Sterilize feeding bottle for baby

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Sterilising baby bottles - NHS

It's important to sterilise all your baby's feeding equipment, including bottles and teats, until they're at least 12 months old.

This will protect your baby against infections, in particular diarrhoea and vomiting.

Before sterilising, you need to:

• Clean bottles, teats and other feeding equipment in hot, soapy water as soon as possible after feeds.
• Use a clean bottle brush to clean bottles (only use this brush for cleaning bottles), and a small teat brush to clean the inside of teats. You can also turn teats inside out then wash them in hot soapy water. Do not use salt to clean teats, as this can be dangerous for your baby.
• Rinse all your equipment in clean, cold running water before sterilising.

You can put your baby's feeding equipment in the dishwasher to clean it if you prefer. Putting feeding equipment through the dishwasher will clean it but it does not sterilise it. Make sure bottles, lids and teats are facing downwards. You may prefer to wash teats separately by hand to make sure they are completely clean.

The advice about how to clean your baby's feeding equipment applies to all of the equipment, and whether you are using expressed breast milk or formula milk.

How to sterilise baby feeding equipment

There are several ways you can sterilise your baby's feeding equipment. These include:

• cold water sterilising solution
• steam sterilising
• boiling

Cold water sterilising solution

• Follow the manufacturer's instructions.
• Leave feeding equipment in the sterilising solution for at least 30 minutes.
• Change the sterilising solution every 24 hours.
• Make sure there are no air bubbles trapped in the bottles or teats when putting them in the sterilising solution.
• Your steriliser should have a floating cover or a plunger to keep all the equipment under the solution.

Steam sterilising (electric steriliser or microwave)

• It's important to follow the manufacturer's instructions, as there are several different types of sterilisers.

Sterilising by boiling

• Make sure the items you want to sterilise in this way are safe to boil.
• Boil the feeding equipment in a large pan of water for at least 10 minutes, making sure it all stays under the surface.
• Set a timer so you do not forget to turn the heat off.
• Remember that teats tend to get damaged faster with this method. Regularly check that teats and bottles are not torn, cracked or damaged.

After you've finished sterilising

• It's best to leave bottles and teats in the steriliser or pan until you need them.
• If you do take them out, put the teats and lids on the bottles straight away.
• Wash and dry your hands before handling sterilised equipment. Better still, use some sterile tongs.
• Assemble the bottles on a clean, disinfected surface or the upturned lid of the steriliser.

Find out more about expressing breast milk and how to make up formula feeds.

Page last reviewed: 24 February 2023
Next review due: 24 February 2026

How to sterilize feeding bottles

There is a lot of controversy on the topic of the sterility of children's things and dishes. Some mothers boil everything, iron their clothes with a hot iron after each wash, sterilize bottles, nipples and spoons before each feeding. Others believe that this does not make sense, because the world is full of bacteria, and the sooner the baby adapts to the environment, the better. But, as usual, the truth is somewhere in between.

Pediatricians recommend sterilizing children's dishes and accessories for newborns, since the fragile immune system is not yet able to easily cope with intense attacks of microorganisms from the external environment. An infection picked up in the first days of life can seriously affect health, it is better not to risk it. But sterilizing the dishes of a one-year-old baby before each meal is already extra trouble. Now we will tell you everything in detail.

What is the sterilization of baby dishes

Sterilization is a procedure for the destruction of microorganisms in a liquid, product, material, utensil. In everyday life, objects are sterilized using high temperatures, most often in hot water.

Bacteria (depending on the species) begin to die at temperatures from 63 to 100 ºC. So, for example, salmonella dies at 80-90 ºC, staphylococcus at 100 ºC, some pathogenic microbes cannot withstand degrees above 60. Therefore, treating dishes with hot water or steam is quite an effective sterilization method, you just need to know how to do it right.

Popular sterilization methods

Modern mothers sterilize baby dishes in four main ways:

1. Good old boiling. To do this, bottles, nipples and other utensils are placed in a pot of water, covered with a lid and boiled for 4 to 10 minutes. At the same time, latex and silicone nipples, as well as plastic bottles, are not recommended to boil for longer than 4 minutes, they can become deformed or cracked. Glass bottles can be boiled for up to 10 minutes. After the procedure, the dishes must be removed from the water and dried.

2. With hot steam. This is how special sterilizers work, as well as double boilers (you can use a slow cooker in the appropriate mode). Bottles are placed neck down and kept in a sterilizer with steam for 5-15 minutes. Modern sterilizers for baby dishes have a built-in timer that turns off the device when sterilization is completed. Tip: do not leave the dishes in the sterilizer for a long time, if you do not use it right away - dry it, the device retains a humid environment that promotes the re-proliferation of bacteria.

3. In the microwave. To sterilize baby dishes in the microwave, take a standard bowl for microwave ovens, pour water into it, fold baby accessories and turn on the device for 6-8 minutes (maximum power mode). On sale there are also special packages for sterilization in the microwave oven and sterilizers for microwave ovens.

4. In the dishwasher. If you are a happy owner of a dishwasher, you can wash and sterilize children's dishes at the same time in the appropriate mode.

Until what age is sterilization required

Up to 4-6 months, almost all pediatricians recommend sterilizing feeding bottles with a nipple. Then the child begins to crawl, actively taste all the objects, and one way or another encounters a pathogenic environment, for which the immune system is already more or less ready to meet.

But even after six months, it is recommended to sterilize baby dishes in the following cases:

• If you are using a bottle, pacifier or pacifier for the first time after purchase.
• If the child has had an infection.
• If there were food leftovers in the children's dishes that have gone bad.

It is better to complete regular sterilization gradually. First, leave a certain number of sterilizations of dishes per day, then one, and in the rest of the feedings, just rinse the accessories with boiling water, etc.

If you are already using a feeding bottle with a removable handle, you do not need to boil the handle every time, just wash it with soap and sterilize the bottle itself and the nozzle / nipple.

You can safely say goodbye to the procedure for sterilizing children's dishes after 1.5 years.

How to sterilize baby bottles? Advice and guidance for young parents.

At some point, even mothers who happily breastfeed their babies need a feeding bottle. It can be the beginning of complementary foods, a long distance trip when you need to supplement the baby with milk, or even just a very hot summer, because of which the newborn begins to drink water. All children's dishes must be sterilized. You can use various devices or improvised means for this. Before sterilizing baby bottles, parents can choose a cleaning method and aids based on what is easier, more affordable, and more reliable for them.

Is it necessary to sterilize dishes?

Sometimes the question arises whether there is any point in sterilization. Or is this procedure a meaningless relic of the past? The answer is simple - any dishes that a child will come into contact with require special cleaning.

What sterilization gives:

• complete destruction of microbes and pathogenic bacteria;
• excludes the entry of viruses into the baby's esophagus from the surfaces of the bottles;
• reduces the risk of transmission of foodborne infections.

Primary treatment is required for new teats and bottles, as there is no guarantee that these items were in sterile conditions before being sold. Packaging particles and dust may remain on silicone and plastic. Feeding bottles also need to be sterilized regularly. Food debris that accumulates in hard-to-reach places can provoke the growth of bacteria, which will lead to indigestion.

Important! Do not strive for absolutely sterile conditions. A newborn, receiving a small "dose" of bacteria from the outside world, gradually adapts to it. The main thing is that these doses are minimal, available for absorption.

Methods for Sterilizing Baby Bottles and Cleaners

When deciding how to sterilize baby bottles, parents can choose to sterilize baby bottles or use handy tools. Effectively eliminates pollution invisible to the eye - boiling, steaming, ultraviolet. Before processing, it is worth preparing the dishes: remove old dirt, wash the walls with a sponge with detergent for baby bottles, clean hard-to-reach places with a brush, rinse with running water. What can be used for sterilization:

Boiling water

Bottles, teats and pacifiers can be boiled in water. Beforehand, all the dishes are disassembled into elements. Water is drawn into the pan, completely covering the dishes, so that nothing touches the bottom or walls. Everything is boiled for 3-7 minutes, after which it is laid out on a clean, ironed cotton towel.

Rules to be observed:

• use filtered water;
• set aside a separate pot or ladle for sterilization;
• do not leave the dishes to boil unattended - something may burn;
• only boil bottles that can withstand high temperatures;
• do not add soda, salt or other products to the water.

Boiling is the simplest and most affordable method that does not require additional costs. The effectiveness of this method has been proven; at high temperatures, all microbes, bacteria, and viruses die. But the method also has disadvantages: it is not always possible to control the long boiling process, there are no conditions for organizing boiling, dishes under the influence of boiling water can deteriorate faster.

Microwave

Microwaves inside the oven sterilize items in a relatively short period of time. But for the processing of children's dishes, water will still be required, although it does not have to be brought to a boil at all. Cleaned bottles are placed in a microwave container filled with water. Cleaning is performed for 6-8 minutes at maximum power (if any, the Boiling mode is used).

After switching off, do not immediately remove the container from the microwave - delayed boiling is possible. It is necessary to wait for the water to cool, and then take out the nipples and drying bottles on a towel. For greater safety, it is better to use a microwave sterilizer. Such devices are equipped with notches for monitoring the water level, convenient nests for dishes and a lid that prevents splashing. In modern models, tweezers are immediately included in the package, which is convenient and safe to get bottles.

The advantage of the microwave oven is the prevalence of the device, they are installed in children's hospitals and mother and child rooms at railway stations. In a microwave oven, you can sterilize the elements of breast pumps, as the interior space can accommodate quite bulky items. Cons - can not be used to clean dishes with metal elements and metallized decorations.

Multicooker

If you don't know how to sterilize silicone pacifiers in the microwave or boiling water, you can use the multicooker bowl. Processing of children's dishes in it can be of two types: in boiling water or steam. It is better to boil bottles and nipples in a bag of water, preventing them from sticking to the walls of the bowl. This method is only suitable as an urgent one, if there is no special plastic grill. If there is a grill, it is better to steam the pacifiers. The sequence of actions is as follows:

• place bottles, inserts, nipples and pacifiers on a special plastic grid with round holes so that objects do not touch each other;
• water is poured into the multicooker bowl - one liter;
• a grate with objects is installed, the lid is closed;
• for sterilization, the “Steam”, “Cooking” program is suitable, processing time is 5-10 minutes;
• after turning off the multicooker, leave it closed until the liquid cools down;
• open carefully so as not to get burned by the steam.

Instead of a multicooker, you can also use a steamer. The main thing is that the grid for objects should not be metal, but plastic. In this case, you do not have to worry that the rubber nipples will stick to the surface.

The advantages of the method are autonomy and simplicity. Cons - it is not always convenient to sterilize a couple of bottles, a massive multicooker is not installed everywhere.

Dishwasher

A number of modern bottles, pacifiers and nipples have models that can be sterilized in the dishwasher. Machines with high temperature, the possibility of steaming dishes, drying are suitable for cleaning. This processing method is the simplest, since it excludes preliminary cleaning, it is enough to remove food residues from the containers, place them inside the dishwasher and start the necessary cycle.

But parents also note some disadvantages: they don't want to drive the dishwasher for a small amount of dishes, special detergents for children's plates are not always available. Moreover, not every family can afford a dishwasher.

Electric steam sterilizer

Special sterilizers are best suited for processing baby bottles, as they are all prepared for this procedure. Especially convenient for young families who do not know how to sterilize children's dishes in a saucepan of boiling water. Although the principle of operation is also based on boiling and supplying steam to the dishes. Water is poured into the lower container, and objects to be processed are laid out on the grate from above. In sterilizers, it is possible to clean not only bottles and pacifiers from pathogenic bacteria, but also rubber toys, breast pumps, teethers, rattles without batteries.

Advantages of the steam sterilizer:

• several compartments for different types of dishes;
• fast offline cleaning;
• no need to look for a place to dry dishes safely;
• automatic shutdown at the end of work.

Parents can purchase models that already come with bottles and nipples. This completeness is convenient for mothers who practice breastfeeding and do not plan to buy a lot of bottles. For large families, devices designed for the simultaneous cleaning of several bottles are suitable.

The disadvantage of the electrosterilizer is the short period of its use. But such devices are quite in demand, if necessary, they can be transferred to relatives or sold.

Special tablets

Antiseptic tablets can be used for urgent sterilization of nipples, bottles, pacifiers. They are convenient to use on vacation, on the road, in other conditions when it is not possible to boil the dishes. The tablet is dissolved in water, bottles are filled with liquid. The downside is the very high cost of tablets and their non-proliferation.

Bags

Special ziplock bags can be used for microwave sterilization. Pacifiers are placed in them, water is poured. The closed package is placed in the microwave for 2 minutes. The method attracts with the speed of processing and simplicity, but it is not entirely convenient due to the rapid wear of the packages.

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