Baby bottle
The one object here where cleaning is explicitly not enough, and the national health service says so: a dishwasher cleans feeding equipment and does not sterilise it.
Precautions
- Check the manufacturer's instructions
- Rinse thoroughly afterwards
In detail
Infant feeding equipment is the clearest case in this catalogue of the distinction the hygiene records already model, stated by a national health service rather than inferred. Cleaning and sterilising are two operations, in that order, and the second does not replace the first. CLEANING comes immediately after a feed: hot soapy water, a dedicated bottle brush and a small teat brush, teats turned inside out and washed by hand, then rinsed in clean cold running water. A dishwasher will CLEAN the equipment and WILL NOT STERILISE IT, with items placed facing downwards. One prohibition is specific and easily missed — do not use salt to clean teats, because it can be dangerous for the baby. STERILISING follows, until the baby is at least twelve months old, to protect against infection and particularly diarrhoea and vomiting.
Related
- Baby bottle has the component Bottle teat
Sources for this page
Sources
National Health Service (NHS), United Kingdom · Government or regulator
Relied on for: That equipment is sterilised until the baby is at least 12 months old, that it is first cleaned in hot soapy water with bottle and teat brushes and rinsed in cold running water, that a dishwasher cleans but does not sterilise, that salt must not be used on teats, and the parameters of the cold-water, boiling and steam methods. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The whole page: when to sterilise, cleaning before sterilising, and the three methods. Supports the claim as stated.
Last reviewed by a person on .