when can i stop sterilising bottles, dummies etc?

[silvermum]

my DS is ten months old now. the steriliser takes up a lot of space in our tiny kitchen! how much longer should we use it if we wash the bottles carefully in good hot water/rinse with boiling water etc?

If your ds is 10 month old, then surely he is eating unsterilised foods? fruit and veg, biscuits from an opened packet, bread. And he is no doubt stuffing things into his mouth with his nasty unsterilised little fingers. And what about yourself: do you sterilise yourself before you touch anything that might go into his mouth?

We didn't have a dishwasher, so after 6 months everything was just hand-washed in hot water, never used anti-bacterial stuff (frowned upon in Scandinavia as being unhealthy) and allowed 10mo to crawl around outside. Never had any problems with them poisoning themselves.