Confused about sterilisers

[sourlaces]

Currently 21 weeks pregnant and starting to buy baby items. I'm looking for a steriliser for babies bottles and I will be formula feeding. I don't really understand what the point is in sterilising multiple items at once because guidelines say you can't make up powder formula feeds in advance and as soon as you open lid it's introducing bacteria so can you only really sterilise one bottle at a time? Am I missing something? It's all so new and overwhelming.

No you're not missing anything. Bottle feeding is a massive ball ache and most people don't do it correctly. Fortunately most babies survive. and a few get gastroenteritis

Once you have sterilised the bottle parts, assemble them and they are ok for 24 hours. They are sterile enough for use. You don't sterilise your nipples when they have been exposed to the air!

We tried electric and microwave and ended up using cold water Milton - it’s so easy just keep adding bottles after washing them and they’re sterile in 15 min

I think if you sterilise six bottles (or however many it holds) including the caps, then assemble them as soon as they’re ready they’ll stay sterile until you open the cap again to make up another feed.

The nipples comment is not a valid point. The bottles need to be sterile because the formula is where bacteria thrive.

I was confused at first too!

This is what I do and never had any problems. But just my experience!

Tommee tippee steam steraliser (holds 6 bottles)

Wash up all used bottles in morning after first feed and put in steraliser. Once done open and put them all together. Leave on side.

Use throughout the day.

Wash up all used bottles in the evening and put in steraliser. I put the unused ones back in again.

Once done get out and assemble again. I normally do the last night feed soon after.

It takes me 5/10 mins on a morning and night to do and I found this the easiest way to make sure they're always ready and ok as they're steralised every 12 hours (ish)

That's really helpful to know that you can assemble them back together straight away. I've been looking at the tommee tippee microwave steriliser because our kitchen isn't the biggest and it would be easier to store but as they only hold 4 bottles I guess I would just sterilise a few times a day?

Have a look at the maam bottles- they sterilise in the microwave so you don’t need a separate steriliser. You can do a couple at a time and they stay sterilised for hours (from memory) until you assemble the bottle.

We just used a cold water steriliser. So quick and easy to do it once a day.

You can store bottles for 24 hours in the back of the fridge. WHO says this is fine and so do the nhs begrudgingly.

@AnotherVice

The nipples comment is not a valid point. The bottles need to be sterile because the formula is where bacteria thrive.

Yes and the bottles have been sterilised. They aren't going to then be unsterile enough to be dangerous by having contact with the air.

Although not recommended by some many people will make up bottles in advance. I certainly do yes there is a risks to many things. I think you need to balance things otherwise especially as a parent with a newborn you will end up worrying about everything little thing rather than enjoying your baby.

It's not that you need a completely sterile bottle to feed a baby - you use the steriliser to make sure that any traces of formula or bacteria left on the bottle after washing have been killed off. Once they've been through the steriliser, they are fine to use even if you've opened the lid.

The main point of sterilising is to kill off milk bacteria so while bottles may not be sterile once left to the air the milk bacteria would have been killed off.

I recommend Mam bottles, so easy to sterilise in the microwave!

I also recommend you get a proper bottle brush, i have one from amazon that also comes with a mini brush that gets into the teat which is where milk and bacteria can really build up.

I remember being thoroughly confused by this and actually phoning the manufacturer of the steriliser and the health visitor to ask! Neither of them had a clue, and said they'd never been asked the question before.

I think it was that that made me throw my hands up and decide to do what I thought best/seemed logical to me, as I got so worried about doing it 'wrong' and then the supposed experts didn't seem to know their arse from their elbow.

Anyway. I used to sterilise (electric steam one) first thing in the morning, put all the bottles together carefully without touching any inside surfaces - my steriliser came with little tongs that I also sterilised and used to put the teats in place - and then I would use them over the next 24hrs. Any still unused at the end of the day would go back in the steriliser again.

I didn't like the idea of Milton much, as I was worried it would taint the milk and taste gross. It smells really strong.