Expressed milk and sterilising

[goodnessgraciousgouda]

Hi all,

For those of you that have used expressed milk, I'd be really grateful to know when you need to sterilise the bottles! It seems very confusing to me, but I will definitely need to express.

I thought you sterilised the bottle first, then attached it to the pump, pumped the milk, then put it in the fridge. Presumably you don't need to "re-sterilise" it afterwards before using.

What I don't understand is that breast pumps only seem to come with one bottle. So for expressing milk later, do you need to buy more bottles separately which will fit the pump? Or do you have to use those plastic bags, and then just tip them into a sterilised bottle when you want to use them? How do you pump into a bag?

I think it would be about three or so feeds a day from a bottle, so would definitely need more than just the one bottle with the pump.

Thank you!

I pour into pre sterilised bags to store than have bought a pack of bottles seperately to actually feed from.

Hi, you can buy extra bottles to express into, or use the bags. I found the bags a bit difficult as when the milk separated the fat seemed to cling to the side, whereas with a bottle you could shake it to make the fat mix back in.

I always sterlised the collection bottle, expressed, froze and the poured into a sterile feeding bottle once defrosted.
I picked up loads of bottles for expressing into when daughter was in which nicu, we used to have a freezer full!

Ah okay - thanks both that makes a lot more sense!!

The starter sets that you can buy are actually pretty good to be honest. With my DD I expressed into the bags (just found them easier all round. I sterilised the pump before/after (microwave steriliser - again easier - in really too lazy for all of that pallaver lol). I didn't have to do it often though as my DD didn't really take to bottles x good luck x