When to sterilise dummies and bottles

You likely won’t take your bottles to hospital as they don’t have the facilities to allow us to wash and sterilise there. If you’re formula feeding it’s best to take in the pre-made bottles of your brand of formula and they come with the teats etc so only need those. We took the dummies in and they gave us a pot of sterilising solution to use for those x

I'm just taking the pre-made ones to hospital but I tried our steriliser out the other day and the bottles still aren't dry so I've no idea how they're meant to dry as it says don't use a towel xx

@Samantha ahh I didn’t think of that! Makes sense thank you so much xx

Hospitals have sterilising tubs (Milton buckets) for pump parts etc. depends how long you’re in I suppose but as above, take pre made formula if that’s what you’re using and they come with the teats. Bottles only last 24 hours once sterilised so it’s best to wait until you’re home from hospital to do this. Also, bottles don’t need to be dry inside or outside its sterile water. As long as you’ve followed instructions as per however you’re sterilising. I’d recommend Milton tablets and the bucket tbh it’s the easiest thing ever. Fill the bucket up with fresh water, put the tablet in, in goes the bottles and 20 mins later it’s done. We would rinse the dirty bottles as we went during the day then at night clean them all, rinse and chuck in the bucket. They’d all be ready for the next morning to assemble and go again

@Samantha I’ve bought these pre made bottles. but how do we warm them in hospital? X

@Megan I’ve heard rinsing the bottles undoes the sterilising that’s been done? Apparently you should just use them straight out of the tub is this true xx

@Kas yep you should never rinse after coming out of the bucket. When I said rinse above it was after washing with hot soapy water, you rinse the soap off with cold, then in the bucket. Don’t rinse after you take them out they won’t be sterile then. Always wash your hand before you take the bottles out of the water too :)

@Kas we just asked the midwives to heat them up. No idea how they done it but they did. Tbh, they’ll be room temp and not freezing so it’s totally fine to feed them just straight from packet x

@Samantha ah thank you! I’ve heard some babies won’t drink them cold so I just wondered how I’d go about getting them heated xx

Our hospital has sterilising facilities/feeding room/fridges and freezers/pumps/microwaves for sterilising/warmers so that’s not strictly true - check what is on offer on your trust postnatal ward. Ours even does tours so you know what to expect!

@Madeleine where abouts are you if you don’t mind me asking? That sounds amazing having all of that available! Definitely jealous as both the hospitals I’ve been in have 0 🙃

@Samantha East London way, but don’t get too jealous I had a diabolical time in postnatal back in 2021 so am bricking it for this time (and hopeful for a quick in and out job 🫣). I don’t think the grass is generally greener anywhere!

@Madeleine ah ok! Aww no, hopefully this time is better 🤞🏼 no definitely not! Just everywhere is so different isn’t it!

@Samantha I’m holding onto the fact that it was still Covid and whilst staffing still isn’t the greatest it really was dire and everyone was at the end of their tether!