Was the first year of motherhood the loneliest of your life? Vote now!

Win a fantastic prize when you recommend the babyworld shop to 6 friends click here

Sterilising bottles

It is important to sterilise all feeding equipment regularly. Bottles should be cleaned and sterilised after each feed. This will reduce chances of any bacteria passing to your baby through contaminated bottles.

Take bottle and teat apart and rinse them out

Wash them in hot water with a weak detergent solution

Use a brush to ensure that you’ve removed any deposits from the bottle

Turn the teat inside out and check that the hole is not blocked

Rinse in clean water

Sterilise both bottles and teats

There are a number of ways that you can sterilise feeding equipment:

Boiling, which is the simplest and cheapest method. Put the equipment into a large covered saucepan ensuring everything is immersed and there are no air pockets, bring to the boil, and boil for at least ten minutes. Leave the bottles in the water in a covered pan until you are ready to use them. Only use this pan for sterilising your equipment. Teats that are boiled regularly tend to become sticky, and may need replacing more often

Sterilising tablets or fluid, which only additionally require cold water and a large container. Make sure that everything is completely immersed in the liquid and that there are no air bubbles left in the bottles. Takes about 30 minutes

Steam sterilisers, where equipment is put into an electrical machine which creates enough steam to sterilise. Takes about ten minutes

Microwave sterilising unit, which is a special unit to put inside your microwave and again acts as a steam steriliser. Takes about ten minutes