When did you stop sterilising bottles ?

[bishboschone]

My dh wants us to stop but I'm not sure as ds was prem and has been very poorly . He is 10 months ( really 8 ) and I don't sterilise any cutlery or plates and he drinks tap water out of a beaker ( unsterilised ) .tia

i stopped with dd at 1 yo, with ds i didn't ever steralise anything, but neither of my babies were prem. I think if he's having un-steralised crockery as long as you wash bottles porperly there will be no problems stopping steralising.

DS I'd one tomorrow and I think I might stop now, am quite indecisive though! Since your DC was prem, I would probably keep going but no real reason why!

If you're FF I would sterilise until you move to cows milk. Bottles are tricky little buggers.

Of course if your dishwasher does a really hot cycle that would probably be as effective as long as you washed them thoroughly first.

I don't have a dishwasher but dh is very good at washing them up. Hhmm

I stopped at 6 months. When I was giving them food I stopped, they constantly had their hands in their mouths, trying different tastes, when they started to crawl and "made friends" with the dog I really couldn't see the point

I don't have a dishwasher either, hot soapy water and a good bottle brush.

I stopped about 5 months, dd was crawling so everything when into her mouth anyway

The thing is, traces of formula are like a bloody petri dish for bugs. It's not to do with the fact that they are crawling and eating mud exactly, but that there is a nice environment for yucky things to multiply. So either incredibly good washing (especially teats), or sterilise until you stop using bottles. A very good hot wash with a decent bottle cleaner is probably as good as home sterilising TBH. My friend, who is a dentist, laughs at what we consider 'sterilising' at home - she says it's nothing of the sort really, being used to clinical standards of sterilising!