steralising

[Lisa78]

DS2 will be 6 months in a few days, so I'm okay to stop steralising his bottles in a week or two, aren't I? Or did I dream that!?

1 year lisa......

if i remember correctly...

Can't you do it in the dishwasher?? - sorry was an age away I actually have no idea!!

I stopped sterilising at 6 months and bunged them all into a dishwasher.

I think its ok if you wash them out really thoroughly. I think I stopped at about 8 months, saying that.

the 'official guidance' is one year....make of that what you will....

Should add that my youngest is 3y2m now, so things have probably changed again.

I think if they are able to pick stuff up and try to devour, crawl around and get mucky, sterilising is a bit pointless, but you have to go with what you feel best with.

my dd is also 6 months and i'm still steralising. Don't steralise spoons, bowls etc.

with ds we steralised bottles until he stopped using them, better safe than sorry with milk/teats and bacteria I think.

bugger bugger bugger!
Thats not right ladies, you are supposed to say, course you can stop faffing with the steraliser Lisa
Haven't got a dishwasher (other than DS1!) so I suppose I ought to carry on for a bit longer...
Bugger bugger bugger

Give your hv a call Lisa, see what they say.

no way Lou, they'll say to carry on till he leaves school, you know what they are like!

Lisa78,
Think it's steralise everything till 6 months and then bottles and cup spouts (if used for milk) until 1 year... sorry matey...

BR

Copied and pasted this for you.

Question: When can I stop sterilising my baby's bottles?
Julia Youll, R.G.N., R.M., R.H.V.: All babies are vulnerable to the germs that cause diarrhoea and vomiting, and so it is best to continue sterilising bottles and teats (and breast pump equipment) until your baby is one year old and has built up more resistance to bacteria generally. The recommended age for starting solids is now six months, and bowls, plates and spoons can generally be cleaned using your usual washing-up method from this age.

Cleaning your baby's bottles and teats in a dishwasher will not always heat them to the right temperature to kill off all known bugs, so it's generally still advisable to sterilise after washing. If you do want to rely on your dishwasher alone, it needs to be run on a hot programme at a minimum temperature of 80 degrees centigrade. The bottles then need be filled with feed straight away as the dishwasher will not leave them in a completely sterile condition.

It may seem pointless to sterilise feeding equipment when the baby is crawling around the floor and putting all sorts of things in his mouth, but the bugs that stick to milk curds can be dangerous. Your baby's immune system will grow stronger into the second year and he'll be able to combat infections more easily.

thanks Lou, guess I will have to give the steraliser that good clean I've been threatening it with then, rather than boxing it up and slinging it in the garage

Don't blame you. Thank goodness it wasn't a year last time I did it!

Lisa I hated sterilising too and for DS2 NEVER sterlised anything, waht a relief, such a faff. Do feel theer is something to be said for the view that we sterilise too much leading to more allergies/asthma etc. HOWEVER having said that I never gave him a bottle, b/fed fully till 9-10 mo and introduced a cup at 7-8mo, fully on cup apart from evening feed by 11mo. Yes, they do say bottles should be done so I suppose this is not much help... but please don't bother with spoons, plates etc. You could try a cup with lid or Doydy one without at 6mo if you wanted which might get round this... hope that's a helpful thought, don't mean to contradict everyone as you are all right about bottles or especially teats.

Lisa I hated sterilising too and for DS2 NEVER sterlised anything, waht a relief, such a faff. Do feel theer is something to be said for the view that we sterilise too much leading to more allergies/asthma etc. HOWEVER having said that I never gave him a bottle, b/fed fully till 9-10 mo and introduced a cup at 7-8mo, fully on cup apart from evening feed by 11mo. Yes, they do say bottles should be done so I suppose this is not much help... but please don't bother with spoons, plates etc. You could try a cup with lid or Doydy one without at 6mo if you wanted which might get round this... hope that's a helpful thought, don't mean to contradict everyone as you are all right about bottles or especially teats.

thanks clary
I've not bothered steralising anything other than his milk bottles, teats etc - shouldn't dream of steralising his little plastic bowls, seems a bit pointless given my rather sloppy approach to cooking!
Oh well, can't be helped....

Okaaay, everyone will hate me for this. Or maybe not. But here goes...

When we took each of our three home after a short stay in the neonatal unit of a big London hospital, we were sent home with a leaflet on bottle hygiene, based on advice from the hospital microbiologist.

The gist was as follows (and this was for small, vulnerable babies):

Wash bottles and teats thoroughly with hot water and detergent. Rinse thoroughly under running hot water. Place bottles to drain on a clean tea towel. Cover with another clean tea towel and leave to dry.

As an afterthought, the leaflet added "If you want to use any of the conventional means of sterilisation, you can."

I offer this only as a comment, not as a suggestion. I confess that I never sterilised after reading that advice (was bfeeding, but used occasional bottles of EBM). We either did as above, or put bottles in the dishwasher (as did several GPs we know). Never had any problems, but I am a rubbish housewife, so they were probably immune to all the bugs anyway.

This may be obvious, but if I'm using ice cube trays for freezing the slop ds has for dinners at the mo, do they have to be sterilised first?

Tbh I wouldnt bother sterilising after 6 months although I dont need to anyway.
I dont sterilise icecube trays either even though I do sometimes freeze food made with milk in it.

You arent meant to sterilise one brand of teats anyway - cant remember sort.

The ones shaped like a nipple.

no ixel you don't need to, I think the main issue is with milk cos its such a good medium for bacterial growth
If you are freezing food, then heating it too, there aren't many bacteria that can survive that anyway, and the ones that can can probably survive steralising too!