hello everyone

My baby boy is 8 months old now. We were wondering when its suitable to stop sterilising his bottles, dummies and feeding equipment. We currently sterilise everything!

I have had mixed answers and just wondering when everyone else stopped. I want to keep him free from germs however at the same time dont want to stop him from building an immunity either.
Thanking you all in advance smile

When you say sterilising - do you mean with milton or similar? All you ever need to do from birth is wash with hot water and soap and rinse with hot water and air dry smile

I stopped at 7 months around there. I use to wash in hot soapy water then steam sterilise. Then went to mums a couple of months before i stopped she washed the bottles for me but did not sterilize and she said she never did sterilize so that got me thinking, why do it i understand in the early months but i guess you probably know when your son can tough out on germs.
So then i stopped and just washed in hot soapy water and rinsed in hot water he was fine.

I used a steam steriliser for the first couple of months, then just continued to wash in very hot soapy water and air dry. My son is nearly six months old now and has not been sick at all so far.

There's varying advice on this as you can see wink

From what I understand the risk is bacteria that grows from milk remnants left in bottles which is why you wash and then steralise. Dummy's dont pose the same risk, nor do toys, bowls etc. Its the formula milk that is the issue and that you want to ensure is 100% cleaned off the bottles before the next use.

I stopped steralising the bottles when I stopped using formula with DD1 and stopped at 12 months with DD2. I've noticed since I stopped steralising DD2's teats and bottles that they just dont get as clean, the teats in particular which I've just replaced with new ones.

So I'd say if you are using formula then steralise the bottles, teats etc but dont do dummies and other feeding stuff like cutlery and plates/bowls.

I agree with Happy Head. It's the formula that poses the most risk which is why you should keep sterilising bottles until they are not on formula anymore. For me that was 12months. I don't think I ever sterilised dummies, etc - just washed them in hot, soapy water.

I stopped when DS was 6 months and started to crawl. He was crawling for a couple of weeks when one day when sterilising I thought this kid is crawling around the floor picking everything up and putting it in his mouth why am I sterilising his bottles? So I stopped.

I stopped when DS was 6 months and started to crawl. He was crawling for a couple of weeks when one day when sterilising I thought this kid is crawling around the floor picking everything up and putting it in his mouth why am I sterilising his bottles? So I stopped.

That's what I was going to do, but when I checked with the MCHN, she said it's purely the formula that is the reason you need to keep sterilising bottles. Not actually anything to do with the fact they're crawling & sucking on shoes & toes, etc. LOL! Apparently the formula is really susceptible to bugs & if not completely cleaned & sterilised babies can get really sick. That's the reason I stopped sterilising everything else & just kept at it with the bottles!

Hello
thankyou so much everyone for your replies. there are soooo many different opinions on this issue. I am still a little confused. talked with child health nurse today and she said it was ok to stop sterilising as long as I washed in hot soapy water and then rinsed in hot water and air dried. I think I am just going to start by stopping the sterilising of his dummies and feeding things then move onto the bottles in a week or so smile
So hard being a mummy we just want to do the best we can!!

Milk contains a bacteria where a babies immunity cannot fight until they are 12 months. Despite the crawling and picking up things from the floor, it's a different bacteria that milk contains. However if you are washing your bottles with hot soapy water straight after the feed then it's ok. I would still sterilise once a week if you didn't want to do it everyday. I sterilise my DD bottles once a month and she's 16 months because the milk just sticks to the bottom even though I wash them after every use.

I sterilise my babies bottles and teats till they were 13mths. Better to be safe!

hello everyone

My baby boy is 8 months old now. We were wondering when its suitable to stop sterilising his bottles, dummies and feeding equipment. We currently sterilise everything!

I have had mixed answers and just wondering when everyone else stopped. I want to keep him free from germs however at the same time dont want to stop him from building an immunity either.
Thanking you all in advance smile

My son is 10mths old, as soon as he started crawling, i stopped, he goes in the dirt @ playgroup and the floors etc so there is no point i say let him go lol

We only sterilised her dummys when we bought them and just cleaned them under hot soapy water after that bottles we stopped around 12months we were getting lazy about it by then anyways so i ended up throwing out the 6 bottles (they werent in such good shape anyway) and getting just one good bottle and we just always give that a good wash after she uses it and leave it on the sick to dry