What you need to know about cleaning and sanitizing your baby's bottles
Finding the best baby bottles is one of the biggest decisions you'll make for your baby, along with choosing the diapers and other products that work best for you and your baby. But when it comes to bottles, they can quickly become a breeding ground for germs and bacteria. If cleaning and sanitizing your baby’s bottles makes you feel stressed out, never fear—with a few simple tips and tricks, you can keep your baby’s bottles fresh, clean, and sanitized for every use.
How Can I Keep My Baby’s Bottles Clean?
One of the most important steps in keeping your baby’s bottles clean is to keep up a consistent routine of washing them. Before you worry about how you should wash them, develop a consistent habit of not letting a used bottle sit around too long before rinsing and cleaning it. If you are leaving bottles to sit too long after use, they become harder to clean as breast milk and formula may begin to build up inside of them. To ensure you aren’t having to work even harder to get those bottles clean, make the process easier on yourself by not letting a used bottle sit for too long without being cleaned.
When you are ready to begin cleaning your baby bottles, take them apart. This includes screwing off the tops, removing the rubber or silicone nipples, and separating the bottle portion away from the other pieces.
Once all the pieces are separated, begin to hand scrub each separate piece with hot, soapy water. Instead of washing them directly in the kitchen sink, opt to wash them in a basin that is entirely dedicated to cleaning your baby’s bottles. To scrub each nook and cranny of the bottles’ pieces thoroughly, you may want to invest in a specialized, flexible cleaning brush that can reach deep into the openings of bottles as well as the smaller lips and edges on the nipples.
Once you’ve thoroughly scrubbed the insides and outsides of each baby bottle piece, give them a second rinse under hot water to make sure any lingering soap is washed away from the surface.
At this point, the baby’s bottles are cleansed enough to let air dry. Baby bottle parts should not be reassembled at this point—instead, lay each piece out on a drying rack and allow them to completely air dry before reassembling them for their next use. Reassembling bottles too early can allow moisture to become trapped inside the bottle. Trapped moisture can lead to the formation of mold inside the bottle.
How Can I Ensure My Baby’s Bottles Are Properly Sanitized?
After a thorough hand-washing session using hot water and soap, your baby’s bottles are cleansed and sanitized. However, for an extra layer of sanitation, you can opt to run the baby bottle pieces through a dishwasher cycle or use another method to sterilize the bottles.
Before putting any part of your baby bottles inside the dishwasher, make sure they are 100 percent dishwasher safe to avoid any ruined bottles. Often, baby bottle brands recommend washing their products on the top rack of the dishwasher to avoid any warping of plastic or silicone. If your baby bottles include removable or disposable liners, make sure they are taken out of the bottle before running them through a dishwasher cycle.
After using the dishwasher, remove the bottle pieces and allow them to completely air dry before reassembling them. Despite going through sanitizing cycles in the dishwasher, mold can still form on or inside the bottles if moisture becomes trapped inside of them.
Besides using a dishwasher to add an extra layer of sanitization to your bottle cleaning routine, other precautions can be taken to ensure your bottles stay extra clean and sanitized. For example, consider how your bottles are stored when they’re not being used. It may be best to create a designated space for bottle storage to prevent any accidental cross contamination between other products, food, dust, or other potential contaminants that bottles can accidentally contact in a kitchen space. If bottles do develop mold or are otherwise contaminated, it's safer to replace them if you have any question about whether you've gotten them completely cleaned.
Keeping a designated space or pouch for baby bottles in your diaper bag can also eliminate any potential cross contamination. Also, by storing the bottles in a separate space, you can avoid any accidental leakage of milk or formula into the bag. This also eliminates the threat of liquids ruining other items in the diaper bag or creating a large mess to clean up later.
Resources — Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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