when to stop sterilising bottles???

[Joso]

Right I'm really getting in the swing of this mumsnet lark now! My next question is when to stop sterilising bottles. My daughter is eight months and although I know the official line is to stop at one year I was just wandering whether anyone out there stopped before that time. (I heard in the States, they don't bother with sterilsing at all!!)

I carried on sterilising my daughters milk until she went onto using a beaker for it, at about 10 months. The reasons being that the milk tends to stick more to the teats and its also easier to wash a bigger cup than the thin bottles. There is always the risk of gastorentiritis (spelling!!!!) if the bottles arent cleaned properly.

If you have a dishwasher you can usually stop around now, because the dishwasher gets much hotter than the water you can stand with hand washing. If not I would continue with teh bottles for another month or so.

I put the steriliser away at about 6 months, but always put the bottles and teats through the dishwasher. If I was staying somewhere without a dishwasher I steamed the teats (not sure how effective that was, but it made me feel a bit better anyway! - I think its quite hard to get all the milk residue out of the teats by ordinary washing).

I recently read a new study that showed that washing bottles etc in the dishwasher of even just in hot soapy water was just as good - in fact, better - than sterilising. In the study (which, annoyingly, I can't find right now) babies were no more likely to get tummy upsets if their bottles weren't sterilised, and in fact were less likely to go on to get allergies. Everything went in the dishwasher from when ds was about six months, but next time (if there is a next time!) I won't sterilise at all, and hooray, not bulky Avent steriliser cluttering up my kitchen!

I stopped sterilising at about 7 months with my ds - we were going to America when ds was 8 months and I wanted him used to any bugs before we travelled - no problems, gave up about the same time with dd - find Aloha's information interesting though. Have to admit that I was never really paranoid about sterilising, I never sterilised weaning spoons or bowls and only did dummies for the first month or two.

It's so annoying but I can't find the reference to this new study. I don't know about this 'official line' to stop at one year. As far as I understand, the 'official line' up to now was to sterilise for the first three to four months. I think if you don't have a dishwasher you might not feel so confident of your washing technique though!

hmmmmmm....very interesting...specially that stuff from Aloha about the study. I think I'm pretty much ready to stop sterilising...I put all the bottles etc in the dishwasher so I'm kinda getting the impression that, that is perfectly sufficient...thanks for the advice

A friend of mine stopped at 6 months and only carried on doing teats once a week, everything else just got washed up in the sink.
When my DS2 was 5 months old we got a new puppy so although he wasn't anywhere near crawling( he was 11 months before he did) we often found him with handfuls of the dog..the poor thing! Consequently when he did start crawling it was pointless sterilizing as he and the puppy were firm friends by then and even now we still find them together in the dog's bed!

I stopped sterilising dummies at 6 months-ish coz, let's face it, at that age EVERYTHING goes in their mouth and you can't sterilise carpets, cushions, soft toys etc etc!
I carried on with the bottles until 12 months purely because of the risk of bacteria in milk. ds is 18 months old now and his bottles, plates and cups get washed with the rest of the dishes.
Once you stop sterilising stuff it's such a relief, I don't know how I had the time to do it!
One theory surrounding the huge increase in allergies in children is that fact that they are not exposed to a wide range of bacteria until they are over a year old. Their immune system doesn't get a chance to build up resistance to everyday allergens.

I'm with Aloha!! I'll just sterilise for the first 3 or 4 months with the next one (not for a while yet!!).

Ok, I admit it, dd2 is only 11 weeks and I've already given the steriliser away. My breast pump and the odd bottles that she has go in the dishwasher, and every now and then I put all the teats in the microwave on high for 10 minutes.

As a related story, both of mine have drunk from hidden beakers of rank milk with no ill effects whatsoever. They have both managed to find a beaker of milk which they've hidden a day or 2 ago and I've not noticed and taken a good swig out of it. Made me want to heave!! Neither of them were ill so I would imagine that a good wash in hot water or the dishwasher is sufficient for all but the newest baby.

We never sterilised at all! Both of mine were Breastfed, but even the breastpump and occasional bottles were put in the dishwasher and we felt that was sufficient. The main reason for this was that dh had read stuff in his medical 'comics' (weekly magazines of medical news/drug adverts!) about studies which showed that if you didn't sterilise then the risk of asthma and eczema was reduced, and as dh was an asthmatic child we decided to try it. We had also read that children who grow up on farms are least likely to have allergies, as they are exposed to good healthy dirt from an early age - we don't farm but live on one.
Neither of my children have ever had any vomiting or diahorrea, wheeziness and few colds. Neither are allergic to anything. I don't kow if they are just obustly healthy (and if they are, why am I ill half the time), or whether the non-sterilising or breastfeeding had a protective effect, but they are scarily well! My gut feeling is that it was a combination of being exposed to bugs (not sterilising) and breastfeeding (protection from bugs). Two other doctor friends have also not sterilised for the same reasons, with the same results.

I stopped at 9 months and agree with the dishwasher thing - it's as good as a steriliser in most cases. Sour milk is the same as yoghurt (isn't it ? Not entirely sure if there is a slightly different composition) and I thought that as my dd put everything conceivable in her mouth, normally having wiped it vigorously on the floor, that sterilising her bottles was a bit of a farce