How To Make a Baby Bottle: From Bottle Prep to Feed with Baby Brezza

85% of parents hand wash bottles, breast pump parts, and accessories daily. Some of those who do not handwash resort to using a dishwasher for their cleaning. However, it is important to understand that dish-washed and hand-washed items will not be sterilised. A dishwasher can only clean your feeding equipment as it will not reach a high enough temperature for the minimum amount of time required to be sterilised. Germs can still remain which means baby bottle parts and accessories must then be sterilised after they have been in the dishwasher or hand washed. This can be a long process.

Sterilising can be done in many ways. More traditional methods include boiling the products in hot water or using microwave steam bags. However, these methods are often time-consuming and can be possibly unsafe. Both of these methods of sterilisation could burn as boiling water can splash onto skin and hot steam can also burn.  

In recent years, both UV and steam sterilisers have made their way onto the market. Whilst UV sterilisers may appeal to more tech-savvy parents, UV light only kills germs if it directly shines on the product surfaces that contain bacteria. This can be problematic for bottle teats and dummies which are likely to miss the up-and-down straight path where the UV light shines. Whereas steam, which is a gas, can easily spread across the entire surface of a bottle or pump part regardless of shape. Plus, some UV sterilisers can require a very long cleaning time to kill 99.9% of germs – upwards of 60 minutes!