Formula in a sippy cup - advice on sterilizing

[fififrog]

Dd is 9mo and I am just moving her day time breastfeeds to formula as she starts nursery in Jan. She has never taken a bottle so I am giving her formula from a sippy cup as she happily drinks water from a cup and is gradually managing a few oz of formula now.

However I'm confused about sterilising - I have always noticed that ff mothers out and about mix up the formula with cold boiled water rather than fresh so ok about that but bottles have a nice lid to keep the teat clean. Not so our prefered sippy cup. I have been sterilising the cup, adding freshly boiled water and then putting it into a clean new freezer bag until needed. Does that sound ok or does anyone have a better way? Indeed do I really need to worry about sterilising at her age given all the filthy rubbish that makes it into her mouth?

Ta!

She's 9 months, is sterilising necessary if you clean it properly?

By nine months I had long stopped sterilising. Given the amount of crap my DC were picking up and shoving in their gobs by that age I felt it was somewhat unnecessary!

Seriously, I wouldn't worry about it.

There's no need to sterilise the cup but the way you're describing making up formula out and about with cold boiled water is not recommended any more. You need to make up formula with water at 70 degrees, then quickly cool it. This is because formula powder itself isn't sterile - you need water at 70 to kill any (potentially really dangerous) bacteria that may be in the powder. Check out the Mumsnet guide to formula feeding if you want more info.

Don't mean to sound bossy or patronising by the way, just wanted to let you know about this because it's changed fairly recently so lots of people, mums with older kids or grand parents, dont know.

I wouldn't worry about sterilising the cup either, but I would still be careful to sterilise the powder by using very hot water.

I would sterilse after washing in hot soapy water every night just to be extra careful but what you suggest sounds fine for daytime use.

Thanks all - I too was confused by people not using hot water so I asked a friend to make sure I wasn't imagining things! And in fact I've just looked at the instructions on our Hipp Organic follow on milk, which says "allow water to cool for 30 mins" (not a max of 30 mins) by which time the water will not only be too cool to not kill anything but perfect bacteria growth temperature! I am fairly sure the instructions are attempting to reduce likelihood of scalding rather than tummy bugs. Maybe advice is different for follow-on milk but I have now convinced myself that if the packet tells you to cool the water before mixing it must be ok. I think the crucial way in which advice has changed is in telling you to only mix the milk powder in as and when you need it rather than refrigerating ready-mixed formula.

Cheers all!

I believe that the theory is that if you boil a full kettle then leave it to cool for thirty minutes, then the water will be 70 degrees, which is the recommended temperature - hot enough to kill most bugs but not so hot that it kills all the nutrients.

The preparation instructions on formula tubs are, IMO, not clear at all about the need to use 70 deg water. But I think this is because the formula companies don't want to spell it out that the powder itself isn't sterile, and can contain some really nasty bugs.

A litre of water boiled and left in the kettle for 30 minutes should be about 70c. Maybe check out the NHS guidelines?

Also, formula companies in many European countries haven't changed their instructions at all, even after the baby deaths in 2005 - so I wouldn't rely on formula companies myself!

Just to say Rita I was surprised by your post but I checked and indeed after 30mins in the kettle the water was still 71 degrees if a litre was boiled. Still, that's hugely wasteful for the 70ml formula she normally drinks! Anyway, have decided to give pre-mixed to nursery, it's only 2 days a week and just 3 months til cow's milk!

Thanks

If you do less water, you just leave it for less time - so a bottle full of boiling water only needs to cool for 5 minutes.

fififrog, want to say pre-mixed is the way to go for nursery. Not sure how much is your few oz. But a carton is 200ml (7oz). So you might just need one carton for a whole day, assuming your 9mo does 3 meals and have milk for snacks. The price difference isn't that much given you have to throw away your tin of formula after 4 weeks. My DD stopped drinking milk at nursery less than a month after she started taking bottles. I'm so glad I didn't fork out for a whole tin because I think in the end I used at most 10 cartons or so.

Hi yes she does indeed drink