Baby Bottles

How To Properly Sterilize Your Baby Bottles

Cleaning baby bottles is a very important step in the health of your baby. Even if you plan to breast feed, it is always best to have a few sterilized bottles on hand. Here are a few suggestions to ensure you properly sterilize the baby bottles even if it is just for daddy to enjoy feeding from time to time.

Sterilize all of your bottles so they are ready any time you need them. It is easy to sterilize bottles and you only need to do it before each use. Here are a few tips to properly sterilize your baby bottles:

This is to sterilize all the baby bottles at one time:

• A large pot filled ½ to ¾ of the way with water
• Dish soap, warm water and a bottlebrush
• Tongs to remove the bottles from the boiling water
• Dish rack for drying

Fill the large pot with water and place on the stove to boil. Gather all of the bottles together and fill the sink with dish soap. Wash each bottle with the warm, soapy water until bottles are completely covered with warm soapy water. Wash them thoroughly with the bottlebrush, making sure to also wash the nipples, the collars (especially around the threading on the bottle) and the caps. If you want to save some time, you can also do all of this in the dishwasher. There are special inserts you can purchase for your dishwasher for this very function.

Once washing the bottles is completed; place a few bottles at a time in the boiling water. This is the sterilizing part. Drop two or three nipples and collars into the water at the same time. If the water you use is well water or non-chlorinated water, leave them in the water for five to ten minutes to boil. Remove the bottles, nipples, collar using the tongs, and place them in a dish rack.

It is important for the safety of your child to not warm their baby bottles in the microwave. The milk or formula heats unevenly in the microwave, which makes hot spots that, could burn your baby. If you need to warm milk or formula run it under warm tap water or sit it in a pan of hot water until it the right room temperature. There are many items on the market that allow you to safely warm baby bottles at the correct temperature needed, if you are afraid of placing a baby bottle to warm in a pan on the stove.

Of course, many moms forget to rinse baby bottles right after they are used. Alternatively, they are left in the diaper bag, resulting in a sticky formula that remains at the bottom of the baby bottle. You cannot always remove that with a bottlebrush. The best way to get that out is to put about two tablespoons of uncooked rice in the fill to about ¼ to ½ of the way with soapy water. Shake it until the formula is gone then rinse the bottle.

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