You’ve finally cracked your routine at home on how to clean, sterilise and make your next bottle for your little one without them screaming the house down and then you decide to go on holiday or vacation.
You might begin to ponder how to sterilise bottles on vacation/holiday or it may be a last minute consideration. Either way, the prospect of considering how to sterilize baby bottles when traveling with an infant can be daunting as we are so regularly told of the importance of this step when feeding your child. To help you are some tips and tricks to make this easier for you.

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Firstly, you need to consider how to clean your baby’s bottles. To do this, you will need to pack a small amount of washing up/dish washing liquid (or buy some if available upon reaching your destination).
An important question to consider is: can you use tap water abroad to sterilize bottles? If you are not in an area where you can drink the water, you can still sterilise your bottles by boiling them by ensuring you bring a travel kettle, (if where you are staying does not have one.)
- First of all, boil the kettle and clean the sink, stopper/plug and any tongs or brush before you start.
- Next, fill the sink with boiled soapy, water and wash your bottles. It is advised to boil the kettle again to rinse the different parts of each bottle after washing.
- Fill the sink again and place your bottle and each part in here.
- Be careful to use something clean to remove the parts from the sink and let them air dry.
Other options for sterilising baby bottles if you don’t have a kettle.
If you have room in your case, you could bring a travel bottle steriliser like this battery charged one from Walmart or this Nuby UV steriliser available in the UK.
The big brands such as Milton and Tommee Tippee have several options and they are generally inexpensive to buy online; however, there is often only room for one bottle meaning using these travel baby sterilisers could be time consuming. In order to use the travel sterilizer without a microwave, you must use cold water steriliser tablets.
When considering how to sterilise bottles on the go or for shorter journeys is pre sterilised bottles. These are single use and super easy if you are only away from home for a short amount of time.
They’re even recyclable so no need to worry about the impact on the environment either! Bottle liners are also a disposable way of sterilising baby bottles without a steriliser as there is no need to do so. The liners are sterile and just need to be placed into the bottle before the milk.
If where you are staying has a microwave, there is the option of microwave steriliser bags. They’re very easy to use as you just need to add water and pop them in the microwave. Each bag can often be used about 20 times and can fit more than one bottle in. However, be careful when removing the bag as the steam can be very hot.
The easiest way to sterilize bottles in terms of minimum effort or expenditure could be using a large container filled with cold water and cold water steriliser tablets. You just need to pop your bottles in and they stay sterile for 24hours. You can use heavy duty resealable bags to do this too, if you have no access to a microwave or a sink.
The water must be changed every 24 hours. However, this does mean you have to pack a container, a resealable strong bag or ask where you are staying if they have an available container for you to use. We have never had an issue with such a request when abroad.
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