When it comes to sterilising, items such as bottles, teats, certain plastic toys, feeding cutlery, plates etc must all be sterilised until the recommended age of at least 2 years old¹. Sterilising these items will help keep your baby healthy, and safe from illnesses such as sore tummies, diarrhoea and vomiting¹.

When it comes to sterilising your baby’s items, no matter if you are giving them expressed breast milk or formula milk, the following steps need to be taken.

• Before you start sterilising, all items (bottles, teats etc) must be cleaned with hot, soapy water. This should be done as soon after feeding as possible.
• Clean the bottles with a bottle brush to ensure that all the left-over milk is removed. This brush must ONLY be used for cleaning your baby’s bottles. Use the small brush to clean the teats – you can even turn them inside out for a good clean in the warm, soapy water².
• Salts should not be used to clean teats as this can be harmful to your child².
• If you would prefer to, your baby’s feeding equipment can also be put into the dishwasher, however this does not mean that they are sterilised, only cleaned.
• Rinse everything in clean cold water before sterilising.

Milton makes the sterilising process easy and fuss-free. Moms will need:

• A Milton sterilising unit
• Milton fluid or Milton tablets
• Cold tap water

Steps to sterilising with Milton

• Always read the instructions on your Milton product.
• Simply fill your Milton unit with 4L of cold water – there is an indicator inside the unit to let you know how full it should be.
• Add in the required amount of Milton – if using Milton fluid add 50ml or 2 capfuls to a full Milton unit, and if using Milton tablets use 2 tablets per full Milton unit.
• Immerse the baby’s items into the water, making sure that there are no air bubbles in the bottles.
• Close the lid and in just 15 minutes your baby’s bottle, teats and other items will be ready to use.
• Make sure to wash your hands before handling your baby’s recently sterilised items.
• Shake off any excess mixture.
• Remember, there is no need to rinse the bottles.
• All of the items can stay in the solution until needed.
• The solution needs to be renewed every 24 hours.

Once all the washing prep has been done, sterilising is a simple process. There are different ways in which to sterilise:

• Cold water sterilisation,
• Steam sterilising, and
• Boiling

When it comes to cold water sterilisation, Milton has been a mom favourite for over six decades, with many moms learning about the product from their moms. It is a trusted product, which offers mom peace of mind when it comes to the health of their baby.