77: Are You Over-Sterilizing Your Baby Bottles

Three important factors to cleaning baby bottle or pump parts.

Are you over sterilizing your baby bottles? Most infant feeding items do not require sterilization beyond the initial washing to get off any factory gunk or germs. If you notice your baby bottle isn’t working quite like it used to, it might be overheating or over sterilization. If your baby is not premature, very young, and does not have any special gut or immune considerations, then repeat sterilization following every feed is often not necessary. In fact overheating or repeat sterilization can impact the integrity of your bottle and pump parts. For example, some (if not all) of the parts are often plastic which can become warped with repeated overheating. Once they are warped the venting system or the sealing integrity can be compromised leaving you with a less functional or leaky bottle. 

What is worth considering is what else the bottle parts come into contact with: such as a drying rack, sponge, or the sink. These are often places where germs can accumulate and a simple solution is using a clean cloth to set parts to dry on which can be washed more frequently, a dedicated bottle or parts brush which can be fully cleared and dried, and a dedicated bowl to use as a mini sink or holding spot so parts don’t need to be put directly at the bottom of the sink.

Even though over sterilizing isn’t necessary, letting used bottles sit around long after the feeding is over can also harbor unwanted bacteria. One helpful tip if you are not able to wash it somewhat quickly is to have a bowl of warm mildly soapy water. You can quickly empty, dismantle, and rinse the parts and put them there for easy washing later. Some moms will also put recently pumped milk into the refrigerator right in the collection container with a top to organize later.

For times where sanitization is necessary a hot washing cycle followed by a drying cycle on most dishwashers is considered effective according to the CDC. Alternatively 5 minutes in boiling hot water is also effective. There are also microwave steam bags, although I have no clue what the microwave does to plastic parts upon repeated use. These are all options that would save you money if you don’t want to invest in a countertop sanitizer when most full term newborns do not need one.

I hope this episode takes some of the over-sterilization pressure off and offers some simple guidelines to keeping your infant feeding items clean. At the end of the day, if you are managing these infant feeding parts and pieces, I encourage you to find a rhythm that works for you since there is never a one size fits all routine.