To stop sterilising at 6 months ?

[Bea1985]

Hello all,

First time mum here looking for a bit of advice!

Formula fed baby will be weaning soon. I've been advised thy providing you wash things carefully in hot water, there is no need to sterilise bottles etc when baby is weaning ie 6 months plus. Also that there is no point sterilising formula powder by mixing with >70 degrees water post 6 months.

We currently sterilise everything everyday and store in fridge until needed.

WIBU to -

Make up milk feeds with formula powder and cold tap water and warm through (microwave or in mug of warm water)? This is what friend does.

Wash all bottles, teats, spoons in very hot soapy water (proper bottle cleaning brushes etc), rinse and store in fridge until needed? Sterilise maybe once a week in microwave.

I want to be safe but at the same time look forward to letting some of the sterilising go if it is indeed futile post 6 months.

Thanks all xxx

You can stop sterilizing at 6 months, yes so long as bottles are thoroughly washed.

However, you need to make the bottles up with water at 70 degrees. They can't guarantee formula will be bacteria free (though the vast, vast majority will be) so you need to kill the germs.

My baby is 10 months and I still sterilise all her bottles and make them with fresh boiled water although I do make up feeds in advance which is not recommended. I can't wait until she's off of formula so I don't have to do this every day. I can't remember when my first born stopped formula but I think it's 12 months you stop am I correct?

I stopped before 6 months, the paediatrician said no need, just bung it all in the dishwasher, so I got a basket that holds the teets in place and stopped.
Also he said not to boil the water, use cold and add powder shake well. It made traveling and days out much easier. This was in The US though. Dd is one healthly kid too, had one ear infection and never had D&V till she was school age.
Oh I never warmed the bottle of milk once I started using cold water either, she was happy with it at room temperature.
Amazing how different the advice is.

I think we did it all wrong then... It was over mine years ago and they had little plastic thibgs you measured out the dry formula in that sat inside the bottle along with the water.... We boiled the water in the morning and filled the bottkes with water and separate portions of formula for the day then mixed them as needed... I feel awful now!

I stopped at 5 months as we went away for a weekend and my friend forgot to bring the steriliser (we both had babies and thought we could share one).

I also made milk up like you except I didn't bother refrigerating the water. This was 3 years ago.

Other mumsnetters will clutch their pearls but DD was fine.

There's been a few big scandles over contaminated baby milk (there is a salmonella one currently in France) so the directions on the tubs now are very clear about safety and hot water.
It's certainly been that way for the last 8 years.

Sorry just read the post above mine. I used the tommee tippee canisters of formula stored in the bottles.

Worth noting that even the perfect prep machine was considered unsafe by HV.

It baffles me that people can't be bothered to follow the manufacturer's instructions when making milk for tiny babies.
Especially when they are scared enough of tap water to boil and cool it.

We continued to make the milk feeds up as instructed on box but stopped sterilising bottles. This is against NHS guidance but in line with guidance in USA, Canada and New Zealand (I think it was New Zealand the third country) where they stop far sooner than we do

I definitely scratch my head at this every time I hear about it. In the US, we can make bottles from cold tap water without incurring the wrath of the label on the baby formula! Is British water worse, or is the formula powder not as well regulated?

It's not about the water, it's the milk. I would imagine it's either formula manufacture being less regulated (in Europe) or food safety standards being tougher to force manufacturers to make consumers aware of the risks.

Though the CDC does suggest following the 70c+ preparation advice:
www.cdc.gov/cronobacter/prevention.html

My dd is 14 months, we moved to ff from bf at 5.5 months. We stopped sterilizing at 12ish months but I still sterilize everything every other day. I've noticed a decrease in the amount of colds she is getting since doing so. Could be coincidental. With the bottles, put a bottle of boiled water in the fridge. When you make up a bottle, put 2oz of freshly boiled water into a bottle, add 6 scoops of milk and shake. Then fill to 6oz with the cooled boiled water from the fridge.

A very dear friend, parent of four, helping me wash up bottles for my pfb aged five months:

Me: make sure you steralise
Him: why?
Me: because you must for six months
Him: so you'll stop at six months +1?
Me: (logic drop)

Do what's right and suits the circs

Pfb is 25, in those days you were advised to make bottles for the day in one go, store in fridge and reheat

Make up bottles for the day, store in fridge and reheat as required is still classified as acceptable but not perfect.

What’s not currently recommended at all is what I used to do after 6 months - boil the water, carry bottles full of water around and add pre-measured powder to it at room temperature as and when. I got away with it as did almost everyone else because the risk is rare - but because it can be catastrophic it’s not something I’d do again if I knew then what I know now. It’s like car seats for young children - almost all the children born in 1965 were absolutely fine without them, but …

That's exactly what we did OutsideContextProblem! I feel terrible now! My dd would drink it at room temp so never heated! Just assumed other babies were fussy!

No need to feel guilty now Yerroble. We unknowingly took a risk - it wasn’t best practice but we have the reassurance of knowing that we definitely got away with it and caused no harm.

It’s like using booster seats rather high backs - you might now say “I shouldn’t have done that” but unless you’re the very rare one who gets unlucky you can look back and say “phew, I definitely caused no harm by that dodgy choice”. It’s not like e.g. giving your primary school child ham sandwiches where you won’t ever know whether or not you caused long term harm.

I stopped sterilising when my baby started crawling however I always made the bottles with hot water as it kills any bacteria in the milk

But I can't believe I didn't know it was the formula that needed the boiling water, not that the water needed boiling to get rid ofbacteria in the water! I thought I was relatively bright but honestly did not know this nine years ago! I was already beating myself up for failing to breastfeed pfb for 6months +.... I know it doesn't matter now and my dd is a healthy never ill 9year old on every sporting activity going but as mums we will always feel guilty for something we should /shouldn't have done! The irony is I steralised the bottles and the water!!! Not the blasted formula that I hated using anyway

Do what you like. After all it’s only your baby’s health isn’t it?

You don’t need to sterilise but you must use boiled water to make milk. The water kills off any potential bacteria in the powder.

Stopped sterilising once mine were crawling around and eating solids. Also made bottles with bottled water, not boiling and they drank it room temperature. That was the advise/norm then.

I would personally keep making the formula with the boiling water as per instructions but possibly ease off on the sterilising of all the bottles etc if that’s what you want to do.

They're encountering everyday household germs when they're crawling about, not the more dangerous bacteria in certain foods including powdered formula milk. If you take the argument further, why bother cooking chicken - just give it raw as they're exposed to bacteria by crawling about!

Yabu on both counts, as a quick google would have told you