Help! When can you stop sterilizing ?

[Venusinbigboots]

I have a 29 weeks old, who I am breatfeeding mainly but for drinks and occasional milk I have been using bottles. but after six months I have stopped sterilizing but cleaning in hot water and pouring boiloing water over the teats. When I told the HV She looked at me and sternly said I should continue until DD is 12 months. Also I have given her tap water.
Please any advice........

Am sure I was doing similar at the same stage, certainly during the day. Might then throw everything into the steriliser at night but wouldn't get too stressed if I forgot. Maybe we're both just bad mothers !!!

what a load of of rubbish.

If you were living in deepest darkest Africy or in India or any other place where the water is unfit for consumption then sterilising is totally necessary until 12 months.

A good scrub/rinse with hot water or even better the dishwasher is all that's needed.

Ooh don't tell her about me...I don't even do boiling water on the teats...and I give tap water.

Bad bad mummy.

after 6 months aparently they can have normal tap water to drink...

As for sterilizing, i dont think they even do it in America! As long as you wash everything thoroughly then your ok.

Just as dejags said - its all rubbish having to do it until 12 months

DS born in the US - I was told just to weash everything well, no strilizing at all, even in hospital when I was expressing.

OH thank you so much, I no longer feel like a terrible mother living on the edge and putting DD at risk with my dirty ways!

RTKangamummy started a thread "IMHO and the opinion of microbiologists there is no need to sterilise" which she resurrects every so often to give people confidence not to sterilsie forever and a day!

She does emphaisise the importance of cleanliness though!

I guess experts recommend sterilising because it's unequivocal, if you sterilise according to accepted methods, there are definitely no bacteria whilst 'washing well' is open to a lot of interpretation. I'm sure that by the end of a bowl of my washing up, the water might not be clean enough for a newborn's bottles but presumably a dishwasher cleans at far higher temps so prob does kill bacteria etc (IYSWIM)

I gace up at six months and started putting things in the dishwasher. HV also gave me the 12 month speech but I ignored her and DS has been fine. Tap water definitely OK from six months.

Here in Italy they tell you not to bother, just to wash in hot soapy water. In fact, when I was in hospital with DD at 3 months, they told me just to rinse the teats under a hot tap. Nobody ever gave me any soap. I was a bit but then she was only having the odd bottle and the rest was my antibody-laden bm so I figured she's survive and, guess what, she did!

DD has been fine up till now, with me being clean and not sterile and I'm lucky that she loves drinking water and prefers tap to cool boiled!

Here in France you are told that steralising isn't necessary, just wash the bottles etc. well. Also tap water is fine to use.

I think a good rule of thumb is probably that if they're capable of picking something up and sticking it into their mouths (which my DD seemed to do very waking minute from very early on) then sterilising the things you choose to put in her mouth is probably something of a waste of time!

Bloomin' HVs, must be bored in your local area, point them in the direction of the drunk mummies who don't even own a steriliser, that should keep them busy!

no need to sterilse at all, just use hot water and wash well, as you would anything else, or run through dishwasher as normal. and tap water is fine for your dd.

good, i just stopped sterilising about a month ago. also i just warm up tap water to make the bottles. don't use kettle-boiled water anymore as my kettle needs replacing and has gone all lime-scaley (yuck)

This is really intersting. The HV that runs my monther and baby has also told us that we need to sterilise milk bottles till age of 1 year cos of bacteria in the milk - especially teats. And I was asking her when I can give normal tap water and she said she gave her children cool boiled water till they were 12 years old!!!