Sterilising confusion?!

[katiecubs]

Hi all,

First post here - have a 6 day old :)

I am really hoping to breast feed but my nipples are so sore (cracked and bleeding) the midwife told me to have a day off and express while i heal.

So here i am very confused about sterilising - i have an electric one which takes 6 bottles and the instructions say that bottles stay sterile for 24 hours as long as the lid is shut. So therefore as soon as i open it to get one out do all the others become un sterile again? And if so whats the point in it taking 6 bottles in the first place?

Sorry if this is a daft question!

Thanks x

Hi and congratulations! Sorry to hear your having some bother. Have you been putting Lansinoh on your nipples? To answer your question, yes it means the items are no longer sterile. However, just to add more confusion, my health visitor told me this week that when I am feeding my baby expressed breast milk I do not have to sterilise my bottles. This is apparantly new guidance. I'm going to carry on as normal and sterilise though. I only sterilise one bottle at a time. I sterilise it while I am expressing so that its ready to be used when I am finished expressing. Hope this helps!

Do you have an Advent steriliser? If you do then it automatically re-sterilises every so often. You then only need to add fresh water every 24 hours.

Be careful if you take a bottle out just as the cycle has finished as the steam can scald!

Also, I know you did not ask about this, but, did your midwife or a breastfeeding consultant check your latch?

thanks for your responses! I am using Lansinoh like crazy yes but they are even bleeding when i use the expresser :(

I Had my latch checked and they thought it looked fine but it's obviously not. Am having a midwife to visit tomorrow to help though.

i have a tommee tippee steriliser - so does anyone know why it does six bottles at once then? Should you just sterilise one bottle at a time then?

I have the avent steriliser and it also serilises 6 at once. Suppose you could be filling 6 bottles at once if you were using formula I think? You can sterilise 6 if you want but you wont manage to use them all...unless your a super, dooper pumper!

if you assemble the bottles right after the cycle so they are completely sealed then they stay sterile and you can keep them for using later, at least thats what my HV told me?

Hello,
I also suffered with excruciatingly painful breastfeeding, I had my latch checked by various midwives / health visitors who all said it was fine. I then had a visit from a guardian angel (breastfeeding councellor) who spotted that DS had tongue tie. We had it snipped and have been pain and crack free ever since. Ask someone to check for you, it's not always obvious to look at and if that is the problem, it's very easily sorted.

aha i didn't realise they stayed sterile after assembly - that makes much more sense!

waaarthur, i just had the midwife out and she checked and he doesn't have tongue tie but thanks for the tip. They gave me some more advice on my latch so really hoping once i am a bit more healed things will improve :)

HedgehogsHogHedges, no she didn't say why. She said that she and the other HV's were quite shocked at the new guidance and that they still feel strange giving this guidance out given that sterilising has always been so important. Think it has somthing to do with the antibodies in breastmilk. I tried to see if there was anything about the new guidance online but can't see anything.

Katiecubs - i know not related to sterilising but have you tried nipple shields? I had cracked/bleeding nipples and used nipple shields and lansinoh they both helped ease the pain and nipples healed really quickly, was then able to ditch shields and fine ever since :)

Harverina - I think you don't need to sterilise as the risk is from bacteria in formula milk, particularly collecting in the teat.

If you bf a good wash will do just as well

Den i had tried them yes and the nipple bit filled up with blood!

They have started to heal though, one side in particular. I got baby onto that side this morning with held from the midwives on my positioing.

Feeling much more optimistic about it all today - thanks for your help all :)

I would persist with latch checking and perhaps get a second opinion on TT if the problem continues, but hopefully you're out of the worst of it now katie.

Congratulations btw