Feeding Hygiene and Safety

Newborn babies, even those who are breastfed, have an underdeveloped immune system. This means that their ability to fight infections and diseases is more limited than your own. So when your baby is very young, particularly whilst they are under the age of six months, it is important that you reduce the likelihood of them coming into contact with germs as much as you can. Two obvious ways of doing this include washing your hands regularly and thoroughly and keeping your baby away from others with illnesses. However, one of the easiest ways for babies to become ill is by taking their feeds from bottles which are contaminated with bacteria. Problems also arise if any other feeding apparatus (such as a breast pump) has been contaminated. The only way to ensure that bottles are really clean is to sterilise them after washing them (you must still wash them beforehand). Fortunately, there are a number of different methods for sterilising - depending on your budget and what space and equipment you already have in your kitchen. After a bottle is sterilised you need to ensure that it doesn't then become contaminated before your baby has his or her feed, and you need to make sure that milk is prepared and/or stored correctly so that it is also free from bacteria.

Our guide will help you to understand how to prepare your baby's feeds safely and easily, why it is important and what the real 'rules' are when it comes to preparing and storing milk - be that infant formula or expressed breast milk.