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

With my first I followed the guidelines and didn’t listen to everyone around me who had raised kids before. With my second I have poured the right amount of boiled water into the bottles, sealed them with lid etc and left them on the side to cool to room temperature and just added formula as I go without reheating at any stage. I don’t know anybody in real life who follows the guidelines. In fact most people I know just use plain unboiled tap water with formula.

Oh, and I do still sterilise at 8 months but only really because the sterilise is a good place to store bottles.

I stopped sterilising bottles at 6m, she's eating and putting everything in her mouth as well as learning to crawl. I still make up bottles with recommended temp water though.

Do yourself a mahoosive favour and buy some microwave sterilise bottles from Mam - here: www.mamonlineshop.com/acatalog/d.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjwkKPVBRDtARIsAA2CG6F7KyaRfsrM-vSDE9a6XEsvcbSDuUWne3ditim25QEnqv7laA4vxHIaAniaEALw_wcB

Genius.

Buy the big ones and you just replace the teats as needed. You put a tiny ant of water in the bottom and 2 mins later - bing!

Yes to the microwave bottles.
Sterilising, ok if you feel you want to stop and wash thoroughly.
All formula at any age needs to be made with boiling water. It’s nothing to do with them putting other stuff in their mouths, It’s the specific harmful bacteria in the formula.

AAARAG. A just lost a massive post. To summarise. YABU. Too clean is as bad as kids need their immune system to be threatened to build better defences against serious threats like cancer. Geuine question - you can't sterilise skin so what do all these pro-sterilisation peeps say about BF - after all, the kid is feeding off an "unclean" nipple?

Stop sterilizing and just be clean.

I sterilised up until around 11 months. I used to make up water in bottles, get the powder tub, put it into bottle water and shake so it was room temp.

Neither of mine have ever like a warm bottle

You should keep sterilising anything that touches formula powder due to the bacteria that can live in it. After 6m, you don't need to sterilise bowls, spoons, cups, dummies, etc, though, if you wash them thoroughly anyway. You can stop sterilising bottles when they move on to cows milk (12m, but ideally you're only using cups at that point anyway).

You must use hot water to make up the bottles for as long as you're using powder. Again, it's to kill the bacteria in the formula. You don't need to boil water when they're having a cup of water as it's not the water that's the worry - it's the formula.

It's not a risk I'd take for the sake of saving a minute here and there.

Erm, gross. You Can get serious illnesses or meningitis from the bacteria in formula. It needs to be made with boiling hot water and cooled to kill the bugs. And you have to sterilize to kill them too.

Gross! Gross is remaking milk into a bottle that is not washed

As long as you’re making every feed on demand then I think you should be fine.

My HV told me that the really important part of it was to scrupulously scrub every bottle properly in scalding hot water.

I sterilised everything until about 9 months until one day we were in the supermarket and I caught DS sucking on the trolley handle yuk!

Definitely sterilise bottles until 1 year. If you're washing in hot water how much longer does it really take to shove it in a steriliser. I feel that although hot water is good there's still little parts like in the valve of the teat which is hard to clean into thoroughly and could harbour bacteria. I let my baby grub around in the garden etc but I wouldn't risk potential Listeria, Salmonella or E coli in formula milk.
You can also just mix the formula with a small amount of boiling water then top up with cold to save time.

Started weaning at four months stopped sterilising at six months due the fact that DS was moving around in the floor putting bits in his mouth and we were going camping. Just generally good hygiene was fine. He is now 19 months old.Use your initiative. I used to mixup a full days bottles in the morning. Trends change all the time.

We used one of these in the dishwasher from eight months and it worked really well.

You can also buy ready mixed formula in cartons, so no need to worry about sterilising formula then and very convenient.

Guidelines are to continue to sterilise until 12 months and always make up formula with water over 70 degrees.

Personally if I had to do it again I'd follow the guidelines but not worry about the odd unsterilised bottle or making up formula with cold water and feeding immediately with an older baby.

There is research that suggests bottles etc have less bacteria if people are advised to wash and not sterilise rather than wash then sterilise because people wash better. Also the risk of a catastrophic cronobacter infection in a baby older than six months less than negligible.

You don't sterilise bottles because of ordinary germs - it's specifically because of bacteria that is present in formula that you have to sterilise. Its not the same as your baby licking the floor!

It's like most other things - the risks are tiny, but you don't ever want to regret not following the most up to date guidelines.

With my first who is now 5 years i sterilsed them until her first birthday.

Second child who is 10 months hasnt had his bottles sterilsed from around 3 months old!

Hes never been ill but i do use a bottle cleansing fluid by NUK which claims to dissolve any milk residue. I leave them soaking in boiling water for around 3 hours with this cleansing fluid and then give them a quick scrub and a rinse.