Sterilizing bottles and equipment

It’s essential to sterilize your breast pump, bottle, soothers or any other equipment that comes into contact with milk and your baby. Germs in milk can be particularly harmful to a baby with an immature immune system. Forgetting to properly clean and sterilize your baby’s feeding equipment can lead to tummy upset and diarrhoea.

Before using your new baby feeding equipment, clean it first, either by hand with warm water, washing up liquid and a baby bottle brush. This cleans the equipment, but to kill off the last of the germs the items must then be sterilized.
Steam sterilization is quick, easy and efficient, with no chemicals involved – just the heat of the steam to kill off the bugs. To protect your baby from illness, be sure to sterilize all feeding equipment for the first 6 months. If you’ve introduced solids before 6 months it’s wise to sterilize the bowls and spoons. After that time, only milk feeding equipment like bottles and breast pumps need to be sterilized until your child is one year old.

We recommend that you wash and then sterilize all of your baby's feeding equipment for at least the first year, in order to protect your baby from harmful bacteria. Use a steriliser in your kitchen and choose one that fits the space available. Any steriliser will safely sterilise your equipment but some will do it more quickly, or have extra features. It's a good idea to practice using your steriliser before your baby is born to get familiar with its operation and options.