Going away for the first time with a baby is very daunting. You have no idea what to take and being away from your familiar home environment and routine is enough to make the thought of a holiday truly terrifying. If you have a bottle fed baby you have the added concern of how to clean and sterilise their bottles as its not that practical to lug your steriliser from your home with you!

The first time we went away with The Boy we took with sterilising bags. Basically these are huge clear bags that have a sterilising tablet in them and you fill them with water then put your clean bottles in. We hung them over the door handle overnight. To be frank – they were incredibly painful. The bags were really heavy and even after sterilising them we had to rinse the bottles which kind of defeats the object of making them sterile!

Then we bought microwave sterilising bags. As their name suggests, you place clean bottles into them with some water and microwave them until they are sterilised. Great if you are somewhere with a microwave, but I would guess the majority of hotel rooms aren’t equipped with one.

Then our friends recommended the Babytec Compact Travel Steam Steriliser. It may seem like an exaggeration to say this item changed our lives but honesty it was probably our best baby buy overall. This electric steam steriliser is a mini version of the bigger ones most of us use at home. It fits two bottles at a time, along with the lids, teats and I shoved some spoons and dummies in with ours too. You fill the water tray with a small amount of water (measured in a little cup that comes with it) then load the clean bottles (and other stuff), put the lid on and press a button and in 12 minutes everything is sterilised. Its that simple. No need for any tablets or huge amounts of water and the best bit is that it all cleverly fits into itself and then into a little bag so its ideal for packing in your suitcase. Once all packed up into its bag its only approximately the size of 2 baby bottles next to each other and all you need is an electrical socket to plug it into. Ours was bought in 2009 and we only just stopped using it in December 2014 when Little Lady turned 1 so no need to sterilise anymore. It was a very widely travelled steriliser and I was truly sad to let go of it!