Washing, sterilising and when to retire a nipple

We designed our bottles to come apart into four pieces: bottle, collar, nipple, cap. No narrow inner tubes, no sixth part that hides at the back of a drawer. That decision was mostly about washing, and this note is the routine we had in mind.

The daily wash

• Take all four pieces apart. Milk fat settles where parts meet, so a bottle washed assembled is a bottle half washed.
• Warm water, mild washing-up liquid, a bottle brush for the body and a smaller brush or a squeeze-through of soapy water for the nipple.
• Flush the vent openings at the nipple base; a blocked vent slows the flow.
• Air-dry on a rack rather than towel-drying; towels leave lint on wet silicone.

Sterilising

Boiling water, steam sterilisers and sterilising tablets all work with our range. Glass and PPSU take repeated cycles in their stride; with PP we suggest steam over long boiling, since PP is the softest of the three and hard boiling ages it fastest. Let glass warm up with the water rather than dropping a cold bottle into a rolling boil.

When a nipple is done

Silicone wears. Retire a nipple when you see thinning or a change in colour, a tear or a bite mark anywhere, swelling or tackiness of the surface, or a flow that has visibly sped up on its own. With daily use, expect to be replacing nipples a few times a year; that is why ours come in 3-packs and why we sell replacement parts separately instead of asking you to rebuy bottles.