philips steam sterilisers and possible discard of EBM! WWYD?

[Zimm]

Hi all,

I've just realised that my steriliser which is the phillips advent one may not have been working properly recently as I noticed the cylces were too short - e.g. less then 8 minutes. Called Phillips and they advised that I need to de-scale which is fine. However I am now worried I need to discard my entire stock of EBM as the breast pump etc may not have been properly sterilised :-(

Have I being over the top? I wash everything in hot soapy water first anyway....

Thanks

Zimm

Strictly speaking you dont need to sterilise for breast milk as its sterile anyway. Many SCBUs in hospitals dont advocate sterilising, just very hot, soapy water so I think your ebm will be fine.

I personally would keep your stock as you've washed in hot soapy water, and the steriliser will have been really hot with the steam even if it wasn't for the full 8 minutes.

Thanks all - i would just never forgive myself if something happened to DD :-( But I figure as the BM went straight in the freezer then any bacteria won't have had a chance to grow anyway?

Anyone out there not sterilise??

i don't sterilise, i just wash the pump/bottles in v hot soapy water. breast milk has antimicrobial properties anyway. don't worry!

You could pasturise if you wanted to be sure (the milkshare site has info on this) though tbh I think it will be fine.

I read about a study that introduced e coli to ebm and left at room temp and after 24/48 hrs there were actually less bacteria than had originally been introduced because of the antibacterial properies of bm...though I'm not sure of the source for this now.

I have also heard that the guidelins say you don't need to sterilise for ebm.

I do but only because it is for milk banks (premies) and they ask you to.