steraliser broke, 7 month baby, how to keep clean without steralising

[SimonTheDad]

Our steraliser just broke. DD is now 7 months and we are thinking she will be fine without steralised bottles from now on. Does anyone have an advice on how best to clean bottles before we feed her.

We generaly clean a batch of bottles once a day and leave them in a special bowl until we use, so should we just swill in hot water before use or is there no need to bother?

There was a thread a few months ago from a microbiologist who said that you don't need to sterilise, as long as you wash the bottles thoroughly in very hot soapy water. Personally I would do as you suggest but swill out in just boiled water before use.

I stopped sterilising at 6 months, thanks to the above mentioned thread. I will not sterilise for my next baby.

Wash the bottles in hot very soapy water, rinse in clean hot water and then leave to air dry on clean kitchen roll. All will be fine. I will go and look for the thread now and try to link!

I would just scrub the bottles (and I mean scrub them all over) with hot soapy water, then rinse with very hot water.

Americans think we must live in caves if we have to sterilise things, I don't think they generally bother. (Am I right, Americans? )

I think I got less bothered about it after 6 months, I didn't bother sterilising spoons and plates and things and he always seemed to be sucking something dubious off the floor anyway.

HTH?

• wash in hot soapy water, scrubbing to remove milk debris
• air dry on kitchen paper
• reassemble once dry

no need for anything else

IIRC you are supposed to sterilise bottles until baby is a year old, because bacteria grow so quickly in milk. I know the microbiologist said differently but I'd be cautious and would definitely rinse in boiling water.

Bottles will be fine if you use a dishwasher and wash at 60+ degrees. Otherwise I'd be tempted to boil them for a few more months. Five minutes in a big pan is enough.

i have decided not to bother with a steriliser for when baby no 1 comes in may....i know some people will be horrified by this, but i work in a hospital and unless you use an 'aseptic technique' in conjunction with sterile equipment, it is pointless to sterilise, as the majority of illness causing bugs are on our hands. unless i have a huge supply of sterile gloves in the house, the bottles will not be sterile when used!
i'll just use very clean hands with very clean bottles (or clean boobs if it works out).

I never sterilised beyond 6 months. Thought this was common practice.

(trishpops, the deal isn't about aseptic technique, bacteria on hands etc, it's bcause formula milk isn't sterile and sometimes contains types of salmonella. Making up feeds fresh every time according to directions on the packet will kill it, but milk debris hanging around in unscrubbed bottles isn't safe)

yes i know. just because i ain't going to sterilise doesn't mean i ain't going to wash them very thoroughly. my thinking is there are probably millions of poeple who mkae up sterilised bottles without washing their hands after stroking dog/going to toilet/changing nappies/taking out bins etc.

Apparently there was research done in the 1950's that concluded that sterilising bottles was pointless. But no one could convince the mums that this was true so they gave up trying and left them all sterilising away.

And Americans don't sterilise.

The important thing is to make sure the bottles are really clean (whether you sterilise or not). And knowing that you aren't going to sterilise makes you very careful about the washing. So not sterilising is a Good Thing!

I'm not sterilising for ds2 (10wks, corrected gestational age 3wks) and I stopped sterilising for ds1 at 2 months when I read RTKangaMummy's fab thread.

Was pondering this the other day - I've decided not to sterilise the parts of my lactaline breast pump - I just wash them in hot soapy water.

I was thinking about breastfeeding though - presumably boobs that have been next to warm milky breast pads for any length of time must be crawling with bacteria?

If someone could link that post by the microbiologist I'd be grateful

here is the thread