Keeping your baby safe is always the priority. The question is “do we really need to sterilize our baby bottles?”. Well, to decide whether to sterilize the baby bottle is really depends on the cleanliness of the water source. If your home is not part of the municipality with clean drinking water, sterilize baby bottles are important to keep our baby safe from sickness. You may want to sterilize your baby bottles for below circumstances:
- Premature Baby or the Baby is Sick
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), sterilization is important if the baby has weak immune system or was born prematurely. Sterilization will help to protect your baby against infection such as diarrhea, food poisoning and vomiting issues.
- First Bought the Bottles
We do not know about the environment where the bottles was produced or the cleanliness of the delivery process, it is advisable to sterilize all the first bought bottles. Safe is better than sorry. After all, modern technology has made sterilization much simpler and easier now.
- Using Second-Hand Baby Bottles
In any event we are using the second-hand baby bottles, for instance bottles used by older siblings at home or given by friends or relatives, it will be good if we sterilize the baby bottles prior getting our new born baby start using it. Again, this is to prevent our baby from getting any infection as their immune system is still weak.
If your house has clean drinking water, you may opt to wash your baby bottles with soap and rinse well after each use. However, it is also no harm to use the sterilizer once a day to ensure the bottles are clean at all time. Sterilizing your baby bottles are easy and convenient. You may choose any of the following methods that fit your needs:
- Sterilize with Boiling Water
This is one of the economical ways to sterilize your baby bottles because you do not need to purchase any equipment. All you need is just water and clean pot. Place water in the pot. Then, put all your freshly washed baby bottles in the water. Push down any bottles on the surface. Place the pot on the stove and start boiling it about 10 minutes. Remove the bottles using tongs. You are done with sterilizing your baby bottles! It is easy. The only weakness of this method is you have to ensure you are there during the sterilizing process.
- Electric Sterilizer
If you have an electric sterilizer at home, you just need to place all baby bottles and teats in the sterilizer. Follow the manufacturer instructions to load the amount of water in the sterilizer, and switch on the sterilizer. It needs about 10 minutes and your baby bottles are ready to use. The biggest advantage of using an electric sterilizer compare to boiling water with pot is you do not have to monitor the whole sterilizing process. You can do other stuff while sterilizing the bottles with electric sterilizer. In other words, it is more convenient and flexible.
- UV Sterilizer
UV Sterilizer is riding on the low heat drying process. Bacteria and viruses are eliminated using the power of ultraviolet light. Some of the UV sterilizer are tested 99.9% effective to kill bacteria. In addition, it comes with super mirror on all sides for effective sterilization. Sterilization process required is about 10-15 minutes. Again, it is highly effective, convenient, and flexible. However, it is also the most expensive method compare to using the boiling water and electric sterilizer.
In short, sterilization is necessary for first time baby bottles, second-hand bottles, premature baby and newborn babies. Sterilization is a great way to ensure your baby is safe from harmful bacteria. After all, you do not need to sterilize after each use, you can choose to do it on daily basis.
Here at Motherly Love, we offer Electric Sterilizer and UV Sterilizer that fit your needs. Browse through our collection today!
References:
1. “Cleaning and Sterilising Baby Bottles” Prenancybirth and Baby, November 2019.
2. “Sterilising Baby Bottles – Your Pregnancy and Baby Guide” NHS, 24th September 2019.
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/sterilising-bottles/
3. Christin Perry “When and How to Sterilize Baby Bottles” theBump, February 2020.
https://www.thebump.com/a/how-to-sterilize-baby-bottles
4. Michelle Roth, BA, IBCLC “How to Sterilize Baby Bottles (7 Easy Methods)” MomLovesBest, 15th March 2020
https://momlovesbest.com/feeding/bottles/sterilize-baby-bottles