Sterilising bottles - when to stop?

[wendyh]

Hi there,

I stopped sterilising bottles of my 8 month old DD yesterday and today she has a temperature and a runny bum. Could be totally unconnected of course.

When did you stop sterilising?

xx

I stopped sterilising DD's (now 5 months old)bottles about a month ago when I saw (and failed to stop in time) the dog give her hand a random lick and then she jambed her fingers back in her mouth! - I figured that the sterilising was not going to make any difference at that point. Temp and runny bum could well just be coincidence.

from my understanding it is recommended that bottles should be sterilised until baby is 1 year old because milk is a breeding ground for some very nasty bacteria but no need to sterilise other feeding equipment.

"Look here www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/articles/article.aspx?articleId=641&sectionId=145

i stopped at 6 months. you have to follow normal food hygiene rules after that. think its a coincidence

I never really sterilised anything , I bf so no bottles really the few I did use went in the dishwasher and were scrubbed. had microwave steriliser but always ended up leaving them in too long so gave up.
I washed dummies and cups in v.hot water, because by the time they used them they were eating anything and everything so seemed pointless.
I'm not saying it's the right thing to do, and I'm not saying I didn't clean bottls etc but they weren't sterile.

We stopped at 9 months, but we put the bottles in the dishwasher, which is hotter than hand washing. So far no upset tummy.