Milton sterilising fluid - anyone had any issues?

onlyroz

Never had any problems using sterilising fluids or tablets. Are you rinsing the bottles in boiled water before filling them with milk?

madtrekker

I BF my lo so have no personal experience of bottles / formula but a friend who formula feeds, swears by MAM anti-colic bottles. Worth a try maybe?

I wouldn't have thought Milton would be a problem (assuming you're making it up correctly) as it's been around for ages.

Rossy.

Me and my girlfriend used a cold water steriliser for my boy's first few months. We used Miltons and had no problems.

My son had really bad colic too so i know what it's like. We bought Dr brown bottles as mentioned above and this reduced his colic a little.

At about 4 months old we were fed up of dipping our hands in and out of the cold water steriliser so bought a microwave one. Best thing we ever did. Insert bottles/teets etc. Add 200ml of cold water. Wack in microwave for 6 1/2 mins and done.

He's one next week. Can't believe how fast they grow !

patchwork_cat

How old is your baby? Looking at your old posts 6-8 weeks? About 6 weeks is when my DS started with really bad 3 month colic and we steam sterilised (which I did prefer, why introduce more chemicals than you need to?). We didn't find that anything greatly helped except lying over a knee and back rubbing every evening. Doubt it is Milton, talk to HV and GP.

strawberrypud

Could it be reflux? This is a fairly common but often undiagnosed problem in infants that can cause nightmares for the parents. If they have reflux but aren't actually sick it is "silent reflux".

Worth asking a GP/HV or googling the symptoms to see if that could be the problem.

Imp

LadyMariannaKL wrote: »

Or just rinse the bottles with cooled, boiled water.

I don't have a baby yet - the wife is due in a few months.

But, why use cooled, boiled water. Surely tap water straight from the tap is safer?

delain

Imp wrote: »

I don't have a baby yet - the wife is due in a few months.

But, why use cooled, boiled water. Surely tap water straight from the tap is safer?

All equipment must be serllised and boiled water used because it kills the germs that tap water picks up on it's way to your tap. All this information is widely available on he baby formula websites if you and your wife choose to formula feed.

I wasn't aware milton was so widely used still TBH.

meritaten

Milton is a form of bleach and it may well be that as a family you have a mild allergy to it! I didnt like the smell of it when using it to cold sterilise bottles so i used to boil the kettle and fill the (sterilised) bottles with that and then tip it out and let the bottles air dry (I still do this when sterilising jars for preserves).
to check if you ARE allergic to Milton then put a dab of the fluid on the inside of your arm and leave for 24 hours. you should see if you have a reaction!
Anyone can be allergic to ANYTHING! you suspect Milton so do a test and see if you can rule it out! especially as you say your hands are cracked and dry.
it could be that the baby is intolerant to the formula - get your gp to check this hun! he may need a non-dairy formula.

Imp

delain wrote: »

All equipment must be serllised and boiled water used because it kills the germs that tap water picks up on it's way to your tap. All this information is widely available on he baby formula websites if you and your wife choose to formula feed.

I wasn't aware milton was so widely used still TBH.

Thanks for that, any chance of a reference web site.

The reason I ask is because tap water contains a residual active chlorine content, so it is like a really weak Milton solution. It is strong enough to stop bacteria from growing, but not strong enough to effectively kill them. This happens at the treatment works. Tap water has no bacteria. (I have just checked the water quality data for my area from the local water company. In 228 samples, one had 2 bacteria pe 100ml. All the other 227 samples had zero bacteria.)

The idea of boiling then cooling water sounds wrong, because boiling water strips it of chlorine. As it cools, there is nothing in there to stop bacteria growing, especially as it takes a long time to go through the optimum temperatures for bacterial growth.

So boiling equipment to sterilise - this is an effective method of killing bacteria, but rinsing with boiled and cooled water just seems counter productive.

patchwork_cat

Imp wrote: »

Thanks for that, any chance of a reference web site.

The reason I ask is because tap water contains a residual active chlorine content, so it is like a really weak Milton solution. It is strong enough to stop bacteria from growing, but not strong enough to effectively kill them. This happens at the treatment works. Tap water has no bacteria. (I have just checked the water quality data for my area from the local water company. In 228 samples, one had 2 bacteria pe 100ml. All the other 227 samples had zero bacteria.)

The idea of boiling then cooling water sounds wrong, because boiling water strips it of chlorine. As it cools, there is nothing in there to stop bacteria growing, especially as it takes a long time to go through the optimum temperatures for bacterial growth.

So boiling equipment to sterilise - this is an effective method of killing bacteria, but rinsing with boiled and cooled water just seems counter productive.

Firstly I am not a chemistry graduate merely have A level ( my brother is though, but I can't be bothered to ring him!) Does boiling water release the chlorine from solution? Does your water treatment works use cholrine or cholramine? Yes there is a concern of cooling the boiled water uncovered. The worry would be what is the bacteria in the one contaminated sample, if this was pathogenic that is a big risk for a newborn.

Personally I would use steam sterlisation and did with DS in a plug in steam steriliser and then with DD in a microwave. I then made up all bottles with freshly boiled water and sealed and refrigerated quickly after cooling. You can be over cautious with bacteria and once they are crawling - well cooled boiled water is the least of your worries!!