Sterilising question... I just don't understand how long bottles stay sterile for!

[oysterpots]

I've got the Avent Express steriliser and am using Dr Brown's bottles, and have been making them up with water and either keeping them in the fridge or at room temperature in the bedroom for the night feeds.

Could anyone tell me more about sterilising though? I know the Avent steriliser says that the bottles are sterile for 3 hours after the steriliser has switched off as long as the lid isn't removed, but if I want to take an empty sterile bottle out with me and fill it with a carton of ready mixed formula when DS is hungry, can I assemble the bottle and will it remain sterile? For how long?

And I've been using my hands (clean and scrubbed!) to assemble the Dr Brown's vent, so if I make up bottles of boiled water in the sterilised bottles including the vent, how long could I keep those for? 24 hours in fridge?

Thanks in advance - total novice at this bottle lark

[LucyJones]

some say no need to strilise at all so I wouldn't worry

[absandme]

Ok, I clicked on the link but I'm far too tired to read it right now!

What I do & have done:

Use boiled water from kettle, any temperature & slosh this into the measurer & then into steriliser - instructions recommend boiled water to reduce limescale build up, can't say I've noticed a difference though!!

sterilise bottles in avent sterilser & only remove lid to construct the bottles anytime within the 3hours of the steriliser being switched on.

Use tongs to pull teat through bottle whatsit thingy & then put lid on. Place this either on blue shelf of steriliser or upturned lid of steriliser to keep clean.

Pour water from kettle into bottle, put lid on & bung in fridge to be used within 24hours (but nowadays, not as strict, could be 36hrs but not that often)

in early days would use occassional readymade carton - would just do above but not stick water in - the bottles clean, it's sealed & only briefly open to stick milk in, carton advice is to not touch bottle with cardboard.

also in early days would take expresser & express then put into empty sealed bottle.

dd never been ill through these methods.

A lot of people don't even sterilse - (friends are gp & physio & have broad experience of seeing bottles not being sterilised by various parents & kids appear fine!)

Sorry it's long, you probably don't care what I did/do but hope it helps anyway!

[pobletsmum]

Hi oysterpots,

I would think that a sterilised, assembled bottle would be fine for 24hrs, but that's just a guess.

And for your 2nd question - my guess is that 24hrs in the fridge would be fine. Could you use tongs or is the vent thing too fiddly?

Just for your info, there was a thread just recently about making up bottles in advance and it had useful info on a couple of links given by people on the thread, relating to making & storing formula feeds. It might not be of interest to you, but you can make up your own mind. Here's the thread. I hope it helps.

[Hamishsmummy]

Oysterpots, you're asking all the questions that I had before I found mumsnet!! I haven't seen it written anywhere but I agree with pobletsmum at 24hrs and 24 hrs.

[Neighboursfan]

You don't need to sterilise bottles at all for bm as it is has natural antibacterial properties. They don't sterilise for bm bottles at all in US or Australia - we are overly cautious in this country.