sterilising bottles for 7mo..?

[flipflopson5thavenue]

my DS is 7 mo and I want to start giving him the occasional bottle (so I can spend more than 2 hrs away from him and retain my sanity).

He's been EBF since birth, and I want to continue with breast milk so will express whenever he needs a bottle.

Do I need to sterilise the pump/bottles/teats etc? Seems some people stop at 6 months, but guidelines are to continue til 12 months? But it seems this is for formula, as that it where the bugs are/can be. Is this the case for breast milk?

Thanks

I express milk and always sterilise just because milk goes off quite quickly anyway so I don't want to give it a helping hand. Other things like bowls and spoons, I'm not as stringent with.

No I wouldn't sterilize the bottles - it's not as if you are planning on storing milk in them for very long??

I sterilised until 12 months, can still be bacteria on bottles. Although I didn't worry too much if I needed a bottle in a hurry. My thinking was, ebf 6 month old has a pretty healthy immune system.

I stopped sterilising when DS's started licking the floors. It really just seemed a bit pointless then

After 6 mo you don't need to know. As long as you're making sure they're washed thoroughly in hot soapy water.

At that age they put anything and everything in their mouths!