When to stop sterilising

[florall]

At what month did you stop sterilising baby bottles?
I know recommendation is at 12 months but wondering if anyone stopped sooner?

12 months is ridiculous! I don't understand that recommendation, and in my opinion, that is quite harmful.

I stopped at 3 months when I took my daughter to a playgroup when a baby put their dirty hand into my daughter's mouth. Also, she kept licking the dirty playmat during tummy time - she ended up having a little cold.
Some children go to nursery before 12 months so I don't understand how the sterilisation of toys and dummies would work when they share everything.

I have washed my bottles well at home with hot water. I did use sterilisation liquid when we were on the go until 6 months, as washing bottles in public toilets etc. wasn't very hygienic. But at home, I stopped at 3 months.

Thank you for this, i was thinking a year seems quite unrealistic!!

It isn't about the dirt, its about the bacteria that can grow in milk (either expressed breast milk or the formula powder). If the bacteria isn't properly removed, it can make babies very poorly.

This is my understanding too.

I stopped sterilising at 12 months when they went onto cows milk.

I stopped the day I caught my baby licking her buggy wheel.

I'm a STM with a large age gap and trying to remember the ins and outs. Problem is I'm also north American and also check their guidelines. And recently have been pondering this as well.

I know alot of American mom's who don't use boiled Water to make up feeds they use bottled distilled water at room temp. And, I haven't known one of their babies to get ill from it. Recommended by their peds.

I don't fully understand the need to sterilise after babies start weaning. (6 months.)I can't remember ever sterilising baby spoons, cups or bowls. May be I should have. DC1 was fully off the bottle by 8m when we went over to sippy cups exclusively. Water in cups from 6ms and day time milk. (Pumped and formula)

FWIW I sterilise dummies, bottles, pump parts and even the formula spoon.

I find the whole thing confusing and will probably just do what I did with dc1.

You can stop sterilising dummies etc earlier, but bottles should be sterilised for however long you use formula, as there's a different type of bacteria that can grow in the formula and make babies really poorly

I stopped at 3 months. Baby was absolutely fine

I stopped at 6 months.

This is true. It is worth noting that the NHS advice is a lot more precautionary than other countries so the risk of harmful bacteria is quite small. US and NZ and Australia recommend stopping sooner.

Also depends how you wash them eg dishwasher is usually better than hand washing. Leaving them a long time before washing is also more risky than washing them straight away.

I have continued to sterilise as long as we have used formula even if it might not strictly be necessary, partly because I don’t always clean them quickly enough.

American dishwashers get hotter, have santize and heated dry settings. So basically they are sterilisers.

As for distilled water by the gallon for making bottles, when there was the recent mass formula bacteria outbreak I wonder if less babies would have become sick or died if the advice had been to use hot water instead. The NHS advice is very much belt and braces but that’s no bad thing with vulnerable babies.

Six months- our dishwasher had a steam function at the end of the cycle, and I was just taking them out of the dishwasher only to steam them again in the steriliser! Seemed pointless.

I would’ve done it longer if I’d been hand washing the bottles though, just for peace of mind.

The day our dog licked her in the face probably around 8 weeks.

However I never used formula which is what you need to sterilize for. Breast milk bottles, dummies and everything else is perfectly fine in hot soapy water (wish I'd found this out sooner!)

It is true, but if you wash the bottles straight away (I did after 2 hours outside the fridge) it won't cause any problem. If you leave the bottles with milk inside for a day, that's a different story.

😂

This is the truest advice I've ever heard

Exactly this! Must have been around 9 months. Everything just went in the dishwasher after that.

I never did. I breastfeed and when we used them washed the breastfeeding bottles in the dishwasher.

In the past houses were filthy, people rarely washed hands with soap, and so sterilising was needed. Similarly hot water is added to formula because formula has bacteria that is harmful to babies.

As neither of my dc were premies I didn’t see the need. And neither of them have ever had D&V though we’re going to India soon so that will soon change.

I thought it was more about if you miss bits? The teats can be sometimes a bit tricky around the rim, or like the mam bottles with that rubber disk at the bottom. In a sleep deprived haze I imagine it’s easy to do.

Not until 12 months.

Life threatening bugs can be found in formula and just recently a bad batch killed several babies in America. They don’t sterilise for long over there.

Mines formula fed and I stopped at 8 months. I do swill the bottle out as soon as he's done though as it's harder to get the milk off if left for any amount of time. He's 11mo now and perfectly fine

DS is 16 months and our steriliser broke at 13 months so now I just wash the bottles and microwave sterilise them when he has toddler formula milk but blue cows milk we hand wash.

When they started picking things up and putting them in their mouths. You don't sterilise toys, teddies, their fingers, your nips if you breast feed, the bowls and utensils that they eat solid food with etc and that's all fine so as long as it's clean, surely it's fine? That was my reasoning anyway.

Seems to be various responses, thank you all!!

Hmm in the past every other family had a child who'd died of pneumonia, flu or some other childhood illness. I read that life expectancy in the 1800s was in the 30s because the infant mortality rate was 25%.

I'm amazed how often this kind of information is so blatantly ignored when people say "humans survived in the past without.." etc etc as a reason to reject some modern medical practice or recommendation.

Hmm...never thought of that. I usually washed and left them in a bowl filled with extra hot soapy water until I needed them. So I was sure I didn't miss anything. Yes, some bottles can be tricky (I used Dr. Brown's bottles, which came with loads of little parts- was a nightmare to wash) but I also changed them every 1-2 months anyway when her milk intake went up.