sterilizing

[RiotBecky]

how often do you sterilize your lo's bottles etc? are you on top of it or a bit more lax than you would like?

Why are you asking riot? Are you struggling to keep with the sterilising?

a little bit. I've got sterilizing wipes and antibac washing up liquid but everything is constantly in use!!

it makes me feel guilty as hell :( but then I think that they didn't have sterilizers and stuff years ago but everyone was ok :/ argh.

Every time I use one? All evening/night bottles get washed and sterilised in the morning and all daytime bottles done in the evening.. I

How old is your baby though?

After every use, soapy wash, rinse, put in steriliser, when it's full I stick it in the microwave.

I stop sterilising at about 5 months tho.

how many bottles does everyone have? we have 5 Dr Brown's. I do sterilize every day, but in between I wash with antibac washing up liquid in very hot water, and when making up formula feeds I use boiling hot water in the bottles and leave it to cool.

About 25 but have two babies using bottles, around 10-15 of them are the little ones (12 weeks) bottles.

Why don't you get sterilising fluid and do it that way if you don't want to buy more bottles but find your running out. Although I think the easy solution is to buy another 5

Don't think we could afford another 5 Dr Brown's, and LO gets super bad trapped wind using anything else :/ I shall price up though and see what I can sort. The amount of pressure I'm feeling to do everything perfectly is ridiculous. Not imposed by anyone but put upon by myself. Le boo :(

My DD is only having a couple of bottles a day but instead of using a steriliser I bought a cheap giant tupperwear. I bung the bottles in it and fill it with water and a bit of sterilising fluid. Bottles are cleaned out after use and shives back in the tub. Might be easier for you?

shove them, not shives! (Just woke up!)

I stopped sterilising at 5 months. they were on solid and licking the floor so I wasn't going to be precious.
neither has ever had thrush, tummy bug or anything else. I stopped using cooked boiling water at the same time.

I second a big plastic pot and a large bottle of Milton which only takes 15 mins but the fluid lasts all day. Change every morning and plonk clean bottle in and leave it until next use. I exclusively pumped so had to do pump parts as well but I could never see why people see streak using as a faff

Stop worrying about being 'perfect' and just be you. No one is perfect.

If you are washing in very hot water, I really wouldn't stress about sterilizing. Home sterilizing is a fallacy anyway, unless you have a clean room? Didn't think so.

The second those bottles come out of the sterilizer, they are no longer sterile.

So if it's stressing you out, stop worrying about it.

We only had 5 bottles, both dc had 5 milk feeds a day before weaning so there was 1 bottle per feed. We made them up in advance with freshly boiled water, flash cooled and stored in the fridge. After each use they were washed along all the other washing up and sterilised at the end of each day. We stopped sterilising when weaned, saw little point when their bowls, plates, spoons, tables, hands, toys, cups etc etc weren't made sterile.

If you can, stop putting pressure on yourself to be perfect. Noone is perfect and in trying to be you only set yourself up for failure. So long as you clean all the milk residue off the bottles and sterilise them once a day, your lo should be fine.

fuck me you're all awesome. I feel a lot better today, I was having a down-day yesterday and suddenly felt like I was the most inept mother in the world.

I really would not stress too much, babies didn't have stuff sterilised to the nth degree years ago - and a bit of bacteria is good for them. To cheer you up further - we have a dog and she ran about with her dummy the other day, and I forgot to sterilise it and grabbed it and popped it back in her mouth without thinking - then though 'oh dear - too late'. She is no worse off for it.

I do have a fairly clean ship here, but I also think over sanitising homes doesn't do kids any good in the long run.

Tbh I'm due DC4 next week and I'm thinking about only sterilising for the 1st few weeks I think so long as the bottles are washed properly then it's fine.

Becky sending sympathy as DS2 is 5mo and we have 10 Dr Browns bottles. I am SICK AND TIRED of washing and sterilising the frigging things. It is soooooo boring and fiddly and annoying and whilst DH does it if he's around and he notices, I still seem to be at the sink ALL THE FRIGGING TIME.

I try really hard to refrain from shouting on here but I feel very strongly. Do excuse me now .

I'm pumping too so there's just millions of valves and blue tube things floating around my kitchen!! Absolute nightmare!!

Riot if you are pumping! you don't have to sterilise the pump everytime you use it. A wash in hot, soapy water is enough then just serialise it once a day. I just put mine through the dishwasher though.

Don't be at yourself up about being perfect or compare yourself to other mothers, some of those mothers could be feeling the same about you

Would it help to do what boyo suggested?

I sterilised stuff until 3 months. Then usually ruined it all anyway by leaving the clean stuff out on the side... Than decided that DD would be fine and just went with the normal washing up process.

DD was fine.

If you are pumping just put the pump in the fridge between pumps that's what I did with my second, wish someone had told me that when exclusively pumping for 5 months with my first! And I stopped sterilising completely at. 6 months just used really hot water and rinsed thoroughly.