New parents have enough to do, like trying to get some sleep, so here’s a tip that can save you some precious time: You can skip the sterilising step.
Photo by Penelope Waits.
Even if the instructions on bottles, pacifiers and breast pumps recommend you sterilise these items, Hint Mama quotes several parenting experts who say that there’s generally no reason to sterilise them. Back in the day when water supplies weren’t reliably clean, sterilising made sense, but, today, simply cleaning with hot soapy water will get these things clean enough.
However, Hint Mama notes that if your baby was premature or sick, you should be more careful about sterilising bottles. If in doubt, do what your nurse recommends.
Today’s Hint: Skip the Sterilizing Step [Hint Mama]
Comments
4 responses to “Don’t Bother Sterilising Baby Bottles, Pump Parts And Other Baby Items”
that makes sense. Babies have their hands all over the floor and furniture legs, etc where there’s dirt and dust. So, sterilising one thing and skipping the rest doesn’t make sense. Babies will eat dirt and dust and other things !
These are great articles. Well done LifeHacker. There are many news sources that could learn a lot from you.
Eh, we have a microwave steriliser so it’s not that hard. After you’ve washed them all up, chuck em all in the container with 200ml of water and into the microwave.
I got an electric one before bub was born, wasnt hard to use, sure it took 10mins and i got a few small burns when trying to get a bottle ready immediately after the cycle finished. I never sterilized the pacifiers though. Perhaps if you wash the bottles and pump immediately after use it would be fine, but i often just rinsed them and left them till we either ran out or i did a big wash. So sterilizing probably not a bad idea for the lazy ones as bacteria loves to grow in milk.
Next time around i may not be so fastidious, especially now i have a dishwasher.
Well since it is the recommendation of the mateernal health network as well as hospitals and other places (including the manufacturers) and it really doesn’t take long I think I’ll keep doing it.
Certainly since the counter argument is a bunch of “experts” with no basis for saying no other than personal opinion and gut feels. Cite a study or at least some research before making recommendations that could affect babies health.
This blanket advice is terrible; Your baby’s first year is when they are most vulnerable to illness. Milk (lactose) + moisture makes baby bottles and pump accessories a perfect environment for bacteria to grown in; Soap and water is fine if you’re able to scrub all the crevices and parts of baby bottles, but its not always that easy; Sterilising ensures its thoroughly cleaned; You can smell the difference between sterilised and unsterilised bottles; Skip on the sterilising after the first year but don’t risk your child’s well being by skipping before that;