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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

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Original poster

when did you really stop sterilising?!

48 replies

littleweed · 12/08/2004 14:34

My DS is 10 months and I still sterilise all his bottles and use cooled boiled water. out of all my frinds I'm the only one still doing this - they all stopped aorund 6 months and belong to the 'well everything is going in their mouth ' school of thought. Am i being too anal about this?!

OP posts:

vict17 · 12/08/2004 14:40

I think you're meant to sterilise bottles until they are a year old

catgirl · 12/08/2004 14:42

I stopped sterilising around the 10 month mark, but only if bottles were going in the dishwasher, if they weren't then I sterilised. It made sense to us! Still used cooled boiled water until over a year, then switched to full fat milk anyway. Hope that makes sense!

Pagan · 12/08/2004 14:42

The tumbleweed shall roll past me on this one but I have never used a steriliser. I always boiled stuff initially and then just poured boiling water over stuff after about3/4 months. alternatively I'd put a little water in a bowl in the microwave and zap stuff for 5 mins.

After about 5/6 months everything got cleaned at the tap with normal water and I put my DD on full fat cows milk at 9.5 months.

Touch wood - she is thriving and everyone comments on how healthy she looks.

wellsie · 12/08/2004 14:42

littleweed, DS is 7mths and I'm still sterilising. HV said I will need to until he is a year. All my friends are still sterilising and will continue to, however I know where your friends are coming from, DS is crawling, sucks his thumb, touches the dog, etc. But I figure I will limit the germs he can have on the bottles.

mit · 12/08/2004 14:43

I personally stopped at 6 months too....sorry! I belong to the 'need to build antibodies', 'on the floor and eating dirt anyway' crowd. I do still give her cooled boiled water to drink and will probably carry on with this until she is one - though I don't know why!
I do run all her cups/bowls etc. through the hottest wash in the dishwasher which I think pretty much sterlises them....
hth, mit x

clairabelle · 12/08/2004 14:44

My Hv told me 6 months that was 4 years ago with dd. I sterilised until 10 months with her, with ds I stopped at 7months as I don't make up my bottles in advance. I just make them up when he wants them. I do put them in the dishwasher though. It's supposed to be the storing the milk that's an issue if you're not sterilising. Does that make sense?

Titania · 12/08/2004 14:46

my hv told me last week that you can stop at 6 months. i think i stopped when they were crawling though...eating dirt out of plant pots etc...around 8-9 months.

KateandtheGirls · 12/08/2004 14:51

In the US (where they tend to be very anal with regards to hygiene and safety), no-one sterilises at all. A dishwasher or hot soapy water is sufficient, for all ages.

hoxtonchick · 12/08/2004 14:57

6 months. If not a bit before, though things did go through the dishwasher. And we made bottles up with tap water from about 7 months....

Piffleoffagus · 12/08/2004 14:58

I breastfed but used occasional bottle from 10 mths and never sterilised anythign, but had I been totally bottle feeding due to the bacteria in milk I would have sterilised to a year I think.

Kayleigh · 12/08/2004 15:04

With ds1 I sterilised till about 8 months, being an overprotective first time mum. With ds2 i stopped the day he was 6 months old. After that used the dishwasher so figured they were getting a good enough clean.

frogs · 12/08/2004 15:40

Never did sterilise, just bunged it all the in dishwasher. That's what all my friends who are GPs did and I figured if it was good enough for them...

acnebride · 12/08/2004 15:44

I always said I would stop at 6 months but ds is just over 7 and I still am. Just a bit nervous about the quality of my own washing up - no dishwasher, plus we had no hot water for a week recently. But I'm going away this weekend and have decided not to take the steriliser with me - cold turkey! Will still use boiled water until a year, or Evian if caught short.

xoz · 12/08/2004 15:57

With dd1 I stopped at about 4 months when I found her rolling around the floor sucking on DH's shoe which he had just been wearing out in the garden!!! dd2 never had anything that needed sterilising. Wouldn't take a dummy or a bottle.

mamerin · 12/08/2004 16:00

would check with the Evian if I were you. have read somewher that bottled mineral water has too many minerals and salts in it. Guess that's why you shouldn't boil the water more than once for babies as well. don't mean to scare you but i'd check that one out.

gingernut · 12/08/2004 16:04

I thought you were supposed to sterilise bottles because milk is such a good medium for growing the bacteria that can cause gastroenteritis. Most other things that they put in their mouths aren't so bacteria-friendly! I sterilised until I stopped using formula for ds, although putting bottles through a dishwasher is supposed to be as good.

MummyToSteven · 12/08/2004 17:21

I think that you can stop sterilising everything except bottles for milk at 6 months, bottles for milk at a year. Mamerin - pretty sure that evian is low sodium and is one of the best mineral waters to use for baby bottles - apparently in france they even have signs on the side saying it can be used for "biberon" baby bottles

Grizzly · 12/08/2004 21:44

I started giving tap water to drink at 6 months and only sterilise bottles for milk at the moment - ds is 11 months old. I intend to switch from formula to cows milk shortly and will stop sterilising then. Around that time I will try and get him off bottles and into beakers - at the moment he still has a bottle at bedtime and on waking, but drinks from a cup at other times.
Having said that, he often chews shoes. If I'm wearing flip flops he has been known to take them off my feet and chew them - how disgusting is that?

nutcracker · 12/08/2004 21:45

I sterilised all bottles for 12 mths with all mine.

Didn't realise i could stop sooner.
I used to scald dishes and spoons with boiling water.

janeybops · 12/08/2004 22:29

Stopped at 6 months, when i found him eating the fluff off of the hoover..... Also been giving him tap water since then too. Seems to be thriving on it so must be OK. Did check with my HV and she said as long as you wash bottles etc in hot soapy water it would be OK.

meanmum · 12/08/2004 22:38

4 months for ds1 and 0 days for dd2. Laziness is my reason but obviously to the outside world I justify it by saying dirt in by other means a bit more won't hurt. Whenever they are sick though I always go back to sterilising. In terms of sterilising/boiling the water ds1 was about 4/5 months and dd2 was 1 day (Believe it or not I forgot to). I boil the water now for dd2 but if I forget and don't have any bottles made up she gets it from the filter jug.

hercules · 12/08/2004 22:42

Blimey meanmum. Did you really never sterilise at all for second child? Did you dishwash them instead?

frogs · 12/08/2004 22:52

I was sent home from SCBU each time (babies in for observation, long story) with a written instruction sheet from the hospital microbiology department on how to clean bottles.

Essentially, they recommended washing them thoroughly in hot soapy water and leaving to dry on a clean teatowel covered by another teatowel. Dishwasher was also acceptable on a hot programme.

As an afterthought they added: "If you wish to use a conventional method of sterilising, you can."

KateandtheGirls · 12/08/2004 22:56

My eldest was in the neonatal intensive care unit (she was premature), and nope, nothing was sterilised for her.

Honestly people - you don't have to sterilise!!!

hercules · 12/08/2004 22:58

What they dont tell us eh!

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