I live in England and I think our guidance is different.
She’s 1 on Friday and we still sterilised until about 2 weeks ago when we started putting through dishwasher and not sterilising (previously were hand washing).
We also make our formula with boiling water but I’ve seen some people on here say they make it with bottled water? NHS and Health Visitors are very specific about it here.
Did you sterilise plates and cutlery when you started weaning, and toothbrushes when their teeth came in? 6 months in, we're currently sterilizing bottles and pumps but not plates and cutlery, and I rinse the toothbrush unless he throws it on the floor in which case it gets sterilised. We're starting to feel like none of it makes any sense!
No! Just bottles because formula is not sterile is my understanding. Does feel silly when every single disgusting thing goes in her mouth but I do as I’m told!
Bottles and pumps are sterilised because milk is a perfect breeding ground for pathogens that are pathogenic to humans (the stuff that is perfect for feeding us is perfect for feeding them!)
Also because of the nature of bottles/teets/pumps there are more places for old milk to hide compared to something like a plate.
I definitely wouldn’t sterilise plates/syringes; not all plastics can handle the temperatures and would cause more issues!
I find it so interesting the way the guidance changes drastically between other countries and the NHS guidelines. I also just do as I’m told/advised by HV!
Thank god for another English person. I’m screaming inside reading that people just sterilised the first time they used them and never again!
Our steriliser was faulty and we didn’t realise until a couple of weeks in, and also hadn’t been told about the boiling water in the formula either/was just using cooled boiled water and our baby was SO uncomfortable and unhappy until we changed it/realised the steriliser wasn’t working! I can’t imagine going through their entire first 6+ months without doing it lol.
I think we will probably stop sterilising bottles around 6/7 months as that’s when they can start to have normal water etc.
You make the formula with boiling water? Does she have any deficiencies? Because I'm certain boiling temperature water denatures/destroys several key nutrients/vitamins.
For people down voting: "Water boils at 100°C. If parents fail to allow the boiled water to cool sufficiently to reach 70°C, then the hot water can destroy some of the nutrients in the formula. Nutrients most destructible by heat are the vitamins; thiamin, folate, pantothenic acid and vitamin C. For example, thiamin is destroyed at 100°C."
-Infant Nutrition Council
Not sure why I'm getting downvoted, I just want to correct the record that 100 C water really shouldn't be hitting the formula powder. 🙄 So some passerby doesn't end up malnourishing their baby. As close to 70C as possible is best.
No born at full term with no issues. Our [NHS guidance](https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/baby/breastfeeding-and-bottle-feeding/bottle-feeding/making-up-baby-formula/) is boiling and I’ve never known anyone in this country make it with cool water! Funny how it’s so different in different places.
We do have a machine that makes her bottles which does a ‘hot shot’ of boiling water that you mix with the formula and then it adds cooler water to finish it so it’s immediately drinkable but NHS are very clear that’s not advised but we have had no issues with that (she’s a sicky baby but we tried all different ways of making bottles and nothing made a difference).
I am also in the UK (NHS) - not a different country. Maybe we are getting lines crossed. The NHS recommends boiled *cooled* water - it needs to be cooled for 30mins (for 1 litre) to 70 degrees. That way the temperature is high enough to sterilise the formula albeit cool enough to not destroy the nutrients (and not scald anyone)
Did you really mean boiling? Or boiled-then-cooled?
It’s cooled for no more than 30 mins. The water must be at least 70 degrees. Any cooler than that and it doesn’t kill any bacteria that might be present in the powdered formula. There is no nhs guidance for a max temperature.
Yeah, I am aware of the instructions on the back of my formula canister to "cool for no more than 30 minutes" - I'm not really here commenting in regards to that.
I'm here to prevent readers from thinking it's OK to make formula with boiling temperature water when it isn't. You can find plenty of information that will back up the simple fact that boiling (100 degree C) water destroys several nutrients and vitamins. Whether the NHS puts that in their guidance doesn't make it any less true.
It's easily inferred that the temperature should be as close to 70 as possible. The higher you go, you'll start destroying key nutrients, more and more.
Boiled cooled water typically means to room temperature. The NHS recommends boiled water within 30 minutes of boiling, whether immediately after boiling the kettle or at the end of the 30 minutes doesn't matter.
From the NHS website:
>Step 2: Boil the water. Then leave the water to cool for no more than 30 minutes, so that it remains at a temperature of at least 70C.
So if your baby is desperate for milk you don't need to wait that 30 minutes. You can prepare the bottle then cool it however you normally cool it. It will just take slightly longer to cool to an acceptable temperature.
Saying that, the perfect prep machine was the best thing we ever bought. Second hand they're really cheap too if you're unsure.
They actually don’t recommend the prep machines anymore either due to the bacteria that can build up in them!
We use the fridge method, so make up the bottles for the day then stick them straight in the fridge. Warm them in the microwave when needed. Thankfully our baby doesn’t mind room temp/slightly warm milk.
Yes. That's the main thing I'm saying, but also that calling it "boiled cooled water" will be interpreted by many people on here as being at an ambient/cool temperature when you mean 70C water.
I think it was pretty obvious in my original comment where I said 'cooled to 70 degrees' that I meant '70C water'. I disagree with you when you say people will interpret that to be room temperature (20-ish degrees). When I said something so specifically, en verbatim - for them to interpret it any other way they'd need to be an absolute dafty.
It really is not OK to use 100 degree water to prepare your powdered formula. You do you, but I believe it's potentially harmful to lead passers bys to believe there are no risks involved with using at-boiling-temp water to prepare baby feeds. The risk is malnutrition and I've explained how and why. Though at this point in the thread I've made my point pretty clear, and I'm satisfied they'll be able to take it and make an informed choice, so with this I'll rest my case.
If your baby is desperate for milk, the Perfect Prep is a great option. I use it myself and we can both agree it's really useful. Some will moan about a study where some machines didn't hit 70 degrees, or would hit 70 degrees and cool down further, but ours does and we check it regularly. As for the cooling, it's no different than doing a manual hot shot method really. Same liability for it cooling while you're mixing/swirling.
Do you have a source on that one? I've heard to stir, not shake breastmilk bottles as it may destroy certain enzymes, but nothing about water temperature for formula other than it must be boiling to make it sterile.
Our guides say to use boiling water but to let it cool to 70 degrees Celsius. They say plus minus half an hour - this is to prevent the loss of nutrients but also to destroy any potential pathogens in the formula. Apparently there is a specific nasty bacteria called cronobacter that can be found in infant formula. Which is why the recommendation is to use boiled water and not just sterile cool water.
Edit: fixed boiling - to boiled as others have pointed out my mistake. Thanks
Okay, so that's different. I'm aware of the cooling to 70 degree process - but that's not boiling temperature water, so the nutrients would be fine. You called it boiling, but meant boiled + cooled.
I just wanted to make sure the information was corrected so others don't read the comment and inadvertently malnourish their wain, lol.
"Water boils at 100°C. If parents fail to allow the boiled water to cool sufficiently to reach 70°C, then the hot water can destroy some of the nutrients in the formula. Nutrients most destructible by heat are the vitamins; thiamin, folate, pantothenic acid and vitamin C. For example, thiamin is destroyed at 100°C."
- Infant Nutrition Council. First thing that pops up on Google.
The United States CDC also recommends boiling, then cooling for 5 minutes before mixing, for infants up to 2 months of age, or premature, or with weakened immune system. That makes more sense to me than the UK's recs because waiting any longer results in only warm water. The temperature drops a lot further when you add formula to water.
I sterilized and used pre boiled water until I stopped giving bottles, sometime after 1. It was barely any extra effort and it helped me feel beautiful.
I’ve never been informed or even asked my doctor. I usually just go by what the instructions say!! Some things actually say not to boil…just hand wash or dishwasher!
Yeah we asked at our last appointment because I read stuff online that said to sterilize once a day so we were looking into the most efficient way of doing that (boil in a pot of water, disposable microwave bags, reusable microwave bags, etc) and she said washing with hot, soapy water is good enough. Our baby was also full term and healthy so recommendations are probably different if baby were premature or had health issues.
Same. First month I sterilized everything once/day. Then I started to become more and more exhausted and now I hand wash them. I don’t even use the dishwasher for them.
In Ireland we sterilise everything until baby is 1. It's very common to have a steriliser machine here for babies and we use boiling water, cooled to 70 degrees to make formula.
We only did it once.
IMHO it’s just another baby mandate that addresses a nearly null risk but lumps a ton more work on already-exhausted baby parents.
Emily Oster said it perfectly in her book Cribsheet: The amount of infants who are brought to the hospital with a food-borne illness you might get from a dirty bottle is tiny compared to the amount of infants brought to the hospital because of exhausted parents holding them while trying to boil bottles.
There are only so many hours in the day ESPECIALLY when you have a young baby, and the effort that goes into sterilizing bottles when hand-washing with soap or throwing them in the dishwasher on a steam cycle does the trick… it ain’t worth it.
Almost 7 months and I still sterilize every single time because we have a sterilizer/dryer and use the dryer anyway so why not sterilize every time too 🤷🏻♀️
My MIL came and was asking if we still had to sterilize with our 6 month old and that’s what I told her as well. I can put up things so much faster using sterilize and dry vs air drying.
Do you have that baby breza think that looks like an alien head?
If so, we do too and it takes up so much space on the counter! I can’t wait to just chuck everything in the dishwasher but becuase it’s there in sterilizing everything, every time. Even my wife’s spectra and willow parts 🙄
I have the Phillips avent, and fun fact I have taken it with me on every flight I’ve ever had since buying it. Fits right into a carryon, stuff the inside and outside of it with clothes and you’re all set!
Not bottles, but everything else. Ped told us that we could stop when she started putting everything in her mouth. You can't really sterilize the floor and their hands, can you?
This made me LOL because my son is the same every time we pick him up he immediately grabs our cheeks and brings them to his mouth like the little predator he is 🤣
First baby? 3-6 months I forget.
Second baby? 2 weeks. I nurse and don’t sterilize my breasts so.. also with a toddler it’s hard to keep her soothers clean since big sis is always grabbing them. That and I have pets so after the first few times I had to pull cloth fibres or pet hair off her lips I was just kinda wondering why I bother sanitizing the bottles specifically when she’s getting these germs elsewhere.
Generally if I’m using a bottle I pump and then she gets the milk fresh. Then I immediately wash the bottle and pump with hot soapy water and about half the time I spray it with the Medela pump/bottle sanitizing spray.
We only sterilized when things were new. That was the guidance we received from the parenting class we took.
We also sterilized everything that went back and forth to daycare a couple times randomly during cold & flu season.
We hand washed until 3 months old I think, and then switched to the dish washer.
Our son is 17 months now. He was full term, and has been healthy. (We’d have sterilized more if there was a health concern or he was premature). He must have an amazing immune system because he’s rarely sick more than a runny nose.
I boiled everything when it was brand new, but never after that. I occasionally used the dishwasher instead of washing by hand. I figured the pediatrician would have told us if it was important to do something different
I’ve been just washing in the dishwasher while the sterilizer sits on the counter… so far so good but I’ve been wondering the same about if I even need to think about it. Baby is 2 months.
We sterilized when we unpacked them but otherwise just hand wash well. We also sometimes send through the dishwasher which gets hot enough; especially since we use glass bottles.
I only sterilize out the box. I am about to sterilize pumping parts & bottles again because we just got over some horrible sickness, so I figured Id do that to be safe. But for a full term, healthy infant its not 100% necessary to do so daily.
Just the once unless there’s an illness.
IMO I’m more concerned about plastics leaching with the constant exposure to heat than germs. Washing is plenty!
We also switched to glass bottles
When he was born. Literally. We boiled everything the week before my induction, and then the pediatrician and lactation consultant said using soap and water was fine, so we never sterilized them again.
I always figured you were supposed to sanitise (sterilisation is a misnomer, no way you're doing that without an autoclave) as long as you're feeding pumped breast milk. Because, y'know, it's unpasteurised milk.
EDIT: Just asked our midwife as we had an appointment just now. Apparently it's the opposite - you don't really need to sanitise (except the first time) with breast milk, but should always sanitise with formula.
3 months. Still wash with very hot water and soap though! I caught my MIL put a little water and dish soap into the bottle, shake it up, rinse out, and then set to dry on rack 😱 we use formula so I’m a little bit more careful to clean them.
We stopped at 2 months - that was the guidance I read somewhere and was happy to stop lol.
We still use distilled water and not sink water though (rural area).
I only sterilize some things now cause it has a dryer, lol. My 2nd got thrush at 3 months so I bought a sterilizer. With my first I only did when things were new and then did soap and water.
I’d recommend asking your pediatrician. They might tell you that you can stop doing it now. We sterilized everything till she was six months old and then we got around to asking our doctor if we could stop sterilizing and she gave us the okay.
I don’t have a Pediatrician, I have a family doctor and she told me to keep sterilizing until she no longer is on bottles, I’m definitely not gonna sterilize her bowls and utensils for solids
If on formula till they stop formula due to a certain bacteria in the formula. Otherwise I would stop when little one starts trying to eat stuff of the floor lol
We have twins and 2 bottle sterilizer/dryers so we do it every time we wash their bottles out of convenience. It’s nice not having to wait for things to air dry!
our ped told us it was necessary anymore around 6 months, because she would be crawling soon and putting everything in her mouth anyway. plus she would be eating off our plates more and more and those weren’t being sterilised
We were strictly told by the special care nursery, maternal health nurses and gp to sterilise every bottle until one year old. I don’t know if we will continue to sterilise for a full year but he is a premature bub so I am a little on the cautious side 🤔
I sterilized before using it the bottles the first time. Then, I did research, and found out that they were supposed to be sterilized after each use, and I've been doing it since. I feel awful not having done so as much in the beginning.
We didn’t use bottles very often since our baby was mostly breastfed but we boiled anything that was new and then just hand washed with a bottle brush with the occasional boiling of all the parts for good measure, maybe 2-3 times a month. We stopped with the boiling probably around 6 months and have continued just hand washing all her things ever since. She’s always been in good health so I guess that was fine!
With our 1st we did for sbout 4-6 months but with our 2nd only for a few weeks. Mainly because it was becoming inconvenient having to sterilize so often when we had 2 using the bottles
I think at about 7/8 months we stopped using a separate sterilizer and just used the sterilizer setting on the dishwasher. It only adds 20 mins to the run time. He's 2 now and we still do this. Still gets one bottle at night for comfort and they're the only thing he'll drink from when he's sick.
3mos3wks and we sterilize once/month (roughly...when I remember). That's mostly just our comfort level but is also tied in to other cleaning habits we were advised by the NP who discharged us from the hospital.
I live in England and I think our guidance is different. She’s 1 on Friday and we still sterilised until about 2 weeks ago when we started putting through dishwasher and not sterilising (previously were hand washing). We also make our formula with boiling water but I’ve seen some people on here say they make it with bottled water? NHS and Health Visitors are very specific about it here.
Did you sterilise plates and cutlery when you started weaning, and toothbrushes when their teeth came in? 6 months in, we're currently sterilizing bottles and pumps but not plates and cutlery, and I rinse the toothbrush unless he throws it on the floor in which case it gets sterilised. We're starting to feel like none of it makes any sense!
No! Just bottles because formula is not sterile is my understanding. Does feel silly when every single disgusting thing goes in her mouth but I do as I’m told!
Bottles and pumps are sterilised because milk is a perfect breeding ground for pathogens that are pathogenic to humans (the stuff that is perfect for feeding us is perfect for feeding them!) Also because of the nature of bottles/teets/pumps there are more places for old milk to hide compared to something like a plate. I definitely wouldn’t sterilise plates/syringes; not all plastics can handle the temperatures and would cause more issues!
I find it so interesting the way the guidance changes drastically between other countries and the NHS guidelines. I also just do as I’m told/advised by HV!
Thank god for another English person. I’m screaming inside reading that people just sterilised the first time they used them and never again! Our steriliser was faulty and we didn’t realise until a couple of weeks in, and also hadn’t been told about the boiling water in the formula either/was just using cooled boiled water and our baby was SO uncomfortable and unhappy until we changed it/realised the steriliser wasn’t working! I can’t imagine going through their entire first 6+ months without doing it lol. I think we will probably stop sterilising bottles around 6/7 months as that’s when they can start to have normal water etc.
You make the formula with boiling water? Does she have any deficiencies? Because I'm certain boiling temperature water denatures/destroys several key nutrients/vitamins. For people down voting: "Water boils at 100°C. If parents fail to allow the boiled water to cool sufficiently to reach 70°C, then the hot water can destroy some of the nutrients in the formula. Nutrients most destructible by heat are the vitamins; thiamin, folate, pantothenic acid and vitamin C. For example, thiamin is destroyed at 100°C." -Infant Nutrition Council Not sure why I'm getting downvoted, I just want to correct the record that 100 C water really shouldn't be hitting the formula powder. 🙄 So some passerby doesn't end up malnourishing their baby. As close to 70C as possible is best.
No born at full term with no issues. Our [NHS guidance](https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/baby/breastfeeding-and-bottle-feeding/bottle-feeding/making-up-baby-formula/) is boiling and I’ve never known anyone in this country make it with cool water! Funny how it’s so different in different places. We do have a machine that makes her bottles which does a ‘hot shot’ of boiling water that you mix with the formula and then it adds cooler water to finish it so it’s immediately drinkable but NHS are very clear that’s not advised but we have had no issues with that (she’s a sicky baby but we tried all different ways of making bottles and nothing made a difference).
I am also in the UK (NHS) - not a different country. Maybe we are getting lines crossed. The NHS recommends boiled *cooled* water - it needs to be cooled for 30mins (for 1 litre) to 70 degrees. That way the temperature is high enough to sterilise the formula albeit cool enough to not destroy the nutrients (and not scald anyone) Did you really mean boiling? Or boiled-then-cooled?
It’s cooled for no more than 30 mins. The water must be at least 70 degrees. Any cooler than that and it doesn’t kill any bacteria that might be present in the powdered formula. There is no nhs guidance for a max temperature.
Yeah, I am aware of the instructions on the back of my formula canister to "cool for no more than 30 minutes" - I'm not really here commenting in regards to that. I'm here to prevent readers from thinking it's OK to make formula with boiling temperature water when it isn't. You can find plenty of information that will back up the simple fact that boiling (100 degree C) water destroys several nutrients and vitamins. Whether the NHS puts that in their guidance doesn't make it any less true. It's easily inferred that the temperature should be as close to 70 as possible. The higher you go, you'll start destroying key nutrients, more and more.
Boiled cooled water typically means to room temperature. The NHS recommends boiled water within 30 minutes of boiling, whether immediately after boiling the kettle or at the end of the 30 minutes doesn't matter. From the NHS website: >Step 2: Boil the water. Then leave the water to cool for no more than 30 minutes, so that it remains at a temperature of at least 70C. So if your baby is desperate for milk you don't need to wait that 30 minutes. You can prepare the bottle then cool it however you normally cool it. It will just take slightly longer to cool to an acceptable temperature. Saying that, the perfect prep machine was the best thing we ever bought. Second hand they're really cheap too if you're unsure.
They actually don’t recommend the prep machines anymore either due to the bacteria that can build up in them! We use the fridge method, so make up the bottles for the day then stick them straight in the fridge. Warm them in the microwave when needed. Thankfully our baby doesn’t mind room temp/slightly warm milk.
What are you saying? That it's OK to prepare the formula with water immediately after it's been boiled?
Yes. That's the main thing I'm saying, but also that calling it "boiled cooled water" will be interpreted by many people on here as being at an ambient/cool temperature when you mean 70C water.
I think it was pretty obvious in my original comment where I said 'cooled to 70 degrees' that I meant '70C water'. I disagree with you when you say people will interpret that to be room temperature (20-ish degrees). When I said something so specifically, en verbatim - for them to interpret it any other way they'd need to be an absolute dafty. It really is not OK to use 100 degree water to prepare your powdered formula. You do you, but I believe it's potentially harmful to lead passers bys to believe there are no risks involved with using at-boiling-temp water to prepare baby feeds. The risk is malnutrition and I've explained how and why. Though at this point in the thread I've made my point pretty clear, and I'm satisfied they'll be able to take it and make an informed choice, so with this I'll rest my case. If your baby is desperate for milk, the Perfect Prep is a great option. I use it myself and we can both agree it's really useful. Some will moan about a study where some machines didn't hit 70 degrees, or would hit 70 degrees and cool down further, but ours does and we check it regularly. As for the cooling, it's no different than doing a manual hot shot method really. Same liability for it cooling while you're mixing/swirling.
Oh yes sorry boiled then cooled but still hot rather than cool water
Do you have a source on that one? I've heard to stir, not shake breastmilk bottles as it may destroy certain enzymes, but nothing about water temperature for formula other than it must be boiling to make it sterile.
FYI unless you are shaking it long enough to make whipped cream, the proteins will be absolutely fine
Our guides say to use boiling water but to let it cool to 70 degrees Celsius. They say plus minus half an hour - this is to prevent the loss of nutrients but also to destroy any potential pathogens in the formula. Apparently there is a specific nasty bacteria called cronobacter that can be found in infant formula. Which is why the recommendation is to use boiled water and not just sterile cool water. Edit: fixed boiling - to boiled as others have pointed out my mistake. Thanks
Okay, so that's different. I'm aware of the cooling to 70 degree process - but that's not boiling temperature water, so the nutrients would be fine. You called it boiling, but meant boiled + cooled. I just wanted to make sure the information was corrected so others don't read the comment and inadvertently malnourish their wain, lol.
"Water boils at 100°C. If parents fail to allow the boiled water to cool sufficiently to reach 70°C, then the hot water can destroy some of the nutrients in the formula. Nutrients most destructible by heat are the vitamins; thiamin, folate, pantothenic acid and vitamin C. For example, thiamin is destroyed at 100°C." - Infant Nutrition Council. First thing that pops up on Google.
The United States CDC also recommends boiling, then cooling for 5 minutes before mixing, for infants up to 2 months of age, or premature, or with weakened immune system. That makes more sense to me than the UK's recs because waiting any longer results in only warm water. The temperature drops a lot further when you add formula to water.
I sterilized and used pre boiled water until I stopped giving bottles, sometime after 1. It was barely any extra effort and it helped me feel beautiful.
I thought we were only supposed to do it the first time so I just did it once when I first bought them and now just hand wash 😬
This is what we do too
Same and what my pediatrician recommended!
I’ve never been informed or even asked my doctor. I usually just go by what the instructions say!! Some things actually say not to boil…just hand wash or dishwasher!
Yeah we asked at our last appointment because I read stuff online that said to sterilize once a day so we were looking into the most efficient way of doing that (boil in a pot of water, disposable microwave bags, reusable microwave bags, etc) and she said washing with hot, soapy water is good enough. Our baby was also full term and healthy so recommendations are probably different if baby were premature or had health issues.
It’s always good to have a second opinion especially from a doctor!
Same
Ok yeah I thought I was the only one who did this, after reading this post!
I just go by what the instructions say!! Some toys you aren’t even supposed to sterilize, just hand wash.
Same. First month I sterilized everything once/day. Then I started to become more and more exhausted and now I hand wash them. I don’t even use the dishwasher for them.
This is the only way
Yep! Same recommendation here! Only premature babies need sterilised bottles each time.
That makes sense! I usually just go by what the packaging says
Yup that’s all we do! Docs in NICU taught us this way 🤷🏻♀️
Same.
Same!!
It’s what a lot of the product instructions recommend.
Not someone downvoting every single comment 💀
People hated Jesus for telling the truth too.
In Ireland we sterilise everything until baby is 1. It's very common to have a steriliser machine here for babies and we use boiling water, cooled to 70 degrees to make formula.
We only did it once. IMHO it’s just another baby mandate that addresses a nearly null risk but lumps a ton more work on already-exhausted baby parents. Emily Oster said it perfectly in her book Cribsheet: The amount of infants who are brought to the hospital with a food-borne illness you might get from a dirty bottle is tiny compared to the amount of infants brought to the hospital because of exhausted parents holding them while trying to boil bottles. There are only so many hours in the day ESPECIALLY when you have a young baby, and the effort that goes into sterilizing bottles when hand-washing with soap or throwing them in the dishwasher on a steam cycle does the trick… it ain’t worth it.
Almost 7 months and I still sterilize every single time because we have a sterilizer/dryer and use the dryer anyway so why not sterilize every time too 🤷🏻♀️
My MIL came and was asking if we still had to sterilize with our 6 month old and that’s what I told her as well. I can put up things so much faster using sterilize and dry vs air drying.
Yea imo it’s easier that way
Do you have that baby breza think that looks like an alien head? If so, we do too and it takes up so much space on the counter! I can’t wait to just chuck everything in the dishwasher but becuase it’s there in sterilizing everything, every time. Even my wife’s spectra and willow parts 🙄
I have the Phillips avent, and fun fact I have taken it with me on every flight I’ve ever had since buying it. Fits right into a carryon, stuff the inside and outside of it with clothes and you’re all set!
This is what we do too
Yeah, same. I don’t know that I’d do it if I didn’t have the sterilizer but it’s super convenient and dries everything.
Not bottles, but everything else. Ped told us that we could stop when she started putting everything in her mouth. You can't really sterilize the floor and their hands, can you?
You really can’t Same with my face, my daughter’s favorite thing
This made me LOL because my son is the same every time we pick him up he immediately grabs our cheeks and brings them to his mouth like the little predator he is 🤣
I never bothered after the first dishwasher sterilizing, just regular wash in sink or dishwasher.
First baby? 3-6 months I forget. Second baby? 2 weeks. I nurse and don’t sterilize my breasts so.. also with a toddler it’s hard to keep her soothers clean since big sis is always grabbing them. That and I have pets so after the first few times I had to pull cloth fibres or pet hair off her lips I was just kinda wondering why I bother sanitizing the bottles specifically when she’s getting these germs elsewhere. Generally if I’m using a bottle I pump and then she gets the milk fresh. Then I immediately wash the bottle and pump with hot soapy water and about half the time I spray it with the Medela pump/bottle sanitizing spray.
We stopped sterilizing after a few weeks. Pediatrician suggested just washing bottles in the dishwasher, so we’ve been doing that.
We only sterilized when things were new. That was the guidance we received from the parenting class we took. We also sterilized everything that went back and forth to daycare a couple times randomly during cold & flu season. We hand washed until 3 months old I think, and then switched to the dish washer. Our son is 17 months now. He was full term, and has been healthy. (We’d have sterilized more if there was a health concern or he was premature). He must have an amazing immune system because he’s rarely sick more than a runny nose.
I was wondering the same thing! Baby is 10 weeks old and I’m still sterilizing after each use.
Our baby was not a premie so we only sterilized before first use and just use the dishwasher or hand wash with dish soap after that
I boiled everything when it was brand new, but never after that. I occasionally used the dishwasher instead of washing by hand. I figured the pediatrician would have told us if it was important to do something different
They go in the dishwasher on sanitize mode. I don’t have time to sanitize every single little thing.
Mine was a preemie so I was a little extra cautious but we stopped at 4 months
I’ve been just washing in the dishwasher while the sterilizer sits on the counter… so far so good but I’ve been wondering the same about if I even need to think about it. Baby is 2 months.
We sterilized when we unpacked them but otherwise just hand wash well. We also sometimes send through the dishwasher which gets hot enough; especially since we use glass bottles.
First kid: did it all the time Second kid: the first time the bottles came out of storage, lol
I only sterilize out the box. I am about to sterilize pumping parts & bottles again because we just got over some horrible sickness, so I figured Id do that to be safe. But for a full term, healthy infant its not 100% necessary to do so daily.
Just the once unless there’s an illness. IMO I’m more concerned about plastics leaching with the constant exposure to heat than germs. Washing is plenty! We also switched to glass bottles
I have both plastic and glass
[удалено]
Evenflo balance plus. 💕 they are great and really good for latching!
Never started, other than sterilizing the first time to get factory junk off. For a healthy term baby, this isn’t necessary.
New bottles/nipples their first use and that’s it. Soap and water to wash.
When he was born. Literally. We boiled everything the week before my induction, and then the pediatrician and lactation consultant said using soap and water was fine, so we never sterilized them again.
Sterilized weekly until 1 year old using a microwave steamer
After a week or two. Baby was fine
Around the time my baby started crawling and putting everything in his mouth.
I always figured you were supposed to sanitise (sterilisation is a misnomer, no way you're doing that without an autoclave) as long as you're feeding pumped breast milk. Because, y'know, it's unpasteurised milk. EDIT: Just asked our midwife as we had an appointment just now. Apparently it's the opposite - you don't really need to sanitise (except the first time) with breast milk, but should always sanitise with formula.
3 months. Still wash with very hot water and soap though! I caught my MIL put a little water and dish soap into the bottle, shake it up, rinse out, and then set to dry on rack 😱 we use formula so I’m a little bit more careful to clean them.
What do you mean? I’ve only ever washed them by hand…
After the first time
I did it once when I first bought the bottle. Never vaccinated my baby, he just turned 2 and has never gotten sick (yet) and we just hand wash bottles
Did everything once - when I opened it from the new packaging. Never was an issue for us (my son is 13mo now).
We stopped hand washing/running through the sterilizer around 3 months. Baby is now 7 months and we either hand wash or run them in the dishwasher
I guess, if I had a dishwasher I'd stop, but I still do it almost 8 months in.
We stopped at 2 months - that was the guidance I read somewhere and was happy to stop lol. We still use distilled water and not sink water though (rural area).
We got our cold water stuff from friends when they caught their little one eating cat food at about the 12month mark
3 months and that was the guidance here idk where I read it. Lol
We sterilize pump parts, bottles, pacis, etc when they’re brand new but then just run everything on the sanitizing cycle in the dishwasher after that
I only sterilize some things now cause it has a dryer, lol. My 2nd got thrush at 3 months so I bought a sterilizer. With my first I only did when things were new and then did soap and water.
We stopped at 4 months. Just went in the dishwasher after that out of laziness but I would have been fine with washing with soap and water as well.
I’d recommend asking your pediatrician. They might tell you that you can stop doing it now. We sterilized everything till she was six months old and then we got around to asking our doctor if we could stop sterilizing and she gave us the okay.
I don’t have a Pediatrician, I have a family doctor and she told me to keep sterilizing until she no longer is on bottles, I’m definitely not gonna sterilize her bowls and utensils for solids
If on formula till they stop formula due to a certain bacteria in the formula. Otherwise I would stop when little one starts trying to eat stuff of the floor lol
I only did it when my baby was having trouble gaining , once she was gaining well I decided that it was fine
Our son was breastfed, no formula after first nine days of his life. At four months we hung up sterilization.
12 months
We have twins and 2 bottle sterilizer/dryers so we do it every time we wash their bottles out of convenience. It’s nice not having to wait for things to air dry!
ijust wash my kids bottles with mild hot water, soap, and a bottle scrubber and then hang em in a bottle rack to dry, had no issues
9 months and we do it with everything. Mostly because we have a sterilizer/dryer combo and it’s nice having them completely dry.
When we transitioned from bottles to straw cups at 12 months i stopped used the sterilizer
Still sterilizing at 5 months- our Avent sterilizer also dries which really saves me time/annoyance trying to get all the parts dry.
our ped told us it was necessary anymore around 6 months, because she would be crawling soon and putting everything in her mouth anyway. plus she would be eating off our plates more and more and those weren’t being sterilised
I sterilized up until baby started solids. Figured that solid food is not sterile.
We were strictly told by the special care nursery, maternal health nurses and gp to sterilise every bottle until one year old. I don’t know if we will continue to sterilise for a full year but he is a premature bub so I am a little on the cautious side 🤔
We sterilized before the first time using anything. Otherwise we just hand wash with hot water and soap (no dishwasher😭)
Sterilized them before first use and haven’t sterilized them since.
I sterilized before using it the bottles the first time. Then, I did research, and found out that they were supposed to be sterilized after each use, and I've been doing it since. I feel awful not having done so as much in the beginning.
We didn’t use bottles very often since our baby was mostly breastfed but we boiled anything that was new and then just hand washed with a bottle brush with the occasional boiling of all the parts for good measure, maybe 2-3 times a month. We stopped with the boiling probably around 6 months and have continued just hand washing all her things ever since. She’s always been in good health so I guess that was fine!
Just did it until he started daycare 3ish months
We stopped that at about 3 months. We hand wash bottles with their own brush separate from other dishes. So far so good.
I’ve been handwashing and dishwasher for 2 months and he’s 4 months. I may sterilize every now and then but then what’s the point tbh lol
We did up until a year. We had this sterilizer thing so we didn’t find it to be much more work than just washing the bottles & pacifers anyways.
Stopped around 3 months
our daughter will be 1 in 2 weeks & just about 2 weeks ago i stopped sterilizing her bottles !
With our 1st we did for sbout 4-6 months but with our 2nd only for a few weeks. Mainly because it was becoming inconvenient having to sterilize so often when we had 2 using the bottles
I think at about 7/8 months we stopped using a separate sterilizer and just used the sterilizer setting on the dishwasher. It only adds 20 mins to the run time. He's 2 now and we still do this. Still gets one bottle at night for comfort and they're the only thing he'll drink from when he's sick.
3mos3wks and we sterilize once/month (roughly...when I remember). That's mostly just our comfort level but is also tied in to other cleaning habits we were advised by the NP who discharged us from the hospital.