Sterilising your baby’s bottles

Sterlising your baby’s bottles, feeding equipment and even certain, plastic toys is an important step in keeping your child healthy. If not sterilised properly harmful bacteria that can be present in tap water, milk¹ and food and even your hands can accumulate and make your baby ill. Simply washing these items with water and soap is not sterilising, although it is an important step in the sterilising process.

What can I sterilise?

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.

What do I need to do before sterilising?

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.

What do I need to sterilise my baby's items with Milton?

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.

How do I sterilise?

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.