Sterilising bottles

[Growler463]

Hi, I am a new dad and am struggling to understand the whole sterilising bottles thing.... We have bought a microwave steriliser and am happy with how that works etc. I also know that the current guidelines suggest making up formula as needed. So how long does a bottle stay sterile for once done/how can I keep the bottles sterile once sterilised? My understanding is that pretty much as soon as I take the lid off the steriliser the bottles are no longer sterile. If I take one out to make up then by the time I need to make another one then even with the lid back on the others won't be sterile. Therefore what is the point of sterilising 5 bottles at a time? It really does seem pointless sterilising one bottle at a time especially each time she needs a feed in the middle of the night. We might as well not go to sleep at all!!

Am I being too paranoid about this? I can't find anything about it anywhere.

Thanks,

Chris

You can get a bit over-obsessive about sterilising imo. Our health visitor actually told us not to bother, that just washing bottles up in hot, soapy water is fine. So we do that, and just do a round of sterilising once a day.

We also make up bottles of formula in advance and store them in the fridge (for up to 12 hours). I have lots of friends who do this too. Our dd is 3 months old and so far has been the picture of health.

assemble the bottles empty once they are sterilised and they are ok for 24 hours.

Guidelines state that you can mix feeds with 70 degree water in sterilised bottles and store in the back of the fridge for up to 24 hours when making each feed from scratch is not practicable.

You can then heat using a jug of hot water or a bottle warmer. We had a mini fridge and a warmer in the bedroom

How old is your baby?

I microwaved all four, used 70°+ water and made all four bottles up putting them in the fridge (guidelines state they can be refridgerated for 24hrs).

Dd was fed every three hourly in the daytime do I would take her bottle out of the fridge an hour before her feed to get to room.temp. She has all her milk.at room temp.

I feel really naughty, but have given up sterlising bottles - I stopped when DD was about 3/4 months. There doesn't seem much point when DD (6 months) licks ANYTHING she comes across. I had to stop her trying to lick the windows the other day on the bus . A good scrub of the bottles with hot soapy water should work as well as another poster said.

Me and DH went down with pretty bad colds the other week. DD has been the picture of health - immune system seems to be in excellent working order.