Bottle teat
Washed inside out, never with salt, and the part that boiling wears out first — which is why the health service names the method's cost as well as its parameters.
Precautions
- Check the manufacturer's instructions
- Rinse thoroughly afterwards
In detail
The teat is the part of a feeding bottle with its own instructions, and all three of them are specific enough to be lost when the guidance is summarised. It is washed by hand and TURNED INSIDE OUT, with a small teat brush, in hot soapy water as soon as possible after a feed, then rinsed in clean cold running water. A prohibition follows that has nothing to do with efficacy: DO NOT USE SALT TO CLEAN TEATS, because it can be dangerous for the baby. That is an old domestic practice named and ruled out. In sterilising, the teat is the part that pays. Boiling works — at least ten minutes, everything kept under the surface — but the health service records the cost in the same breath: teats deteriorate faster with this method and should be checked regularly for damage. In a cold-water solution the thing to watch is geometry rather than chemistry: no air may be trapped inside a teat, or the solution never reaches the surface it is supposed to sterilise. Afterwards, teats are best left in the steriliser until needed. If they come out, the teat and lid go on immediately, with washed hands or sterile tongs.
Why
- Bottle teat is explained by Cleaning, sanitising and disinfecting
The clearest statement of the distinction in the register, and it comes from a national health service: a dishwasher CLEANS feeding equipment and does not STERILISE it.
- Bottle teat is explained by Contact time
Sources for this page
Sources
National Health Service (NHS), United Kingdom · Government or regulator
Relied on for: That teats are turned inside out and washed by hand with a small teat brush in hot soapy water then rinsed in cold running water, that salt must not be used to clean teats because it can be dangerous for the baby, that teats deteriorate faster with boiling and should be checked for damage, and that no air may be trapped in teats in a cold water solution. (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 .