when to stop sterilising

[sharon2133]

when is it Ok to stop sterilising bottles ? I have a 7 month old who is on 3 meals a day with breast & occasional formula.

I stopped at 6 months when DD went on to solids

ds is 5 months old and i rarely sterilise anything.

I haven't sterilised anything since 6 months - just hot soapy water and dishwasher every couple of days.
If you could see the amount of dog hair my ds has on his hands and clothes most of the day - bottles are the least of my worries.
But (touch wood) he has been v. healthy and only v. ocassionally has a sniffle lasting only a day or so.

I haven't sterilised anything since 6 months - just hot soapy water and dishwasher every couple of days.
If you could see the amount of dog hair my ds has on his hands and clothes most of the day - bottles are the least of my worries.
But (touch wood) he has been v. healthy and only v. ocassionally has a sniffle lasting only a day or so.

I am a goody-two-shoes - i stopped sterlilising 2 days before dd 1st birthday. The current guidelines are to continue till 12 months, but i know loads of people who stopped earlier with no problems. I must say i love having the extra space in the kitchen!

I never sterilised weaning things, just used the dishwasher. I stopped sterilising bottles at 6 months, just good scrub abd diswasher.However, I sterilised teats until DD was 9 months as my HV told me that it's the off milk that causes tummy upsets.( and I think that bits of milk can easily lurk in the crevices of teats.) I bought some microwave sterilising bags so that I didn't have to use the big steriliser just for 4 teats!!!

i have a 4 month old dd and must say all her stuff goes through the dishwasher - not much different to the microwave steam steriliser i thought! the steriliser is now at my dad's house for when we visit as he has no dishwasher, and i hate it! Takes too much effort!

i intend to sterilise milk bottles until 12 months. don't sterilise anything else tho.

we sterilised until about 8 months. Although I do remember wondering what the point was when she started eating the dirt off the floor!

I think you have to be extra careful of milk bacteria, but I figure somewhere around 6 months is okay to give it up.

I never sterlised food things, but something in me kept me sterlising bottles until 12 months.

I have now put the sterliser away (DS was 1 yesterday )

i intend to sterilise until Freddie is a year
(bottles only) I get really paranoid about bacteria from the milk in his bottles.

stopped all but teats at 6 months. hv said stetilise teats as long as they are drinking any sort of milk through them, which should stop at 12 months

(but that was 5 years ago)

Ooo confession - sterilized ds's things for about a week then gave up. I wash everything separately with own brush in VERY hot soapy water, rinse, and leave to air dry. This was from when he was 3 months. Same goes for all his weaning stuff. Never had a tummy upset to date, although I am extra careful about the teats and have a special teeny tiny bottle brush that gets into the long bits. I decided that as I wasn't planning to boil my nipples before bf him, and he was chewing his fingers / my face etc all the damn time, the germs would probably do him good.

Now I think of it, one of the worst rows I've had with dh was when I found him feeding ds the EBM I'd left in the fridge for the following day via a teat I knew damn well he'd only rinsed under the tap!

I was furious at the waste of milk that'd taken forever to express & would now have to be chucked out, he was equally furious at being confronted with a screeching fishwife when he thought he was being helpful (ie. I'd gone up to bed, he didn't want to disturb me).

Have since both agreed to relax about the whole thing, & ds appears to be surviving our slovenliness!

never sterilised anything with DS2, just let him have the bugs ( ihated the whole palaver with the other 2). Doesn't seem to have harmed him.
(mind you, he was bf and weaned onto a cup so bottles/teats never an issue, i might have changed my mind about sterilising then)

I'm still sterilizing and ds is 7 months, yet I caught him licking the wheels of his buggy the other day so I suppose it's time to stop...