Sterlilsing

[Sammy181]

I thought I just had to sterilise the bottles until Katie is six months but my health visitor says it's until she's a year old. Just wondering what everyone else plans to do or did with their babies?

 

[Donna79x]

Didn't wanna read n run hun, but I have heard the same.... read 6 months n read 12 months.... be interested to see the responses to your thread x

 

[Vickie]

Probably 6 months. Read a book that mentioned after 6 months when they are sticking everything in their mouths anyways no real reason to sterilize bottles

 

[Hevz]

12months for bottles as they can harbour more germs coz of the nooks and crannies and remember it's milk that has been in there....which it pretty sticky. It's recommended to sterilise bowls, spoons etc until 6months as they're much easier to clean and pose less of a risk. It doesn't take much effort to sterilise a bottle and isn't worth taking a chance with babies very delicate tummy's as they can get sick very easily and become extremely poorly with food poisoning.

Toby is my 3rd and you become a little less worried about stuff as you have more babies but I do still sterilise his milk bottles and he's 10months but admittedly will pick up a biscuit if he drops it on the living room floor.

 

[Dizzy321]

i sterilized my sons bottles until 12 months old and i will with this baby x

 

[Emmea12uk]

6 months but milk can leave some nasty germs so it is a good idea to steralise anything that contains milk. But... your child has to get used to the germs one day and protecting them from them can only made them more susceptable. I'd be very tempted to stop at 6 months. Their hands are on the floor and then in their mouths and they get into such a mess - steralising is a bit futile.

 

[reallytinyamy]

I hadnt even thought about it

 

[~KACI~]

I've stopped now but i do wash them well with my special brush, they soak for a while they i clean them put them in rack pour another bowl of soapy water wash again and then rinse, but i did this process even when i was steralising x

 

[lulu0504]

I have just stopped sterilising this week. I do however wash them really well in hot soapy water and then pour boiling water from the kettle over to rinse them. Her hands are all over the floors now she is crawling (albeit backwards! ) and EVERYTHING goes in her mouth

 

[princess_bump]

i will continue to steralise bottles till 12months, as, like it was said, milk can harbour lots of bacteria. but saying that i will probably continue to do it even on other things till 12months - i'm a bit obessive about things like that

 

[Hevz]

The bacteria from old milk is very different to the bacteria from random toys etc that babies can put into their mouths. I don't understand what the rush is to stop sterilising bottles, at least the bottles are all in one place, nice and tidy and easy to find all the bits and you can say confidently that you know they're clean enough. I'm very thorough about washing up and rinsing dishes etc under running hot water but I still sterilise bottles as recommended.

This link is helpful and explains exactly why you should continue to sterilise bottles until at least 12months.

https://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/articles/article.aspx?articleId=641&sectionId=145