We support all families to choose how they want to feed their baby. If you bottle feed your baby you can still get help when you need it.

If you need or choose to bottle feed your baby we recommend feeding your baby responsively. This means keeping your baby close and feeding whenever your baby is hungry. Your baby will feed around 6-8 times in 24 hours - or maybe more, so watch your baby not the clock.

We recommend parents feed their baby themselves for most feeds. This helps to build a strong bond to help baby feel relaxed and secure.

We recommend paced bottle feeding. This helps baby to lead the way and control the flow of milk from the bottle. Find out more about bottle feeding.

If you choose to use powdered milk always follow NHS guidance:

  • Wash your hands and wipe down the worktop before making a feed
  • Wash bottles and teats in hot soapy water and sterilise them
  • Make bottles up when you need them not before
  • Always use hot water from the kettle at least 70oC.​​​​​
  • Download a handy guide to preparing formula
  • We recommend using first stage infant milk for the first 12 months
  • When your baby is a year old you can give your baby cow’s milk
  • You can use any first stage milk and you can change brands if you need to. More expensive brands are not any better for your baby
  • If you use a cold water steriliser you must rinse bottles, teats and dummies with boiled water after sterilising to remove any sterilising fluid
  • We do not recommend using any bottle preparation machines. These may not give water at the right temperature
  •  Find out more about making infant milk safely (First Steps Nutrition Trust).

If you bottle feed formula milk you will need to bring enough milk in to hospital with you. We recommend that you bring ready to feed bottles.

Your baby will need 6-8 feeds in 24 hours so you need to bring enough for your hospital stay. If you need to stay longer then you will need someone to bring you more milk. We cannot make powdered milk in the hospital, but we can store opened bottles of ready made milk in the fridge.

Please bring your own bottles so that baby gets used to using them. We can wash and sterilise them in hospital.