I was 8 months pregnant with our 1st child. We bought a bottle steriliser and some powdered baby formula (along with everything else that we did and didn’t need!) It looked complicated, and we didn’t want to get it wrong when the baby came along.

We only bought the formula in the scenario that breast feeding didn’t work out. This was the case in the end, it just didn’t work out for me and the baby. So I am glad we had some formula in stock. 

The steriliser was a Philips AVENT Express Electric Steam Steriliser. We did lots of research on which steriliser to buy and this one seemed to fit all our needs.

I thought an electric steam steriliser was best, it seemed to do everything for you.

I had a practice at making a bottle up from scratch.

This is what I did:

• Wash the bottle, teat and ring thoroughly.
• Pour into the steriliser the set amount of water using the measuring beaker.
• Place them on the rack in the steriliser – with the bottle upside down.
• Put the lid on and switch it on.
• The machine soon started making noise and you could see the lid steaming up.
• I watched the machine like something exciting was going to happen. However it just sat there steaming away…
• The light going off signalled it was finished.
• Next I opened the lid – far too soon. Everything was boiling hot, far too hot to touch. This was reassuring, the steamer had worked – but bad for my poor fingers!

I knew that once the lid was open anything else in the machine would not be sterile and if we wanted to use anything later we would have to sterilise it again.

Next was the bottle.
At 1st I used the Avent bottles that came with the steriliser, but our baby didn’t really get on with them. We switched to Dr Brown ones on the recommendation of our midwife. These were brilliant.

1st I put the right amount of formula in. I was very careful over the amount. I knew the baby could get stomach ache or not enough nutrients if the amount was wrong, and filled up the bottle to the right level with cooled boiled water.

The water still wasn’t cool enough to drink. So I had to wait… and wait.
Eventually it was ready.

1 1/2 hours after we started.

“No wonder mothers have no time” was my initial thought.

Doing eveything in the right order made everything so much easier.

1. Boil the kettle, with fresh tap water. It can be cooling while the bottles are sterilising.
2. Wash the bottles, then add the water and the equipment to the machine.
3. Switch it on.
4. Go and do something else. The machine takes 8-12 minutes depending on how full it is. The light goes off when it is ready.
5. Prepare the bottle, sit it in a jug of cold water if it needs cooling down more.
6. When the bottle is ready – baby can have a feed!

We got making the bottle up down to a precise art. I wanted to do it properly, and was so glad I had a test run before the baby was even born.

If it took over an hour each time – the baby would get very hungry!