Making baby formula after 6 months

nancmat

I sterilised up until 1 year then gave cows milk.

Nicki

shortdog wrote: »

My son still has powdered milk (soya - he has a cows milk allergy) and he is 6. I still make it with boiled water from the kettle, as it doesn't dissolve properly in cold water, and leaves loads of little clumps of powder!
I sterilised bottles until the kids stopped using them, as they are difficult to get properly clean, but, once they started crawling, I didn't see any point in sterilising anything else - the turning point with my eldest was the day I took a clean dummy out of the steriliser and handed it to her, and then watched her rub it across the carpet and try to shove it up the dogs nose before popping it in her mouth. Seemed pointless sterilising then!

That's why I don't use dummies :eek: Disgusting and unhygienic things. Just about acceptable when baby is tiny and they are kept scrupulously clean and sterilised regularly, but the very thought of letting a 7 month old baby suck something which had been licked by a dog, or rubbed over a carpet that a dog had been sleeping on is vile.

OP my view was that at 6 months old babies are still very little with delicate immune systems so I would use boiling water for bottles until they are 1, at which point you can switch to cows milk. Powdered milk can contain traces of salmonella which is killed by heat. Making a bottle for a 6 month old baby with cold tap water is no different risk wise to feeding them raw eggs really. An older child can withstand a tummy upset quite well, but not so little ones, who can get very dehydrated very quickly, which can be fatal.

Personally, I also sterilised bottles until age 1, but never sterilised any other equipment such as bowls, spoons, etc though these were washed in the dishwasher so should have been pretty clean. I don't really understand why sterilising is seen as a hassle. I just stuck mine in the steriliser, switched it on and didn't open it again until the bottles were needed. Took a maximum of 30 seconds out of my day, about the same amount of time probably as it would take to put them away in a cupboard unsterilised!

sunshine_1988

If you dont want to keep boiling the kettle, buy a couple of thermos flasks. Thats what I do for my nightime feeds, just take the flask up with us with the little tubs of powder measured and make a fresh feed up when he wakes.

Mines only 10 weeks old, so cant really help with the 6 mnth sterilising thing, but in my personal opinion - I'll keep doing it I think. Each to thier own though x

Fredula

My 8 week prem baby was in NICU for one month, and we were given equipment to express breast milk from the machines and into bottles. The bottles were sterile and packaged, but the advice from the staff was to wash the equipment in hot soapy water, and then it was safe to use. No sterilising there.

I sometimes dont always boil the kettle (he's 4 months old now - should be 2 months though). Sometimes I use boiled cooled water. I know your question was about the powder though so I dunno. I agree there is so much conflicting advice.

Gillyx

Pretty much the same as nicki, we sterilise bottles but not bowls or spoons, they get dishwashered. Another reason to sterilise is that bacteria grows fast in milk so even after washing they may not be 'clean' iykwim?

madtrekker

I've never really bothered sterlising anything for my two (they were breastfed though). Once weaned at 6 months, they just used bowls, spoons, cups etc that were properly washed in hot soapy water, but never sterilised. At that age they lick the floor etc. anyway and a bit of dirt is good to boost their immune system, right??! Well, they've never been poorly with a tummy bug.

That said, I wouldn't have thought milk powder would dissolve properly in cold water. I would go with a previous suggestion of making up a big thermos in the morning and using the hot / warm water in that to make up the milk.

madtrekker

Oh, and on the subject of sterilising, if you have a dishwasher, they run at temps hot enough to effectively sterilise everything anyway. In fact in quite a few countries (including the US I think), sterilisers aren't very common and it's the norm just to bung bottles in the dishwasher and you can even buy special baskets to hold all the teats properly etc. to do this.

Bitsy_Beans

I still sterilised the bottles at 6 months, stopped once they were crawling though.
As for plates, spoons etc never sterilised a single thing. Never saw the point as I didn't have the capacity to store them to keep them sterilised.