Advice re sterilisation when topping up - avent steam steriliser

[Wildpoppy]

Hi, our baby has lost a lot of weight (she is 2 weeks old and lost 20% of birth weight though is slowly gaining weight now) and on advice of pediatrician we are having to top up her breast milk with expressed breast milk and formule when I can;t express enough- having not prepared for this I am confused re sterilisation. We have been given an avent steam steriliser - how long after using it does the stuff in it remain sterile? Also I have to screw the bottles togetehr by hand - doesn't this make them unsterile or if I don't touch inside of bottle or the teat is it okay? And what about making up botles to take out the house - how long are they okay for when I;ve done this? tbh I don't understand how to use bottles at all really - I hadn't even looked it up so sure was I we would exclusively breastfeed.

as soon as you open the steriliser or touch anything it is technically unsterile. but as long as you're using it straight away it doesn't really matter.
it will stay sterile as long as it's inside with the lid shut

have you seen a breastfeeding counsellor? you might want things like your latch checked to make sure baby is transferring milk effectively otherwise you will have trouble ending the cycle of needing top-ups.

The avert digital steamer says bottles are sterile for 6 hours. The sterilizer comes with tongs to use to put the bottle together but this is hard in my experience so I wash my hands thoroughly and use an alcohol gel and put bottle together without touching the inside of bottle/teat. When out I put together a newly sterilizer bottle and then use that when out. Have a good read of the sterilizer instructions and it will tell you how long sterile for.

Oh and make sure your baby is checked for tongue tie.

The 6 hours is in the sterilizer as thisisyesterday said

Thank you. No toungue tie and we're seeing breastfeeding counsellors too - but she's not been getting enough even when latch good - though she is getting more than she was. We were both a bit poorly in hospital for five days post birth so we had a slow start but she's making up for it now - but is still hungry after feeds though milk is coming in faster every day and I am expressing too (but only ever get about 25ml per expressing session).

Was given the steriliser from a friend but didn't come with instructions.

You can put a bottle in an Avent coolbag and it will be OK for 4 hours. If you are out for longer, I would take a sterilised bottle and a carton of ready made for a really little one. When they get older you can get away with adding powder to pre boiled water.

If you are going to someone's house or on holiday you can use the Lindham microwave steriliser bags. You can use them for 1 bottle up to 20 times.

Try the Philips website for the instruction manual in PDF www.philips.co.uk/c/avent-baby-preparing-for-feeding/scf276_01/prd/;jsessionid=CC923B8721D4D60D8C48422D8FAFE86E.app102-drp3?t=support

Wildpoppy - that 25ml is about an http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/milkcalc.html hours worth of milk for your DD and bearing in mind even though pumping is not a good way to judge supply that is really good going.

Pumping is a skill - it is not instinctive for your body to make milk for a bit of plastic, it doesn't love that bit of plastic or want to be close to it (well I don't love my pump - it's good but not quite lovable ).

There is a good pamphlet here which should answer your questions re. making up formula/storing it/etc.

We use a microwave steriliser and my understanding is that the stuff inside is sterile until you open it, but if I leave it unopened for a while I just rerun the microwave. The assembled bottles are then considered sterile for 24 hours if kept in the fridge. When you unload it you just need not to touch the bits that come into contact with milk. We use cartons and I think they are great.

I too got very confused with sterlising and handling bottles and as a biochemist I could not understand the logic of some of it as you describe. HV said that it was only necessary to wash bottles in hot soapy water. (From 4 months I stopped sterilising probably could have before but was convinced by friend who was also not sterilising) It reduced a lot of hassle but understand you may want to continue.

I assemble the bottles with clean hands (hot soapy water - never alcahol gel). The most important thing is to make sure that the bottle is well cleaned with hot soapy water to remove any milk residue before sterilisation. No food - no bug growth.

When I used the steriliser I washed and sterilised immediately after expression and opened steriliser when next expressing (twice per 24h).

As long as your hands are as clean as your boobs and there is nothing in the empty bottle for a bug to grow on. Once the milk is in the bottle obviously everything is different and the max time in a cold fridge I believe is 48h.

I hope this helps.

I have this steriliser - as others have said using cleans hands is all that is needed - it's about killing the bugs that are already there not giving the baby a totally sterile teat from suck from as this is impossible!

thank you - that is all really helpful.