When to stop sterilising bottles?

[Hannah9176]

I was always under the impression bottles only needed to be sterilised until baby was 6 months but a google search tonight seems to suggest bottles should be sterilised until baby is 1 year old.

I'm a bit confused with the reasoning because surely at 6 months they'll be on solids and sticking everything in sight in their mouth? DD is 5 months and has her hands in her mouth constantly so I imagine it will only get worse when she is crawling? By this reasoning her spoons/bowls should be sterilised too?

Did everyone else carry on sterilising until 12 months?

I think it's to do with bacteria in formula.

It depends if you're FF or if it's expressed human milk in the bottles. If it's formula you need to kill the possible cronobacter

Yes milk bottles up to a year due to bacteria in milk/formula.

It’s the bacteria in formula that’s the danger you need to sterilise against. Also the reason you make formula with boiling water then rapidly cool it.

If it’s human milk then it’s less of a high risk but I would always still sterilise.

Yes 12 months for the reasons everyone above has given.

NHS advice is 12 months. It's evidence based advice to reduce the risk of your baby becoming unwell, take it, or choose to ignore it, plenty do. 🤷🏼‍♀️

If everyone took NHS advice I'd probably be out of a job so crack on!!!

I stopped the day after I saw DD sneakily licking the wheel of her pushchair. She was 14 mo. Obv I could have stopped way before then really. But it just seemed particularly futile after the wheel licking incident.

Stopped just after 12 months.

It only takes a few minutes so really isn’t a hassle to do

I stopped at 6 months. Around the time she started putting everything and anything in her mouth. I still boiled her water for formula. She's been absolutey fine. Did the same with my youngest.

I stopped at 6 months, but they were washed in the dishwasher at 75 degrees so figured they were fairly sterile anyway

I don't live in UK and the public health advice here is only to sterilise before the 1st use. Here they used to say for first 4 months but changed it a few years back, the reason being that the bottles are never really sterile because general environment isn't sterile and none of the sterilisation methods work 100% anyway. So the official advice here is to wash well in hot soapy water after each use or dishwasher and then air dry. I tend to sterilise everything once a week or if I have dropped it but just wash each day normally. It's my first baby so I don't know any different. If I lived in UK I would have followed the NHS advice.

NHS advice is to sterilise as long as you use formula.

We sterilised while using formula, switched to cows milk from a sippy cup at one so no need to sterilise after that.

We stopped at 6 months. We still made her formula in the same way with boiling water and always washed her bottles in the dishwasher. By 6 months (if not premature, immunocompromised or any other medical condition) they should have a well established amount of gut bacteria so I didn't see the point in carrying on sterilising. Especially when everything she picked up was going into her mouth. It is personal preference though.

I stopped when she moved onto normal milk at 11 months

Oh god I feel bad reading this I’ve been giving my little one readymade forumla in a sippy cup in the evening and I just wash it with hot soapy water. What do I do ? as don’t have a dishwasher how would you sterilise a sippy cup?

He is 9 months ! Sorry to butt in the thread !

Ready made formula formula is fine. It’s just the powder you need to worry about.