Confused about Sterilising & Expressing

[Charlie:-)]

Just started expressing this week so that hubby can feed Maia the last feed before we go to bed and help out during the night at weekends.

So far she has had 2 bottles and has no problem going back to breast.

I'm a little confused about sterilising. Im using a Tommee Tippee microwave steriliser and bottles. The instructions say that once sterilised bottles will keep sterile for 3 hours if i dont open the steriliser.

Does this mean that I cant sterilise everything in the morning for the day and that I should be sterilising a bottle just before I need it, or at least 3 hours before?

What about when Maia wakes at 50am for a feed, this will have to be me who gives her breast unless hubby wants to stand around for 10 minutes sterilising bottles, somehow I cant see him agreeing to that!

Can I sterilise a bottle and put expressed milk in it and store in fridge until needed later that night or does the bottle need to be used straight away as it wont be sterile?

When it comes to warming up my breast milk it says not to do this in a microwave and that I should use a bowl of water at 37oC and keep topping it up so it remains at temperature till the milk reaches 37oC. Surely this is going to take forever for the milk to warm up, is there an easier way I can do this?

This is really confusing me and makes me think its a waste of time and such a long drawn out process, but then again we want hubby to be able to feed Maia.

Hope you lovely ladies have some great suggestions!

 

[charlie84]

I can only tell you what i have done when i tried Calleigh with bottles. My steriliser is a steam microwave one but the items will remain sterile for 24hrs if unopened, so maybe if you didnt want to buy a different steriliser you could use cold water sterilisation where you could sort the bottles out before bed and they will remain sterile till you take them out to use.

One way i did do it also was as the bottle i was pumping into was sterile, once i had expressed enough i would put the top on as it came with a lid and store in the fridge. Then when i was to use it later take the lid off and put on the teat top. However this still doesnt solve not having to wait for sterilisation in the middle of the night.

As with regards to warming the milk up i just had a jug of hot water and popped the bottle in and kept testing on my arm till i thought it had reached a nice temp. I must say i have never heard of the keeping the water at 37C god that would take forever to warm your milk up.

Sorry if i have waffled on
Hope i have helped in some way

 

[Suzie and Faith]

I risk getting yelled at (I have no idea on the proper 'rules') - I follow my mums advice (as am living with her).
I keep formula made up in a sterilised bottle in the fridge (not for longer than 24 hours) and when warming any milk (expressed or other) all I do is stand the bottle in a bowl of boiling water until the milk is a nice temperature - anything from room temp to slightly warmer.

I have the same steriliser and I have just given up with the steam bit - i'm now using milton tablets - 1 tablet in 5 litres of water in the steriliser container. Lasts 24 hours - once in the water they are sterile in 15 min and they can stay in the water until you use them! Much easier than microwaving i find!!

hope this is of some use!

 

[DebbieM]

Firstly, I recommend cold water sterilising over anything else. You can chuck anything in there after it has been washed with hot soapy water and rinsed and only needs to be changed (the water) every 24 hours and you can open it as often as required.

Secondly, when you freeze your milk, all you need to do is put it into a bowl of warm (not hot) water and leave it to thaw. If you need it quickly, you can keep adding warm water to the jug/bowl. As soon as it has thawed, you can put it straight into a bottle and then straight into the fridge and keep it there for 24 hours. Anything more than 24 hours after it's been defrosted, chuck it!

Hope that helps

 

[kalia]

I'm with Babybee on this.

You don't need bottles to be sterile on the outside, just inside and the teat. So within 3 hours, put the bottles together, including lid, and they stay sterile as nothing can get in to make them unsterile. Express milk into them as and when then put the top back on and store in the fridge for up to 24 hours. You can mix milk that is expressed at different times but it would all need to be used within 24 hours of expressing the oldest milk.

We have always used hotter water than 37 degrees. We put a bowl under the running hot tap and have the bottle in that until it seems hot enough.

So no excuses for OH not to do the 5am feed and let you have some well deserved sleep

I exclusivelt express so I need the breastpump every few hours anyway. You may need to work out when you are going to use it - it will be uncomfortably hot for at least 15 mins after sterilising.