Sterilizer v. Dishwasher

[Anonymous]

Do you need to buy a sterilizer for bottles and breast pump accessories if your dishwasher has a sterililzer control already? Does the sterilizer work faster?

[Anonymous]

We use a sterilizer for bottles. I don't know about you, but we just don't run our dishwasher often enough for it to be useful for daily bottles, etc. Sterilizer takes 3 minutes in the microwave.

[Anonymous]

Ditto what the PP said. I have the Avent sterilizer and it takes 2 minutes in the microwave and holds 5 or 6 bottles.

[Anonymous]

The lactation consultant told me just to take soapy water on a papertowel and handwash and airdry.

However, if the dishwasher is getting full, I'll put any bottles in there to fill it up, but I don't run the dishwasher unless it is full.

[Anonymous]

I had the big avent microwave sterilizer that worked well, but was bulky. I also got a pack of the Medela sterilizer bags that go into the microwave and thought they were SO much easier. Didn't take up much space, travelled easily, and worked well. You might not be able to do ALL of your pump stuff at once in the bags, but its easy enough to run it a few times if you need to on occassion.

[Anonymous]

The Avent sterilizer works great! I used it for the first couple of months and when I became less cautious the older my daughter got I just popped the bottles in the dishwasher. Would definitely recommend the sterilizer!

[Anonymous]

I was told by my lactation consultant NOT to sterilize the pump parts or bottles too frequently.
The plastics break down at higher temperatures. Hot soapy water is actually better for cleaning on a daily basis.