Do i really need to keep sterilizing bottles?

[memoo]

DD is 8 months old and still has quite a few bottle feeds a day. We are doing BLW which is going really well.

She puts everything she can find in her mouth, caught her eating my flipflop this morning!

Just wondered if its still neccessary to sterilize her bottles? Can't for the life of me remember what the advice is?

nope - not after six months.

In England it is advised to sterilise until 12 months.

In America it is advised on if you want too.

In New Zealand it is advised until three months.

That was guidelines three months ago but they could have changed.

I'm even more confused now

I was advised 12 mths. Was tempted to stop earlier as my daughter regular licked the floor for fun and seemed fine but stuck it out as MIL (who is an ex midwife) said milk infections are particularly nasty.

the current UK guidance is to sterilise bottles and teats till 1 year.

I didn't do anything beyond 6 months because I figured he shoved enough stuff in his mouth that wasn't sterile he had sufficient immune system to deal with it.

I still sterilise bottles which are going to have milk in them for any length of time, or bottles which I'm expressing into to freeze the milk. My logic is that I'm reducing the number of bacteria which will then multiply?

If I'm using the bottle/milk straightaway then I don't bother - as you say they put so much into their mouths anyway -and I've never sterilized my boobs!