My baby is five months old, when should I stop strealising his bottles?

Question

When I do stop steralising his bottles what is the best method to clean them, boil??

Answer 1

You should know that by now if you've been sterilising for 5 months. They usually say after 6 months as your baby's immune system can cope a bit better but some people sterilise for up to a year.

Answer 2

All babies are vulnerable to the germs that cause diarrhoea and vomiting, and so it is best to continue sterilising bottles and teats (and breast pump equipment) until your baby is one year old and has built up more resistance to bacteria generally. The recommended age for starting solids is now six months, and bowls, plates and spoons can generally be cleaned using your usual washing-up method from this age.

Cleaning your baby's bottles and teats in a dishwasher will not always heat them to the right temperature to kill off all known bugs, so it's generally still advisable to sterilise after washing. If you do want to rely on your dishwasher alone, it needs to be run on a hot programme at a minimum temperature of 80 degrees centigrade. The bottles then need be filled with feed straight away as the dishwasher will not leave them in a completely sterile condition.

It may seem pointless to sterilise feeding equipment when your baby is crawling around the floor and putting all sorts of things in his mouth, but the bugs that stick to milk curds can be dangerous. Your baby's immune system will grow stronger into the second year and he'll be able to combat infections more easily.

Answer 3

when your child starts to go on the floor a lot or eating finger food is a good time to stop steralising bottles, because the child needs to build up there own amune system, if they are already on the floor picking thing's up and putting them in its mouth then it's time to get rid of the steraliser,just wash all the babys bottles and plates dummys and things as you would your own ,a bottle brush is handy.....

Answer 4

According to pediatricians in my area, you only need to steralize bottles and nipples before the first use. After that, you can wash well in hot soapy water or the dishwasher. Kids that have everything steralized actually have slightly weaker immune systems because they aren't being exposed to stuff. Just like the parents that freak about little ones getting a cold - hate to say it but it is good for them to get sick now and then (I'm talking colds, not pnuemonia or anything). That is the body's way of developing a stronger immune system. The more we shield them, the worse it is when they are finally exposed. Just wait, the first year they are in daycare or school, they spend all winter sick being exposed to all sorts of new stuff!

Answer 5

I know a lot of people stop sooner, but I sterilized my daughter's bottles the whole time she was using them. Until 16 months. I washed them in hot soapy water, and then bring them to a boil on the stove and let boil for about 5 minutes. I did the nipples for only 2 min., cuz they tend to get sticky if overdone.

Answer 6

I have a 3 year old boy. Personally I remember stopping that when he turned about 1 year old. Yes, I did boil bottles and nipples. All my best.

Answer 7

You need to keep sterilizing until about one year old or until baby goes on to cows milk. It is especially important to sterilize if you make up a lot of bottles at once and store them in the fridge as bacteria will have a field day. If baby gets a bug it can make them very very poorly.

Answer 8

You can stop sterilizing now......becuz your baby is older and his immune system is better than when he was a newborn......

Also these are regular everyday germs that the whole family is exposed to so it won't hurt him.....
I stopped sterilizing when my daughter was about 3-4 months old.

But you should still boil your water for formula feeding.

And you don't need to give your baby any juice or water at all.

And yes the best way to sterilize is to boil them in a big pot of water.

Answer 9

I can't beleive everyone is saying to sterilize them! Crazy! Wash them out with HOT soapy water and rinse well. Maybe sterilize 1 time per week. Babies need to be exposed to SOME bugs to develop their immune system. I have been bottle feeding my 7 month old from the BEGINING and not sterilizing that often, and he is 100% sick-free. If your baby has special immune issues, than obviously it might be different, but seriously, these people saying to sterilize are freaks!!!

Answer 10

We always boiled our stuff. The doc told us that once they are eating jar food and cheerios there was no need because you can't sterilize the cheerios and jar food. That made sense to me...but we kept sterilizing the bottles for a while after that just to be on the safe side.