sterilising after 6 months, bottles and milk

[ickletickle]

so on the back of my formula tin it says you dont need to sterilise bottles after 6 months. a book i have says you can use tap water after 6 months too.

anyone know what is generally recommended?

With both my children I didn't sterilise after 6 months. They are both fine (10 & 4) Some mums are strict with this- I wasn't. The bottles were washed perfectly clean and rinsed with boiling water. I put my 2 on cow's milk after 10 months too. It depends what your comfortable with.

To be honest, I've stopped sterilising gradually after 6 months or so. I did do it more or less regularly around 6 months (although sometimes forgot!) but now that he's 8 & a half months I've stopped. I think hot water & lots of soap is fine (and obviously putting bottles in the dishwasher, if you have one- we don't- would be fine too). I'm not sure what the 'official' guidelines are though?

I didn't sterlise at all with my last two, with no problems. In fact they don't have any allergies and dd1 has loads.

MagNaCarta- you didn't sterilise at all, ever? that's very interesting. I've heard from some people that actually that can work well, and that the need for sterilising is a bit of a myth. But I did do it (when I gave bottles) just to be on the safe side.

In the US and Australia they don't sterilise at all.

You don't need to sterilise at all. You either wash in hot soapy water or sling in the dishwasher. Sterilising can be counter-productive in some ways ie children need to be somewhat exposed to germs and a bit misleading in others ie as soon as you touch the bottle it's not sterile anymore anyway!

So, yes, after 6 months it's definitely safe.

On a visit to a local supermarket one day, my 1 year old son was screaming ab dabs.I could't find his dummy so bought his usual type. At the till I opened it just after it was swiped and put it in Ds mouth.The young cashier said to me ' You shouldn't do that they have to be sterilised first'. My response was not a happy one! (Public opinion eh).

thanks guys (overwhelmed by strange feeling of liberation..) what about the tap water thing

See the tap water thing is an odd one. The reason it needs to be boiling is not to 'sterilise' the water but to ensure that it is hot enough to kill off any potentially harmful bacteria in the milk (has to be over 70 degrees I think). So I guess tap water wouldn't do that. But, I have to say, we've ignored this and been using tap water. I guess to make a decision though, it's best to know why the recommendation exists.

Honestly no, I didn't. I had dd2 shortly after a friend of mine had her dd in the States, when she told me that they don't in the US I decided to give it a go. To be fair everything went in the dishwasher and I was bf for the first few months. Even then we used to give a bottle of ebm, so dd2 and ds had bottles from early on.

I never sterelised. You need to make formula with very hot water, but water to just drink can be tap water from 6 months.