Sterilising until you stop using formula?

[WaftyCrank]

Or stopping at 12 months?

DS is still on formula at 14 months and I was under the impression that I should sterilise bottles until he stopped the formula. However friends seemed shocked that I was still sterilising and said I should have stopped at 12 months.

Is that right? Am I okay to stop? My other 2 DC stopped formula at 12 months so I've not had this before.

No dishwasher but I wash them in hot soapy water and air dry them. He still has 3 a day and they're washed each night so no festering milk.

Do you think they'd be okay to leave now and just wash?

Of course they are OK not sterilsed! I stopped sterilizing once DDs started sucking their own toes. Hot soapy water with a rinse is fine

In many other countries there is no instruction to sterilise at all. The important thing is to use water that's hot enough to kill anything nasty lurking in the formula itself.

Ah good, thank you. I shall save myself some bother and put the steriliser away until DC4 is here in November.

He's likely to be on formula until 2 so I was dreading having to sterilise 2 lots of different bottles.

Sterilisers are a British phenomenon. Dishwasher clean is fine. My hubby just hanwashes them & sterilises with boiling water and our daughter is only 10 days old!

The issue isn't sterilising, it's poor washing up! Too many people give bottles a general swell round, leaving traces of formula for things to fester and grow in. As others have said, provided the bottles are properly clean, you are fine.