I’m currently breastfeeding, sometimes I pump so we usually have one bottle in the fridge to use when DP does a feed of I’m asleep. But I’ve been thinking about moving to formula, DD was under 4lbs 13oz when born, dropping 11.6% weight, when the health visitor came to weigh her the next day she had lost 11.7%, we’ve struggled to latch and she was jaundiced so was sleepy and whenever I try to feed her she falls flat out asleep on my boob and doesn’t feed for more than 5 minutes.
So I’m thinking of moving over to formula as it’s been easier to just pop some in a bottle and we can see how much she is actually getting.
But I’m confused about how long a bottle stays sterile. Does it have to be sterilised right before you use it? If it’s kept empty?
Our steriliser takes 4 minutes in the microwave, so doing this with a hungry baby, multiple times a night trying to keep her settled until it’s done it’s proving difficult.
Basically, can I sterilise and store bottles, how long until they are considered no longer sterile?