encourage your baby to open their mouth wide and take in the whole teat rather than just the tip. Those with a medium wide base and a short to medium nipple length encourage babies to open their mouth wide and cup their tongue around the teat (Pearson-Glaze 2019, Bahr 2010). This article describes it well. When should I change bottle teat size? Cons: More fiddly than other methods, solution needs to be changed every 24 hours, relatively slow sterilising process, you have to use separate sterilising tablets. UV sterilisers Teats are made from silicone or latex. Silicone is less flexible but more durable than latex, which needs to be replaced regularly (Which? 2019).Hurley, K. M., Cross, M. B., & Hughes, S. O. (2011). A systematic review of responsive feeding and child obesity in high-income countries. The Journal of nutrition, 141(3), 495–501. https://doi.org/10.3945/jn.110.130047 [Accessed 6 December 2021] Powdered formula is not sterile, so you need to use water at approximately 70 degrees to kill any bacteria that might be present (NHS, 2019a). If the water is too hot it can reduce the nutritional benefit of the powder, but if it is too cold it may not kill the bacteria in the powder. ‘Ready-to-feed’ bottles contain ready-made milk that has already been sterilised (NHS, 2018; Unicef, 2019). Scheel, C. E., Schanler, R. J., & Lau, C. (2005). Does the choice of bottle nipple affect the oral feeding performance of very-low-birthweight (VLBW) infants?. Acta paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992), 94(9), 1266–1272. Available at https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1651-2227.2005.tb02087.x However, this sort of cup may not be completely leak-proof if it gets jiggled around a lot in your bag or in the car.
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