Sterilising bottles - confused!

[localbunny]

Hi all, FTM here in my third trimester. Had a couple of questions on sterilising etc and wondered if anyone could help? Hoping to do mixed feeding, with bottles using expressed milk in the first instance (maybe formula later but I'll think about that when I get to it!!).

We have a UV steriliser, a pump, bottles and some milk storage bags. Is there anything else we need? Don't own a microwave - do we need a bottle warmer?!

Once we've sterilised a bottle, do we just leave it in the steriliser until we need it, or can I store them elsewhere with the lid on?

How many bottles should I realistically have for the odd bottle feed?

Any tips for what to do with milk collected overnight would also be really helpful, and anything else glaringly obvious that I seems to have totally passed me by...

Appreciate any wisdom! Thank you!

If you are going to use the milk within a few days keep it in the fridge, if longer in the freezer (you can get bags for the freezer storage).

I used the sterilizer and kept the bottles in there normally until I used it. Sometimes took them out and just stored elsewhere with lid on. I made the bottles up (breastmilk) and would give to baby within 6 hours of it being out of the fridge. Sometimes would store a made bottle in the fridge first.

For expressed milk - you don't need to heat it. I would just give it to your baby at room temperature or straight from the fridge.
Defrost in the fridge, or in a bowl of room temperature water. Not in microwave.

I never sterilised anything. Put expressed milk into sterile milk bags and kept in fridge. Never bothered with warming milk. DD just had it how it came. If be inclined to buy when you know what you need.

Congratulations by the way, exciting times!

Thanks everyone! So helpful to have a bit of guidance. Really useful to know I can make up a bottle and leave it for a few hours @LiquoriceAllsorts2 !

Your don’t need to sterilise equipment that has just had breast milk. Hot soapy water is fine. Midwife told us this.

You need to sterilise anything that has touched formula.

We are mixed feeding and have six bottles, with usually 3 on the go and 3 clean. This gives us some wiggle room when we’ve had a busy day and not had time to clean.

Sterilisation container is a good place to store as it keeps bottles out the way until needed. But you can store them anywhere.

Also the volume baby consumes in the first couple weeks is really small, so I would portion out a little over what you think you need so you don’t throw away and waste too much of it.

In terms of number of bottles I would go for a few (I normally had about 4) so that you don’t have to wash it straight away but depends also on if you are breastfeeding directly too.