Expressing -I've fucked up haven't I?

[SpaceDinosaur]

Long story. Sorry.
Baby is 6 1/2 weeks
Brought 2 new bottles to express into/feed from which arrived yesterday.
Washed out with hot water and put in steriliser with 2 dummies (water, microwave steriliser)
Turned on microwave
Ping
Took dummy for the night. She had it for about 15 min. (Relevant?)

This morning I got up early after the night from hell, expressed a full 5oz into one of the new bottles. Transferred into milk bag and put into fridge.

2 hrs later I have noticed that the microwave was set to "medium" not "full" power. This means that the dummy that I gave her yesterday and the bottle that I expressed into this morning were not properly sterilised because I didn't follow the instructions properly.

Do I now need to dump the expressed feed? I'm so so tired.

[billabye]

No, I doubt it makes any difference. And many people don't sterilise things for use with breast milk as long as it gets washed in hot soapy water. I'm BFing a 9 week old and sterilise every couple of uses but not each time. I think you'll be fine

[SybilsLeaves]

I wouldn't - I'd think medium was fine as you'd washed out with hot water, as a one off. Speaking as someone who wept for an hour when a bottle of expressed milk was accidentally thrown away, I would say don't dump; it's like liquid gold!

[DianaMemorialJam]

Ds2 is 8 weeks. The other day I washed some bottles, and being a sieve brain I used one before sterilising it. He lived! No danger, keep the bottle. And as a pp said its liquid gold! Congratulations on your new baby op

[MyGodLikeChin]

You've washed it and it's had a blast in the microwave-even if only medium.
Just think when was the last time you sterilised or microwaved your boobs?
I EBF and my boobs never saw a microwave and in the early days hot soapy water for that matter.
Yes I get factory/store contamination but you did wash and microwave so I wouldn't worry.

[Cakescakescakes]

Totally fine.

[AppleMagic]

It's fine. I'm in the US where expressing is a big deal (as mums go back to work so quickly) and people sterilise at most once a day. Even when my son was in the NICU they just told me to wash everything in hot soapy water.

[JellyWitch]

You don't need to sterilise for breastmilk - hot soapy water is just fine.

[1bighappyfamily]

As far as I remember (youngest DD is now 3 and I BF for a year), you want to sterilise mainly because gone off milk can cause nasty bugs, so the fact that you did sterilise at all, and the fact that they'd never had milk in them means you have NOTHING to worry about.

You'll do far worse in the coming months and years she says massively patronisingly

But honestly, you're fine. And congratulations on your baby

[1bighappyfamily]

Apple did you know that in (I think) Canada, they don't worry about sterilising at all and just put things in the dishwasher? Once she passed six months, DD2's bottles didn't get sterilised.....just dishwashed.

[SpaceDinosaur]

Thank you everyone. Im just so emotional and tired and clearly stupid at the moment. I'm struggling to trust my judgement and logic.

Throwing that milk away would have been traumatic if I'd had to.

[AGBforever]

Whoever came up with the expression - don't cry over spilt milk - never expressed that liquid gold. You're fine, give that lovely stuff to your bairn without a worry x

[Slumberparty]

My DD is 11 weeks old and I sterilise bottles and pumps once a week. The rest of the time I wash well in hot soapy water . She's ok so far...!