how useful are sterilisers?

[loisstella]

is it necessary?
Really?
Can you boil water and sterilise the bottles that way? What about the dishwasher?

All your thoughts much appreciated - I'm at a loss.

Hi,
Not sure about the dishwasher or boiling bottles, simplest way (for me anyway) was to use a plain bucket with lid (about a fiver from Mothercare) and a bottle of Milton sterilising fluid, just change the water once a day and add new Milton (do it at the same time, ie first or last thing, so you don't forget).
I would definitely say it's necessary and sterilised for the best part of a year for ds1 & 2.

i think you have to boil the bottles for at least 10mins and they can end up going 'sticky'

i have used both chemical and steam steralisers. i found the steam one much handier

dishwashing (65C) is fine - there's a thread here with an email from the NICU consultant to this effect.
No-one in the US ever uses a steriliser, they all just use the dishwasher.

Certainly don't bother buying one yet if you plan to breastfeed - deal with that when (if ever) you pump or introdce bottles.

With dd I sterilised her dummies and the breast pump.
Then read, on Mumsnet, that is not necessary. With ds, washed his dummies and the breast pump in hot soapy water and then air dried on a paper towel.
Found the steriliser a complete waste of time, although was not bottle feeding, so might have looked at it differently otherwise.

We don't have one. We use the Sterilise Bottles from Mothercare (sorry they don't seem to be on the website to link for you) - they sterilise themselves in the microwave in 90 secs.

We have a little jug with Milton in for DS's syringes for his medication and for his dummies, that's it.

A steam steriliser worked for us - we easily got into a routine with it but then my DS was mixed-fed so was more of a necessity.

I used the milton and small bucket and found it just fine. Couldnt be bothered with anoter electrical device taking up space !!

we had a steam steriliser, they are easy to use and only take 8 mins to sterilise. the prob with a dishwasher would be that generally you put them on once a day and the cycle takes over an hour so not very convienient if you need a sterile bottle pronto.

You don't need to sterilise, even with bottles, warm soapy water and air drying are sufficient. That's the advice I had from the hospital and I never bothered sterilising once (I mainly bfed but DD had the odd bottle every now and then). Every now and then if I thought a bottle was looking manky I'd leave it in boiling water for a couple of minutes but nothing else. TBH I'd be more worried about the chemicals in Milton sterilising liquids than the odd germ.

DD never caught anything, in fact she has had remarkably few colds or other illnesses and I'm convinced it was down to my not sterilising and general slovenliness whn it comes to housework.

Found the avent steam steriliser convenient. I'd make up bottles of water every 24hrs (and add formula as needed - no idea what current advice is), so wanted them to be as clean as possible. If I was making up bottles as needed would probably just rely on the dishwasher.

LOL at Brangelina - you sound like my kinda gal!