Medela Swing users - a question from a pumper with L-plates!

[IAteRosemaryConleyForBreakfast]

My shiny new eBay Swing arrived this morning and I've had great fun playing with it ( what has my life come to?).

I have read in the instructions that it should be boiled for 3 minutes once a day. What a faff!

I'm not a mega-scrupulous steriliser, so I tend to use Milton to clean highchair etc and so I just chuck toys/breastpump bits/teethers etc in a big pail of Milton solution once in a while. Has anyone else used Milton to sterilise their Medela kit, and if so will I wreck it?

(Generally paranoid as I have an uncanny ability to damage most things during the cleaning process - you should have seen DS's plastic bib selection after they came out of the hot tumble dryer last week - looked like modern art of some description, but certainly no use for original purpose any more )

I have to admit I've never sterilised my swing, I just wash it with hot water and washing up liquid

Good, I was hoping someone would turn up and say that [slothful]

I did use milton and it didn't do any harm ( though you do have to make sure you don't leave it in too long). I just use hot soapy water and air dry it now DS2 is a bit older.

I did it once in the pan as suggested then bought some microwave sterilise bags - seemed to satisfy both the laziness and worrying in me perfectly as dead easy! Amazing pump though isn't it? I find it as good as the hospital ones I was using.

PS as I've suffered at the hands of Rosemary, love the name!

I have never ever sterilised a breastpump. as long as you wash it in nice hot soapy water it'll be absolutely fine.
a recent study on breastmilk showed that when it was left out at room temp after sdeveral hours there were less bacteria in it than there was to start with!!!!
honestly, breastmilk is anti-bacterial. and hot washing will be more than you need.

phew, glad to hear that, thought I was going to end up harming my DD by being the only person not to sterilise

I seem to remember that theres something on the Medela pumps (poss the valve) that benefits from boiling. Think I may have got this from the pump troubleshooting on [www.pumpandwork.com Pump and Work]