Travel tips for bottle-fed babies

Whether you are going camping and have limited access to electricity, or you are going abroad and do not want to carry bulky sterilising equipment, there are some easy options you can use. Also take a look at Sterilising and bottle hygiene.

• Mobile sterilisers. If you have limited access to electricity, use a cold water steriliser which will allow you to sterlise and store bottles for up to 24 hours at a time. If you will be staying somewhere that has an available microwave, use microwaveable steam bags which can steam up to two bottles at a time and are light to carry.

• Don’t forget that many baby facilities in service stations and other travel hubs now include a microwave to make sterilising and warming feeds much easier. However if you do use a microwave for warming milk or baby food, make sure you leave it to stand for a couple of minutes and then shake or stir through to ensure there are no hotspots that will burn your baby’s mouth.

• Formula. If your baby seems to like one particular brand of formula, make sure you take enough of this with you for the entire duration of your holiday. Even if the brand is well established you might find it is not available locally to you while you are away.

• Water. Make sure when making up feeds that you use cool boiled water for every feed. If you unsure about the purity of the water in the country you are in, use a bottled water you know hasn’t been tampered with. Try to choose something like Evian which has a lower mineral content than some other bottled waters. You will still need to boil and cool it for use.