A little while ago a friend of mine posted a question on facebook asking for some advice on how long you should sterilise baby bottles and feeding equipment. She had numerous responses, those sort of questions do on facebook don’t they? I thought id ask the lovely parent bloggers on twitter what they would all do or had done and they all said about 12 months or until the baby could move around and pick stuff up.
My response went down with a little bit of a shock for some people. See, after our first baby we didn’t sterilise anything. AT ALL.
My babies have all been breastfed but we have always given bottles as well, usually of expressed milk or formula. Generally once a day in order to give me a bit of rest. My OH would do the late evening feed with a bottle and then mama would be getting a little bit extra kip and do the night time feeds, which (chipping into baby nurse mode) is always one of the best feeds to stick with as your hormone levels are higher at this time of day (which..ahem is sort of unfair if you ask me).
But thats digressing..
….so we usually would only have one or two bottles a day and the hand breast pump to use daily.
At the end of the day all of the things were washed in hot soapy water with a bottle brush and then put in the dishwasher…and thats what we did…with every single baby.
Now I realise that, that might sound radical and scary to some who are worried about bacteria, infections, high temps BUT we didnt make the decision to do this based on entirely no thought.
If you have been here before you may know that I have been a staff nurse on a large Neonatal unit for a number of years (thats sick and premature babies) and for our pre-term babies who aren’t old enough to suckle we ask their mama’s to express milk for them, which is stored and given to them as they need it.
We dont sterilise the expressing sets we give to the mums. They are taught good hand washing and how to wash the sets effectively with detergent. But that is all. This process has always been sanctioned by a micro-biologist (just in case you wanted to know!). Also I donated expressed milk to our local milk bank ( just call me Daisy) and they also did not recommend sterilising. Again just hot soapy water and a thorough clean.That milk is obviously pasteurised before it is used but it is screened for bugs before that process.
This reason and also a conversation i had with a friend who is a phd in microbiology who said something along the lines of ‘it is totally laughable that ten minutes in a steamer can be deemed as sterilised!’ made me re-evaluate why we were actually sterilising our stuff.
So we stopped and got a little bit of time back, which is really important in our house and we have had 5 very healthy, thriving babies. Four of which have never had anything that has been sterilised.
Thats my theory, i wouldn’t have said it was that radical, i think the response i got on facebook seemed to suggest that it was maybe a little. Im not saying that we shouldn’t recommend that parents sterilise for young babies but its important to realise that a steriliser doesn’t actually ‘clean’ a bottle!
Funnily enough though a friend of mine who has moved to Australia chipped to the little conversation on fb saying that there they don’t recommend sterilising either. So it would seem that im not altogether alone…
🙂
What do you think? what did you do? What will you do?
and just because here is a seriously cute little babba…
GIVEAWAY TIME!!
This week as its a baby theme I am doing a giveaway of one of these fabulous Lamaze developmental play toys. We had one of these for my last baby and she loved it. So if you would like to win one of these cute little toys for your little one, please fill in the rafflecopter and away you go!
the winner of the fabulous Cakedays book by the Hummingbird bakery is Gemma from Helloitsgemma. Congratulations! Give me a shout!
I think the dishwasher is a method of sterilising because of how hot it gets.
My baby was only 5 weeks early but for me it was kind of scary. He lost 13% of his birth weight by day 3 too.
I digress, they made me sterilise all cups, pumps etc when I was at the hospital. I guess if anything had happened to him and I hadn’t have then I would have felt bad.
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We do sterilise the bottles in the microwave for about two mins.
My kids are no longer babies but my friend is due her first baby next month so would love to win for her! I used to sterilise dummies and bottles!
I sterilise bottles and dummies in the microwave for 5 minutes.
yes until 6mths
I never sterilised anything as both my children were exclusively breast fed. If they had had bottles we probably would have done it half heartedly for about 4 months with number one until she was putting everything in her mouth. Probably would have managed about 4 days with number two!
I sterilized for 1 year.
My daughter was formula fed and we sterilised for a year
I used to sterilise everything! probably about 8 or 9 months
love this blog.
I always washed my bottles in hot soapy water and rinsed, then put them in the steraliser. I never really thought about it either, I just assumed that was what you were supposed to do. We did it up until about a year.
Yes. just over a year.
I did for over a year 🙂 x
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Yes I did for about a year. 🙂
yes…A long time!
A microwave steriliser for about 10mins or soaked overnight with the solution!
for the first 12 month.
Totally agree with you. We started off sterilising religiously, then with each baby, got more slack with it! Don’t know if it’s anything to do with introducing them to germs early, but my kids are so very rarely ill, thank goodness!
around 12 months
Yeas 10 minutes
9-10 months, then when they started rolling around and putting things in there mouths I stoped
yes for about 10 months
Yup, by number 3 I pretty much gave up….as the bottle was being ‘helpfully’ picked up, dropped and sniffed at by by other two I would have been non-stop sterilising! Did do it for the first 3 months though..if somewhat haohazardly.
First baby – diligently 12 months. Advice via….probably Mothercare or the like!
Good post…x
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I have sterilised with both up to 12 months.
yes for a year.
Yep I sterilised for a year.
I had my first baby just over 6 months ago and I sterilise his bottles still. He was 7 weeks early and it was drilled into us to do it. I don’t bother when it comes to his bowls/spoons. I don’t want to wrap him in cotton wool.
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YES 10 MONTHS
I only sterilized bottles up to a year
I’m due my first baby in June but will sterilise for a few months I think.
I sterilized bottles for the first year!
Yes for the first 6 months.
yes about 8 months
Avent Steam Steriliser
bottles i did but not their toys or anything!
yes a steam sterilizer and for about 8 months, I stopped using bottles at 6 months.
Bottles for a year
We use MAM Anti-Colic bottles which can be steralised in the microwave.
I steralise religiously because I’m very OCD about things!
Yes for a year.
Up to a year old 🙂
I sterilised all bottles and teats etc up to age 1 year with all 3 of my children, using a microwave steriliser.
Up to at least a year with all 3 of them, although it was probably pointless from when they started to crawl as EVERYTHING went straight in the mouth! 🙂
yes for about a year
Yes I certainly did and there was no steamers in my day for a just over a year.
My daughter is 5 months old and I’m trying to keep up with sterilising everything!
When my wee man was first born we used a big electric steam steriliser, when his colic got bad we changed bottles that were ‘self sterilising’ in the microwave, then I got a steam bur and went off the idea so we started cold water sterilising which we still do now but dummies, spoons etc just go in the dishwasher and if we are visiting friends and family and need to we just wash a bottle well with hot soapy water.
bottles , dummies , teethers and sippy cups up to age 1.
Just for the first couple of months
I didn’t sterilise anything because I breastfed mine for 6 months then went straight to drinking cups
I steralised bottles and dummies until my little girl was 6 months x
Sterlise bottles up to 12 months… this is baby number four so feeding bits just about get a swill in bolling water!
yes for roughly 12 months although we were quite relaxed about it after about 7 months.
my girls are 8 months and i still sterilise there bottles (and for the 2 we get through alot lol) but ive never done there feeding bowls/spoons/ sippy cups etc i did do dummies but now the one who has dummies picks it up off floor an puts in her mouth when im too slow to stop her etc i dont bother
I’m due in september with my first baby, so have not started sterilising yet but I plan to – didn’t know how long to do it for, but thanks to all the comments on here it looks like 12 months seems to be a safe bet.
yes with all 3 of my children I religiously sterilized all bottles and dummies for between 10-12 months.
Having breast fed, I didn’t need to worry about sterilising bottles. And nothing else has ever seen more than the occasional bit of soapy water!
I’m due in July and hoping to breast feed but have bought a steriliser just in case it doesn’t work out. x
Yes for 12 months.
I sterilised bottles and dummies for a year with both my children. X
I sterelised bottles for about a year
Yes for about 18 months.
yes , for around a year
Yes for about a year.
I breastfed all of mine but did sterilise dummies teethers etc until they were 1 x.
Yes about a year
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I sterilised bottles and teats until my son stopped using them
Does putting beakers and bottles in the dishwasher count? If so, still doing it at 14 months.
I did but only for a couple of weeks (it was only dummies as they were breast fed…I couldn’t sterilise my boobs and that didn’t kill them), and once they were both crawling I didn’t see the point at all.
Hi
No I did not and have the same thought as you, hot soapy water and dishwasher are all that is necessary. Plus, I don’t like the idea of sterilising tablets, I don’t trust them.
Yes I currently do for my 6 month old, but I may look into the research some more
Yes we sterilized everything for 1 year as that’s what was recommended at the time.
8 months
yes thoroughly until about the first year
With first I serialised everything for 1 year. With second I was really careful for 3 months and then got lapse and started sucking dummies myself if they had fallen on floor etc. and sterilised until 6 months. With third I was sucking her dummies after about 2 weeks but will sterilise bottles until 6 months.
With my little boy I was using his sterilizer until he was about 14 months.. And our girl is 6 1/2 months and I sterilize everything xx.
Yes bottle and dummies for around a year
I sterilised until they were about 2 years old!
Yes – probably for about 9 months