Your baby is the most precious and vulnerable person in your life right now, and it is important that you get the care for this fragile little human being absolutely right. This means listening to and reading experts and their opinions. It also means taking things with a common sense approach. Whilst there is plenty to learn, some things are just simple and clear.
Cleaning feeding equipment is one of those common-sense items. This is also something that you cannot afford to get wrong. Your baby’s health and safety is an absolute priority. Cleaning the equipment that is used to feed the baby is therefore an issue of the highest priority.
It is important that you clean and sterilise your baby things so that the germs that can be taken in from unclean items will not be allowed to settle in your baby’s system. With any feeding equipment always wash as soon as possible.
First of all, wash your hands then use warm water and wash the entire bottle including the nipple inside and out. You should also have a high-quality bottlebrush to make sure that any residue from the milk has been removed. Carefully wash around the inside of the bottle with the brush because milk will settle and collect inside the grooves, for example, of the neck. Then turn the nipples inside out and, using water, clean through the holes in the nipples. And then give the bottle a thorough rinse with warm water. You can wash the bottles in dishwashers, just be sure not to try and wash the nipples in the dishwasher because this will spoil them.
Sterilisation is vital
Sterilisation is absolutely vital. Babies have immune systems that are still developing. This means they cannot fight germs like adults can. This means that a small illness such as a cold for an adult could be a very serious illness and even a life threatening condition for a baby.
It is for this reason that it is appropriate you sterilise bottles, nipples, caps and any other feeding equipment, to protect against any germs that may be present within them. Once your baby starts to crawl sterilisation does not need to be a factor, as long as you remember to clean the equipment with hot water and dry it well. Once again, it is important to remember that you can use the dishwasher to wash equipment, and this is sometimes the best way due you to the fact that the bottle, for example, will be washed well by a dishwasher.
It cannot be stressed enough that cleaning feeding equipment should be your main priority as a parent. Any chance that germs can collect in feeding equipment can have massive consequences for the baby. For the first nine months of the baby’s life, everything that comes into contact with the baby’s mouth and therefore the immune system must be clean and sterilised on a daily basis. This can prevent illness, and worse, from happening.