When to stop sterilising bottles?

[badfurday]

As per title really? Can't seem to find any guidelines. My daughter is now 10 months. Is it ok to stop?! Advice/experience welcomed!

Never, afaik. Mostly because milk & temp is optimum breeding ground for bacteria & shape means they're very difficult to clean fully. I think!

I always sterilised bottles that had milk made from formula powder regardless of age because of the bacteria risk.

With bottles made with ordinary cows milk, a wash in hot soapy water is fine. I would occasionally soak those in scalding water.

My dds didn't have formula beyond 16mo as I weaned them onto ordinary milk from about 14mo. I've not had problems from not using the steriliser after that point.

HTH

I stopped at 7 months, when she started crawling and was putting all sorts in her mouth!!

Depends what's in them. Breastmilk or ready made formula I am happy to wash or pop in the dishwasher.

Powdered formula - sterilised every time. Too big a risk for something as quick as sterilising.

With my PFB I sterilised scrupulously well over 12mo, until she was off the formula.

With my DC2 I think I forgot one day around 3mo, realised he was fine, and then stopped.*

(*disclaimer: not a medical opinion. I think the recommendation is either 6mo or 12mo)

Guidance is 6 months - at the same time as you can start to wean and give tap water. On the nhs site. I carried on longer though and still sterilised now and then to make sure I killed off any bacteria. But not after every use.

If using cows milk, ready made formula or expressed breast milk you can stop sterilising at 6 months.

If you are using powdered formula you must steralise no matter how old the baby/child is. This is because powdered formula contains so many nasties (and must be made using off the boil water) and can potentially make your baby very very ill.

Stopped sterilising at one when we switched to cows milk, always sterilised for formula (powder and cartons) and emb. Milk is very different to stuff on the floor from crawling.

Surely when you put the boiling water onto the formula powder that sterilises the powder? The made up milk can't be that harmful otherwise all babies would permanent have upset tummies?

I still sterilise now and dd3 and 4 are 12m and 2

They just don't feel clean unless they've been 'done' !

Although the HV said its fine to stop once they are 6m

Stopped when they were mobile/crawling as did not make sense after that. Had five kids who were both breast and formula fed. No issues. Always made sure I cleaned and rinsed the tests well.

I think the same mrsmugoo I use fresh boiled water so the powder is exposed to 90oC for maybe a minute or so? It would kill the vast majority of bacteria and spore formers aren't an issue as it's too quick from the heat exposure to rapid cool to consumption.

I'd be interested to know why I'm wrong (genuinely, not being funny).

I think at the point they start putting every bloody thing in their mouths in the time to stop bothering sterilising bottles. So for me that was about 4 months!! They went in the dishwasher, then that was that.

Once they're eating solids I really don't think there's any need. I mean, you're not feeding them sterilised food, are you? Are you sterilising their spoons, plates, cups, dummies, toys etc etc.... what about the sand/soil they put in their mouths? The cat's tail... yuck!!!

In the USA, sterilisation is no longer considered necessary because of modern water standards (which the UK shares). So probably not necessary but we sterilised until 6 months anyway.

You aren't sterilising the water, you're sterilising the germs that breed in the milk that may be left on the bottle.

Even if you make the milk up with boiling water, if it had no bacteria in it, you'd be able to use that bottle all day, rather than just the recommended two hours.

In the US most parents clean the bottles in their dishwashers. US dishwashers run at hotter temperatures than EU ones (due to environmental legislation). Sterilising is still recommended in the UK.

Agreed Anything but by putting boiling hot water in a bottle you're lowering the bacterial load in the water, the bottle surface and in the milk powder.
The tiny amount of bacteria left (because nothing over the counter will kill everything - e.g. bleach is advertised as killing 99.9% of bacteria) will multiply rapidly in nice warm nutrient rich milk, hence the time limit.
But if it's clean bottle, boiling water, cooled quickly and consumed ASAP it will contain a very low bacterial load.

I think. Oh I need to go back to work. Maternity leave is frying my brain.

LastIneDancing and then washed immediately so milk doesn't fester ...

Suppose it also depends on bottles you are using. I always felt glass ones way more hygienic. The plastic ones, especially ones sterilised a few times were a bit yucky. Also I made the bottles up as I went along so they were fresh.

When weighing up risk you need to look at the chances of something happening, the severity of the outcome and the effects of having to do whatever it is. With sterilising the chances of something happening are tiny, in the vast majority of cases (and I'm talking overwhelming here) just washing will be fine. However, the severity of the outcome if something does go wrong is devastating and the hassle of sterilising isn't huge so i sterilised until on ds was 1 and on cows milk. I had a microwave steriliser than you just shoved bottles in and microwaved for 4 minutes- hardy strenuous.

Thanks for all the replies. I think I'll carry on until she is 1 then stop. As people have said, I don't sterilise her spoon and food bowl and she's fine.
I think I'd just feel so awful if she got ill because I stopped sterilising.
We use the perfect prep machine each bottle is made up fresh.