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

Bottle use is so subjective that what works with one baby might not work with another, so our tester Katrĩna, a mum of two, spent several weeks washing bottles repeatedly, filling them, sterilising them, and testing their solidity and safety. 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.

How do I clean and sterilise a baby bottle?

Since 2011, the European Commission has banned the use of Bisphenol A (BPA) in baby bottles. This was due to concerns that the chemical could leach out of the plastic and be absorbed by babies. None of the bottles for sale in the UK should have BPA (NCT, 2011). Likewise, there are one or two anti-reflux bottles. This is quite a worrying claim. Reflux is a medical problem, and no bottle would ever be able to make it better. Also, the word "natural" used to describe a bottle might suggest that some bottles are less good, or unnatural, which is simply untrue. BabyCentre parents would tend to agree. Most said they try a lot of brands and bottles before finding the one that works for them.

Here are the best bottles our editors have highlighted through research. And it's all supported by our parents in the BabyCentre community.NHS (2019a) How to make up baby formula, Available at https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/baby/breastfeeding-and-bottle-feeding/bottle-feeding/making-up-baby-formula/ [Accessed 3 December 2021] Keep an eye on the silicone teats. If they degrade, get damaged or are bitten through, they’ll need replacing immediately so as not to present a choking hazard. According to the NHS, all baby equipment should be sterilised before use for the first 12 months to protect against infections. If you’re exclusively breastfeeding but want to introduce a bottle once a day, you may be finding it hard to find a teat that your baby will accept. You may have also heard from other mums that MAM bottles are particularly good in this scenario and according to our experience, they aren’t wrong – all of our baby testers readily accepted the slow-flow teats and fed easily and comfortably. Once sterilised, leave the bottles inside the steriliser until they’re needed and make sure you have clean hands when you assemble them.

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Little Girl

Bear in mind, as well, that milk doesn’t have to be served warm – room temperature is fine, but cold from the fridge is not. With our newborn, we started him on room temperature, ready-to-feed bottles of milk from the beginning, which made nighttime feeds and feeds in public much easier. What size bottle should I buy? To help us find the best baby bottles, we started by thoroughly researching the products currently on the market. We commissioned Rachel Jeffcoat, a writer and mum of three, to research and review the top bottles out there. Many parents want to know ‘which brand of baby bottle is best?’ The fact is there is no independent research showing differences in feeding ability or pattern from different brands of bottles or teats (Which, 2021; Scheel, 2005). It’s down to you and your baby to see what works for you. Here’s an overview of the main types of bottles available on the market: Basic bottles

The WHO recommends that babies are exclusively breastfed for the first six months of their life and that breastfeeding continues where possible up to two years. Accordingly, bottle manufacturers invest a great deal of research into designing a teat that mimics breastfeeding as closely as possible, so you can express and bottle feed without nipple confusion. We always start by getting product recommendations from the Mumsnet forums. These products have been tried and tested at home by parents in a variety of real life situations and, with over 7 million users, we know this is the best place to go to find out which bottles offer the best value for money. 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. This will depend on how frequently you’re planning to use bottles to feed your baby. Newborn babies generally feed between 10 and 14 times in 24 hours, with feeds becoming a little less frequent as they grow. If you are exclusively bottle feeding your baby, whether formula or expressed breastmilk, you might want around four to six bottles and teats to get you started. This allows for sterilising them between feeds. With an orthodontically-shaped teat, plenty of Mumsnet users will attest that they're easier than other bottles for breastfed babies to latch on to. Milk flows with minimal effort from the baby - which is why they're often used in NICU wards - and there's an anti-colic valve to prevent air bubbles.Often this category of bottles overlaps with the eco-friendly category. They are bottles designed to last long after the baby years, to toddlerhood and often beyond. Size: Bottles almost always come in more than one size. While the smallest size might look most appropriate for a newborn, it’s actually the teat flow that matters most. We’d recommend buying the next bottle size up because your baby will be drinking more milk before you know it, and you don’t want to have to replace the bottles too soon. Plus, it’s important to be sure that your baby is feeding till they’re properly full. When defrosting breast milk, it’s best to do it slowly in a fridge – though, if you can’t wait, you can hold it under warm running water or put it in a jug of warm water. You can warm up fridge-cold milk the same way if your baby prefers it warm. Once defrosted, any leftovers can’t be kept for later or refrozen. If you're formula feeding, boil fresh tap water and leave it to cool a little (no longer than 30 minutes) before pouring into the clean, sterilised bottle. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions exactly to add the right amount of powder, then put on the teat and lid and shake to combine. You can cool the bottle so it’s safe to drink by standing it in cold water or holding it under cold running water with the lid on. Don’t use bottled or reboiled water and don’t make up more than one feed at once. How do I bottle-feed my baby? You may hear that you should keep the teat full of milk to avoid swallowing air. However where the milk flow is too fast and not in your baby's control, it is more likely to cause indigestion or gas (Kellymom, 2020). Anecdotally, babies whose parents use paced feeding suffer less from gas (Herman, 2021).