bottle cleaning?

[Jem75]

so i have been pumping more and bottle feeding and usually clean the bottles in dishwasher or super hot water by hand with soap and water...is this enough? Do I need to do sterilizing too?

Also - how much are your babies eating? how many times a day and about how many ounces per feeding?

thanks!

[AmyC311]

Ok so I went to the manufacturer's website for our bottles (Nuks) to see what they said...and they said it is  recommended to sterilize them every single time. Also they said to sprinkle salt inside and outside the nipple and rinse thoroughly in addition to cleaning...I have no idea why! I think it gets the smaller bacteria particles? Anyways, yeah..they said sterilizing is recommended even though they were careful to say that since no one really knows about microwaves not to use them...but I think that is a legal thing. I use the BPA free bottles so I am not too worried about that.

The website did say that dishwashing can be too abrasive and ruin the designs or the measurement markers.

[evthing4reason]

I think they only reccomend steralizing them once a week NOT everyday, it can deteriate the nipples and plastic very quickly. some nipples they say NOT to boil them again after the first time

When Carter was younger i did it once a week, then now mayber every 2-3 weeks. In the beggining I boiled his water to mix the formula with for 5 minutes, now just 2 minutes and at 5 months i get to stop!

[AmyC311]

I used the Medulla sterilizer bags when I was pumping...but I switched to a Munchkin Sterilizer because it was only 20 bucks and lasts forever vs buying more baggies. The baggies are good though when you travel!

[Whitneylauren]

Like Amy I hand wash all of my bottles and breast pumping equipment then I put them in this bag in the microwave to sterilize. Medulla makes the bags, and I remember thinking that they were inexpensive.
Mark only drinks one bottle a day, but I pump daily so there is a lot of equipment to wash

[AmyC311]

I handwash the bottles with hot water and antibacterial soap (Dawn) and then I use my microwave sterilizer. Blake only uses 4 bottles a day...6 or sometimes 7 ounces each time...so it isn't that big a deal for me to just stick them in the sterilizer. The annoying part is the handwashing to me...ugh. :)

[justice6920]

I am with the other ladies.... I wash them with soap and hot water.... I havent yet boiled them and I guess it would be a good idea every month or so.... But hot water and soap should be just fine!

Noah eats about 4-6 0z every 3-4 hours.... he varies sometimes during the day bc he is napping alot less and up more....He will eat 3-5 from 7am to about 7pm.... He has one 6 oz bottle before bed around 8:30 and will sleep most the time through the night....

[ovaz129]

I am with Irish... soap and hot water... although I don't use organic soap.  Then, about once every week or two I boil them, including the nipples.

Leighton eats 3-5oz./feeding.  She primarily will eat about 4oz. though at each feeding.  From a 6am-7pm time frame, she eats 5 times.  Roughly at 6am, 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm, and occasionally she will take in an ounce or two right before bed between 7-8pm.  But, she also eats during the night.  She wakes up between 12-1am, and then again around 4am.  At those feedings, she usually eats 2-3oz.  

She won't eat any sooner than every 3-4 hours.  In fact, she gets really upset if you attempt to put the bottle near her lips any sooner than 3 hours :)  She is a real pistol!

[Irish741]

For the most part I am only washing the bottles and nipples in really hot water by hand. I am using the soap by Babyganics. This stuff is made with organic materials so that way Jack is not taking in any chemicals if there happens to be any residue of sorts left on the bottles or nipples. I would say about every other week though I throw all the bottles and nipples in the dishwasher for a thorough wash. I think the hot soapy water should be sufficient. Every once in a while though I do boil his pacifiers but only when I think about it.

As for feeding amounts. I am going anywhere between 4-6 oz. We are doing strictly formula now due to all my breast feeding issues. Since I am doing closer to 4 oz per feeding of formula (I backed off from 5.5 oz due to a lot of spitting up) I am feeding him every 2-2.5 hours during the day. We still get a really great stretch out of him at night. Just last night he went 10 hours.