Novice query re bottle feeding!

[Heylittlelady]

Does a bottle sterilised in a microwave steriliser in the morning, with the teat and lid put on straight away, stay sterile until, say, the afternoon?

Thanks in advance

no. as soon as the steriliser is open it is no longer sterile.

however, no bottle is ever 100% sterile once it has contact with air.

i think anyway!

we used to sterilise like you are describing and it was fine for ds but it's up to you what you do.

Thanks DA

I see what you mean, that the bottles are only sterile if used straight after sterilising.

How do others get round this sterilising issue if you were going out for the day for example?

when i was going out for the day when DS1 was a baby, i used to put the bottles in a clean sandwich bag so it stopped the dust and other bits getting onto the bottle.

once the steriliser is open, its no longer sterile but you can keep it clean.

Bump

Thanks fledtoscotland!

Good idea to keep it clean/dust free.

Anyone else?

We have a tommee tippee mcrowave steriliser box that is a bit like a small tupperware tub. I usually take the bottles out of the cold water steriliser and put them in there to keep them clean in ds's changing bag until we need them. When he was younger I used to just use the microwave tub to zap them just before I used them if we were at someones house for eg.

I think as lond as you've sterilised them all you can do is try your best to keep them clean.

If you were going to cold water sterilise them I recommend the milton liquid.

It works in 15 mins, the bottle is sterile till you take it out of the water and you only have to change the solution every 24hrs, plus you don't have to rinse the milton off like you do with some others.

heylittlelady - i've got a mothercare travel steriliser somewhere from when DS1 was a baby.

www.mothercare.com/gp/product/B000TUR0O0/sr=1-31/qid=1235255117/ref=sr_1_31/275-0271531-6 138123?ie=UTF8&m=A2LBKNDJ2KZUGQ&n=42864041&mcb=core

email me if you are interested kab0901 @ yahoo . co . uk.

Thanks Dalrymps & fledtoscotland

FTS thanks for the tip re travel steriliser!

What does everyone do though who bottle feeds a young baby, when they are (for eg) in a city all day, or a park, or on a picnic (ie there is no microwave for quick sterilisation?)

Then I would just use the bottle I had in the tub that had been kept clean. When ds was younger we used to take a small flask of boiling water with us everywhere and a formula powder dispenser pot which held 3 feeds measured out and then we could make it up in the spot. I suppose if I were doing this I might use some of the water to rinse the teat of the bottle just to make sure it was nice and clean before making the feed up?

Thats all I can think of really unless you bought those disposable pre sterilised bottles you can get but that might work out wexpensive longterm.

You can get presterilised bottles, called steribottles, in most big supermarkets, boots, mothercare, babies'r'us etc.

I used to use those and premade cartons when out and about.

Heylittlelady You do know you don't need to sterilise at all don't you?

You need to make sure that the bottle and teat are very very clean, in particular of milk residue, and you need to make sure that the formula is added to high temp water, that's all.

snowlight, I thought the non-sterilising was just for expressed breastmilk?

nope. You just have to make sure your equipment is very clean.

I used UHT formula when out and about because that was already sterile.

there you go.....all those months of unnecessary sterilising and buying steribottles when DS1 was little.

Well it's reassuring to use sterile bottles.

I for one would feed DS from an unsterilised bottle if my DH had washed it up

wouldn't! - doh

Thanks, all!

Super advice.

One more query - if using powder formula, can you:

• make up the bottles of cooled boiled water in the morning and put them in the fridge for the powder to be added later in the day?

heylittlelady - the current advice is that the powder must hit the water when the water is 70 degrees or more so cooled boiled water wouldnt kill the potential bacteria. powder isnt sterile.

With DS1 i used to make up the bottles, add the powder to hot water, then allow it to cool and store it in the fridge. would make 3 at a time.

Thanks again fledtoscotland!

I am getting the hang of all this (slowly!)