You are now in charge of your tiny bundle of joy and it is understandable that you want to do things that are only good for her. Maintaining cleanliness and good hygiene are the keys to your baby’s good health.
She has not developed her immune system yet, which means she cannot fight all the bacteria around her. It is your responsibility to save her from the germs that could harm her.
You have now started feeding formula milk to your child. When you chose the formula milk, you spend enough time and take opinions from your doctors, fellow mothers etc. While that is important, you must also consider the bottle in which you would be feeding your baby. Using a clean bottle is a must when feeding your tiny one. Which is why you must sterilize them before use.
Sterilizing bottles
Sterilizing is the process of killing harmful bacteria, if any, present on the rim of the bottle or anywhere else. Sterilizing bottles is an important step before you feed your baby with the bottle. This should be kept in mind when you formula feed your baby or feed her your expressed breastmilk.
How to sterilize the bottles?
There are different ways to sterilize your baby’s bottles:
Before using any of the below methods, you need to rinse the bottle, nipple, and lid in soapy water and clean them.
Boiling – Boiling baby bottles is the most common way to sterilize the bottle all across the world.
- Place all the feeding equipment in a large vessel filled with enough water and immerse all the equipment in the water.
- Let the water boil for 5-7 minutes. Turn off the gas and let the water cool off naturally.
- Clean your hands and the kitchen surface where you will place the feeding equipment. If you are feeding right away, avoid using a cloth to wipe the bottle, instead shake the bottle and let the water drip out.
- If you are not feeding right away, put the feeding equipment in a dry container and keep the container in the refrigerator.
- Do not leave the boiling water within the reach of children.
Steaming/Microwave
- This method is as good as boiling. These are electrical equipment’s that heat the temperature and in turn, kill all the bacteria
- Leave the bottles in the sterilizer for as much time required
- The bottles should be kept in this sterilizer with its mouth facing downwards
- When using the microwave, make sure your microwave is completely cleaned.
