A vented, removable base prevents the baby from swallowing too much air, which also makes it ideal for newborn babies and babies suffering from colic. A curved, ergonomic design with plastic bubbles for grip will help your baby to hold on when she’s ready and the self-sterilising function is great for travelling or for families with smaller kitchens. As a rule of thumb, buy how many bottles you think you’d need for a 12-hour period so you’re not constantly washing and sterilising them – life with a new baby is busy enough. What makes a baby bottle safe? Sterilising bottles is recommended for babies under a year because bacteria can easily grow in any milk remaining on the bottle or teats (Unicef, 2019). Babies are more vulnerable to these bacteria.

Before sterilising, all bottles and teats need to be washed, either by hand or in the dishwasher (NHS, 2018). If washing by hand, you will need a separate brush for cleaning bottles and teats (NHS, 2019b). 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). You might see some bottles on the shelf that have an off-centre teat or are otherwise designed with an angled appearance.

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Keep an eye on the teat to make sure it’s always full of milk, not air (this helps prevent swallowing too much air, which can lead to reflux or colic). If the pressure in the bottle builds up so the teat goes flat, the NHS recommends inserting a little finger gently in the corner of your baby’s mouth to release it.

From the best breast pumps to the best changing bags, part of Mumsnet's mission is to take the confusion out of the choices new parents have to make. We research, test and review products that make parents' lives easier - offering honest, authentic recommendations with options to suit every family and budget.You might find attending one of our NCT New Baby groups helpful as they give you the opportunity to explore different approaches to important parenting issues with a qualified group leader and other new parents in your area. 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 All designs look a little different, but generally you should look for a soft silicone teat that your baby can latch onto without slipping off (if your baby doesn’t like the feel of silicone, NUK also make a latex version). 2. Anti-colic She filled each bottle with boiling water and timed how long they could be held comfortably, measured any squirting hot water from the teat due to pressure escaping

As your baby grows, and their mouth widens, NUK also sells a range of larger teats and bottles in the Nature Sense range, which we also highly recommend. She analysed instructions and online resources, and noted down information about materials and safety standards.

We combined our in-depth research and product testing with recommendations from our Mumsnet forums to reveal which baby bottles wash well, won’t leak in your changing bag and are easy to make up at 4am. With the uncertainty of the cost of living crisis, we know it's more important than ever that they are good value for money too. Kellymom (2020) How to bottle feed the breastfed baby. Available at https://kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/feeding-tools/bottle-feeding/ [Accessed 6 December 2021]