When to stop sterilising bottles

[Ladyk79]

Hi,

We will be introducing cows milk to my lo next week, and I was wondering if I should still be sterilising bottles/beakers? Lo will be 1 by then. TIA x

We stopped sterilising dummies when dc1 was about 9 months as he was mobile and sticking everything in his mouth. After catching him licking a pram wheel and a shoe it seemed less important. Just wash in hot water and it will be fine.

You sterilise bottles until you stop using them. Beakers don’t need it. Its about the teats. I stopped bottles at 1 and they only used beakers after.

We stopped at 1.

Dummies are different to teats. They have a tiny hole that can have molecules of old milk in so they should be sterilised. Germs off the floor on a dummy is different to bacteria of gone off milk.

About 4 or 5 months was the rule back when mine were little (mid-80s to early 90s)

Would dishwasher be sufficient for bottle teats then? That gets quite hot so should kill anything.

Mine was 1 year old when stopped sterilising bottles as that's the recommended age..

I never sterilised! Ebf all 3 kids and by the time they were taking cows milk it was too late. I just dishwasher all my breast pump parts and it was fine. Once they're moving and eating fluff off the floor I reckon you can stop!

At one but bottles should also go at 1 too. We only kept bottles for durring the night feeds and they stopped within a month.

Thanks all, we already only have one bottle now for the night feed. Any recommendations for what beaker to use to replace this bottle?

Germs off the floor on a dummy is different to bacteria of gone off milk.

There needs to be an education campaign about this! I knew before I even clicked on the thread the first replies say there's no point in sterilising once the baby starts putting everything in their mouth.

Munchkin 360 to replace bottle

I'd always sterilise bottles because they're hard to keep clean, probably a bit over cautious though particularly just for cows milk and not formula. Mam do a microwave sterilise bottle if you still want a bottle but without the need for a steriliser. No need to sterilise beakers.

When I babysat last year for a couple they were still sterilising their 17month old daughters bottles and teats as she didn't eat much (they hadn't started weaning properly!).

She used to live off cows milk when with me, they told me I can try and feed her whatever (because I was with her 3 full days a week) but even some baby porridge/ small soft sandwich was always refused. (She ate chocolate though and the parents often left her chocolate covered for me to deal with!)

The only approved foods by her were pouches of veg/fruits/yogurt and some baby puffs that I tried her on! Took her over an hour to eat the puffs but she enjoyed them in the park

I’m sure i read on tommee Tippee’s website that you only need to sterilise bottles when using formula as it’s the bacteria found in formula that is what you’re sterilising against etc

So as guidelines say forumla until 1 that’s what I’m going to sterilise until we swap to cows milk

@Valanice1989 To be fair I never fed bottles after the first few weeks, and most of the people I know who bottle fed are European and they don't sterilise the bottles at all and just do hot soapy water. I just sort of assumed that was the norm, but have now googled NHS recommendations and see that is not the norm for the UK.

I think we stopped when ds was almost 1. Although I didnt actually realise there was a guideline for it. We moved from our apartment to dparents and packed the steriliser away in storage by accident. It went right at the back of the packed full storage locker so we just went without.

Ds was 10/11 months I think by this time.

You sterilise as long as you are using formula. Even if using a cup. Once on cow milk no need.

Something free flow like this OP.
www.tommeetippee.co.uk/product/essentials-free-flow-first-cup

The advice on this varies from country to country. In many places sterilisation is not advised at all. I’m in a few US fb groups and the mothers on there are always quite shocked when they hear about British sterilisation practices.

I always worried about chronobacter infection from formula, so I stopped sterilising bottles when we started on cow’s milk.

There is an interesting theory (google ‘hygiene hypothesis’) that maintaining too sterile an environment for infants can lead to allergies.

We never sterilised anything, we would wash everything well and run some boiling water from the kettle before using it (which I guess can kill some bacteria but it is not proper sterilisation which requieres a few minutes).

I do believe in the hygiene hypotesis @FartnissEverbeans, not just allergies, but babies need to be exposed to something to develop a immune system. One of my best friends is a nurse and has 2 kids, she sterilized everything and kept everything super clean with the first baby, who was constantly sick once he got exposed to the real world. She is convinced that was what caused it. She didn't do it again with the second one. The theory makes sense to me and I did the same.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygiene_hypothesis

There was an article recently about a professor who’s been researching leukaemia for years and believes lack of exposure to viruses in the first year to kick start the immune system can lead to childhood leukaemia where there’s already a genetic predisposition. Very interesting.

I stopped sterilising about 12 months. Everything goes through the hot wash in the dishwasher though. My twins are 28 months and still have bottles at night - not ideal but we have bigger problems frankly!

I stopped once DD was crawling around. Seemed pointless after that.

We stuck them in the dishwasher from about 4 -5 months