when can i stop sterilising bottles, dummies etc?

[silvermum]

my DS is ten months old now. the steriliser takes up a lot of space in our tiny kitchen! how much longer should we use it if we wash the bottles carefully in good hot water/rinse with boiling water etc?

[MamaG]

do you have a dishwasher? i thought that sterilised bottles

[2blue]

You are fine to stop at 6 months... Having said that I kept doing it until ds was 10 months simply because the steriliser was sitting there. So I put it away out of sight and that was that!

Hot soapy water perfectly adequate from now on!

[Harra]

I read in parenting a couple of months ago that you should sterilise up to 12 months. I personally stopped at 6 months when ds was crawling and putting anything in his mouth he could find.

[Morloth]

I think once they are crawling/chewing the dog there isn't much point in sterilising.

Just normal food hygiene should be fine.

[pucca]

I stopped once they started crawling and eating random muck off the floor lol, bit pointless then i think

[silvermum]

thanks everyone. DH will be v. pleased to see the back of the steriliser!

[Gemzooks]

I never sterilised anything, just washed in hot soapy water and air dried. there was someone on here, kangamummy? who had this advice from the neonatal unit of some top London hospital... I think sterilising probably leads to allergies and is just part of an industry to sell us more stuff, good hygiene is enough..

[dylsmum1998]

i was told that dummies/spoons etc were fine not to be sterilised from 6 months, but any bottles/beakers for milk should be until 1 year because of the bacterias etc in milk

[NormaStanleyFletcher]

just wash them well

[cali]

work in a neonatal unit and just about to change breast pump provision for mums and issue them with their own personal pack.
Our advice is to wash in hot soapy water and leave to air dry and only sterilise x1 per week. Other units do not sterilise at all.
I personally stopped sterilising dummies and breast pump when she was 6 months old, rolling all the floor, sticking her fingers up the dog's bottom and eating his tail.
She's now 9 months old but have to admit did wish I could have sterilised her fingers after she gave the dog a rectal examination last week

[dylsmum1998]

lol @Cali's rectal examining dd- a vet in the future perhaps

[cali]

don't think dog found it too funny but we did, must tell hv that one - can use pointing finger very well!

[onepieceoflollipop]

Cali rofl - I hope you sterilise your dog's bottom

[dylsmum1998]

thats amazing hand control/ fine motor skills for her age, wonder where it goes in the baby book?

[cali]

No, but dh assures me that dog's tongues are naturally antiseptic and as he spends most of the day licking his backside, it should have been clean (smile)

[cali]

have just read my last post, I meant dog spends the day licking his backside and not dh

[cali]

dylsmum, think I will put it in her baby book. anything to embarrass them when they're older.
they all have sections for 1st's don't they??

[dylsmum1998]

yeah ours has a section for special memories so if it doesnt fit anywhere else it should be quite suited to that one

[scanner]

I didn't sterilise at all for dd2 and ds, a friend of mine in the US told me that they don't. DH has lots of alergies and I wanted them to build their immune systems.

I did however wash things in the dishwasher and wouldn't have relied on handwashing.

They are 6 &5 now, no allergies, no problems when they were babies, dd1 btw has exema and psoriasis - I sterilised the world when she was a baby.

[cali]

must look both dd's baby books out and actually fill them in!

all the neonatal units whose mums do not sterilise bottles or breastpumps have not reported any increase in infection rate. which makes you wonder why we do it in the 1st case? a sick or preterm infant has to be more at risk from infection than a healthy term baby.

[dylsmum1998]

i have read in a parenting book -think it was an american one that they do not sterilize just wash in incredibly hot water so babies build an immune system.
i was neurotic with ds and sterilized everything plaates as well as cutlery- even tried to work out how to sterilize saucepans!
so sterilizing just bottles to a year old with dd was very lax for me

[Gemzooks]

isn't it just more stuff they sell us, like you buy the steriliser and all the equipment...

[dylsmum1998]

yes gemzooks i thinkn that is a lot of the trouble, people pray on parents vulnerability of wanting to the best for our dc, so they invent things for us to buy convincing us its something we really must have

[Gemzooks]

ooh, it's like all the anti bac stuff... there's a reason why there's loads less allergy and asthma in Eastern Europe, because people don't yet use all this stuff on a large scale.. it will come, though. I got more militant about this stuff since I started working for an environmental NGO. the more informed you get, the more paranoid you get!