When is OK to stop sterilising?

[Janos]

My DS is 6 months old and has just started weaning - he's still taking quite a bit from bottles. My question - is it safe to stop sterilising now and just clean stuff in hot soapy water? He's at the age where he is putting a lot of non-sterilised stuff in his mouth.

I have always stopped when they are about this age. They all started crawling at about 6 months and I diddn't see the point of it after that.

I was given mixed advice about this, but continued to sterilise until ds was 12 months as he had a couple of tummy bugs when he first started at nursery. I think the reason for doing it, even if they are putting other non-sterilised stuff in their mouths is because milk can easily get trapped in bottle teats and bacteria forms quickly on milk.

i sterelised until ds was about 10mths ish but i do agree about the crawling etc as ds used to put everything in his mouth from 5mths. but it is more to do with bacteria in thge bottles from milk more than anything else

D'you know what, ds3 is 8 months and I think I'll stop now. Can't remember when I stopped with ds1 and ds2 but it must have been before 10 months because I got them off bottles and onto cups by 10-11 months.

Hurrah! I can get rid of my steriliser!!

I'd stop if I were you. Also, I never, ever sterilised spoons or bowls. Only bottles.

i was told to sterilies till he was one year old.
however when they start crawling, their hands go on the floor etc and all sorts of filthy guck ends up inside them.
i sterilised bottles for him as long as he had formula, simply as it was so easy and part of the routine. never sterilised anything else.
for ds2 and dd i have never sterilised anything. but then the were exclusively breastfed till weaned. and didnt take a bottle till eight months. and i had a dishwasher by then. figured that was hot enough!

i sterilise in a way where i just pour boiling water over bottles inside and all teats covers etc in bowl sice babies were born ,,,,my mother told me to do this and never had problem with both childs but stopped doing this at age 12 month

i carried on till dd was 12 mth.

Thanks everyone for your advice - it's so hard to know what to do but you've helped to clarify things for me.

I'll keep sterilising his bottles because of the bacteria issue but not his bowls/spoons etc.

My sil works in a hospital in west australia with the new borns and they no longer sterilise bottles as they say modern detergents are strong enough to kill bacteria, you just need to rinse with water after washing them. They advise mums not to sterilise either. Not sure how I feel about not sterilising bottles for a new born but with this info I stopped sterilising at 6mths.

Great thread Janos. I too have been trying to decide this and the thread has been really helpful. THink I will sterilise until 6 months (bottles not bowls adn spoons), then try out not sterilising after that. I make my bottles up from pre-boiled water anyway, and the HV said there is likely to be less bacteria growing as it's the milk sitting that causes the problems.

Good luck with the weaning!

stopped steam sterilising about 7 mths.
Thereafter, cold water and milton tablets if milk has been pooling in bottle more than a couple of hours (bottle left whole night in baby's room usually.

PotPourri, I remember you from the Due in Dec thread - hope everything is going well for you! The weaning is progressing, but very messily

My method of sterelising after six months is just washing the bottles in boiled water and mixing a pinch of salt in it. Salt helps cleaning the greesy teats and also kills germs.

And when do you need to stop boiling the water for feeds, and can just use tap water?

the earlier you stop the earlier baby gets used to little bugs, he will be healthier in the long run.

most babies who are too protected from everyday bugs end up more sickly

Always better safe than sorry is my moto. My DS is one today, my first day without the sterelizer and no more mixing formula...HURRAH! x.