sterilising bottles question

spaghetti_monster

Hi,
just wanted to ask this as I'm currently breast-feeding my little one (4 and a half weeks old) and am about to start doing a little bit of expressing and doing the occasional bottle feed and have to get all the stuff organised.

I've already got an electric food steamer and I'm sure I've seen a friend sterilising bottles in a similar thing. I also vaguely remember asking another friend about this and she said you can't do that - you should buy a proper bottle steriliser for the purpose...

Any thoughts?
Thanks

gratefulforhelp_2

Not sure hon, but I have used a large tupperware type plastic container with a lid, and milton tablets/liquid. No special apparatus needed.

pigpen

For the occasional bottle I wouldn't bother.. it isn't like you sterilise your boobs is it.. I'd give it a thorough wash and rinse out with boiling water and fill with milk. Seems silly forking out cash for something you might only use 2 or 3 times.

Fizzpop

I know you have already got bottles but you can buy self sterilising bottles from mothercare, i think if i remember rightly you can also buy sterilising bags just put a drop of water in and whack in the microwave x

Molly41

I think its very important to sterilise things correctly. Although I breastfed my four I always used a microwave steam steriliser for their bits n' pieces. Milton was too hard on my hands so dreaded to think what it would do to their tummies.

bulchy

pigpen wrote: »

For the occasional bottle I wouldn't bother.. it isn't like you sterilise your boobs is it.. I'd give it a thorough wash and rinse out with boiling water and fill with milk. Seems silly forking out cash for something you might only use 2 or 3 times.

I was gonna say exactly the same pigpen, both mine were breastfed and I never used a steriliser, just rinsed dummies and bottles etc with boiling water.
Sue

Nicki

I'd sterilize properly for a newborn. Their little systems aren't built to withstand any germs and vomiting and diarrhoea at that age can be a killer not just a minor inconvenience. Doesn't matter whether it's occasional use or not, as it only takes one contaminated bottle to cause a problem. You might not sterilize your boobs, but presumably you don't leave them in a drawer or on a kitchen shelf for weeks until you need them, then fill them with milk and store it until it suits you to use it

If you don't want to fork out on an electric steriliser the microwave ones aren't expensive and that's what they use on the baby ward at my local hospital. Or you can boil in a saucepan for 10 minutes. Or as others have said use sterilising solutions. It doesn't need to be fancy and hi tech, but IMHO it does need to be done at least until baby's immune and digestive systems are more robust.

jamsandwhich

You can get small bottles of Milton for £1.50 and because we had twins I inherited one cold water steriliser from my sis and bought another from boots for £7.49, but you can just use a tub deep enough to submerge them if you already have one. When we went away and I forgot the tub we just used boiled water and made the bottles up immediately (they were a bit older though) - they suck on your fingers, their fingers and chew ANYTHING that they can get their grubby hands on so I didn't stress over it too much:D

spaghetti_monster

Thanks for all the replies!
I think I would feel better to steam/boil.
I've been thinking that my steamer is not that high and bottles would have to lie on their side, but just remembered that someone gave me a bottle rack. Maybe I could boil in a pan and then dry bottles on the rack?

Nicki

As they air dry though, they are becoming less sterile again! The better option would be just to drain the boiling water away and as soon as they are cool enough to touch, put the bits together and the lids on the bottles. That should keep them sterile for 24 hours, and you can fill them at any point within that time.

daleigha

Have you got a breast pump yet? My Tommee Tippee Closer To Nature one came with a little steriliser for the breast pump stuff, but obviously it can be used for other things too, so that's an idea if you are going to be buying an electric breast pump.

TBH all it really is is a tupperware box though, so you could buy a new tupperware box and use it - just be careful opening it, as you would any microwave steriliser. The tommee tippee breast pump one has to be microwaved for 4 minutes, and the big one I had which filled the microwave was for 8 minutes, so that should give you a rough idea of how long to microwave it for. There should probably be about 1cm of water in the bottom, again, the steriliser will give an amount in the instructions, but this is about how much water there seemed to be in both mine.

HTH xx