Do you have to steralise a dummy?

[blackpanth]

I haven't. Only been putting it in a little tub with kettle boiled water. Is that enough? As I'm waiting to get in a pumping schedule going with baba till she's at least 8 weeks. Was going to do it sooner but can't bare to be away from her over night. So waiting. It just seems such a faff to put it in the steraliser. Surely boiled hot water is enough?

Tia

Boiling is a type of sterilising isn’t it? I’m not sure what germs could be on a dummy that could survive water straight from the kettle! Also you’re supposed to continue to sterilise bottles that have had formula in them indefinitely because if you accidentally miss any leftover milk residue when washing up then it can grow some properly nasty bacteria. That doesn’t apply to dummies. And you don’t sterilise weaning equipment (spoons, cups used for water etc). So once babies reaches that hands in mouth, toys in mouth, everything in mouth stage personally I can’t see why you’d carry on sterilising dummies at all beyond a standard washing up level of cleanliness. Of course if you’re doing the steriliser anyway it’s probably easiest to chuck them in there. But I really wouldn’t worry about it! What you’re doing sounds fine.

I would only on occasion put it in a cup of boiling water - if it rolled around in my bag for a day or started to smell or got especially manky. It doesn't contain milk/formula in the way that a bottle does, so my take was that I wouldn't sterilise it any more than anything else that went in their mouths (like a toy).

I don't use formula and when I breastfed my son I stopped sterilising before 6 months. Thank you for your comment 😊

Yeah that's fair enough. I'm not going to worry or stress about it. Thank you for your comment x

Boiling for 15 minutes is actual sterilising, and that’s way over the top for a dummy. Cleaning it using whatever you’d use to clean anything else that would go into a baby’s mouth is more effective than pouring boiling water on it.

Disclaimer, it’s more than 30 years since I was sterilising bottles, but my job requires me to know about sterilisation, decontamination and cleaning.

Thanks for your comment 😊