While most experts agree that breastfeeding is the healthiest for your baby, there will be times when you will need to bottle feed your baby. For bottle feeding, you’ll need nursing bottles with caps or reusable bottles with sterile plastic liners. You’ll also need nipples for each bottle, a bottle brush and a nipple brush.

Make sure you sterilize the bottles and nipples before using them for the first time by placing them in a pot of boiling water for about 5 minutes. Then allow them to air dry. Follow this up with either a thorough hand washing with hot water and soap, using the bottle and nipple brushes or run all of them through the dishwasher.

Once you’ve prepared the formula, fill the baby bottle and refrigerate whatever you don’t need for that feeding. If you are using liquid formula, it can be stored safely in the fridge for up to 48 hours while formula prepared from powder is only good in the fridge for 24 hours.