Some quick tips for starting formula, shared by one of our customers.

Chose a formula that is easily available at your regular supermarket, you don’t want to be driving all round town each week trying to find a particular brand.

Most of the formulas are much the same – just make sure it’s a newborn formula for babies under 6 months. You can keep them on that for as long as you like – I had my son on the newborn formula till he was 18months as the follow on one caused stomach upsets – it has more casein in it which is harder to digest.

Make sure you have plenty of bottles &  teats so you aren’t washing every couple of hours. A microwave steriliser is the best way to go.

I brought an old fashioned kettle which you can boil using your stove element and boiled water for the bottles each night. It was kept just for formula, and you can boil it longer than regular kettles, which don’t boil it long enough.

If you are combing breast/bottle, chose the new born teats – the older ones may make the baby tend to prefer the easier job of getting milk from a bottle.

When you go out, don’t mix the formula with the water until just before baby drinks it. You can buy special containers to keep the formula in, or I just used another empty, clean bottle and poured the water into there.