sterilising for babies

[Annpan]

AAAARRRGGGHHHH


I have been getting so wound up with the 'guidance' given by my healthvisitor I have got to ask on here.

For anyone who hasn't had their first child within the last 18 months you might wonder what all this is about. I am supposed to sterilise EVERYTHING that my baby puts in her mouth... she puts EVERYTHING in her mouth -toys, rattles, my mug, cups, my hand, her hand, nappies (clean usually but I foolishly put the dirty one too near sometimes and... yuk) Anyway I am fine with letting this slide a bit but I still sterilise her bottle... but I have been giving her solids for the last few weeks and I am going crazy with the amount of sterilising I am supposed to be doing.
The thing that I find even more annoying is that when she starts crawling I am to stop sterilising everything!!! so that means overnight she will be subjected to everything... I don't understand .

I know its a bit of a rant but what did you guys do with your kids?

I have tried getting info from web sites but, since most of them say not to wean till 6 months I have struggled to find any decent guide.

Is it OK to just make sure everything is really clean? is the worst that can happen that she gets a few bugs that stregthen her immune system? I have been making her home made food but the sterilising has taken so long that sometimes I just use jars... which I hate doing and it all seems total madness.

I have grown to completly HATE midwifes and healthvisitors over the past year... ok its the system I hate, not them.

AAARRRRGGGHHH

Thats the end of my wee rant.
help me

[baldowrie]

Been 10 years since my children were babies but I ignored all this thing about don't wean your babies until blah, blah, blah. Babies know when milk is not enough. My son was 8 weeks, yes 8 weeks. I got the spiel about his kidneys and his tummy etc. He eats like a horse and is skinny as a rake. He is not fussy about food, unlike other children who were forced weaned. In this respect he is completely healthy. Oh and his kidneys are perfectly fine. My cousin was weaned on day 1. Yep milk did not satisfy and healthier person you could not meet!

As for sterilising, I only did the bottles whilst he was using them and for a month or so the spoons. After that the dishwasher clean them up. But then a little dose strengthens the immune system!

[Magpie]

I BF my children, and sterilised NOTHING ever! Don't worry about it, just make sure things are clean. Well-meaning people can just scare you..

Oh, and my son was started on solids at 3 months too... his twin sis waited until 8 months... they are all different, and none of it matters much in a years' time.

[glenniedragon]

I remember this well, and had the very same conversation with various professionals when my sons were small. Ok I didn't use anything filthy and aimed for as clean as possible, but I had to ask how we sterilized things in caves? Man has been having babies for generations (obviously!) and they are actually quite sturdy little things! go with what feels right that mothers instinct is finely honed! there will probably be alternate research in a year or two that contradicts everything anyway!

take care, kind thougths
Deb

[the.fee.fairy]

Is it before 2 that you should have eaten dirt? or is it a ton of dirt in your lifetime?

Either way, my personal feelings are that a bit of dirt never hurt anyone...
But i don't have children, so i don't have pressurising health visitors either...

my mum threw a health visitor out once..she told her that i would be 'backwards' and would have stunted growth. I'm 5'11" witha degree..she was slightly off the mark there (i was born 9 weeks early and was a tiny scrap).

[Wombat]

Mrs Wombat probably remembers better than I do, but from my memory the place was clean but not sterile. Without going overbaoard, I think our immune systems need to be challenged occasionally.......

Nev

[circlecross]

once they're mobile you can'tt sterilise everything - you'd have to sterilise your carpet daily! Kids will put their fingers in their mouth after touching pram wheels - they'll pinch each other's beakers at playgroups, they'll put every toy in the library or docs waiting room in their mouth, and you can't stop them. If your house meets your own standards for cleanliness, then your child will have to develop immunity accordingly. A bit of dirt, robust immunity. Sterile environment, potential sickly child. Once they are weaning, you can relax a bit - you don't sterilse pans and stuff do you??? and once drinking formula, sterilise bottles if you want, but don't worry too much - clean and rinsed should be fine.
We have ds2 now, and I read somewhere that you sterilise everything with number 1, with number the way to sterilise is to blow on it (a dummy for example).

[Annpan]

Thanks everyone... I just needed to let off steam. The Health visitors main job seems to be to petrify you about everything. they also make you feel that this is the be all and end all, if you don't do this right you may as well just give up.

The instict in me tells me just to be clean, not sterile.

When my baby was 10 days old I tested expressed breast milk in my mouth, to check temperature - it was infront of 2 midwives who both freaked out according to them she was going to get thrush if I put anything from my mouth to hers. The worst thing was that that afternoon they phoned me to re-iterate that I would make my baby ill... I mean for pete sake, really this is what they do, just make you paranoid.
A friend of mine gave her son 8oz milk instead of 7oz and the health visitor jumped down her throat. This country's healthcare is so rediculous

I am doing my own thing now, I am so fed up with the stupid bloody rules.

Anyway, I was just explaining to you why I am so worked up about it. I have very few friends with kids and my family have got more distant since I had my baby so I don't have many normal people to whinge at -Other new mums have been made just as paranoid as me

[titch7069]

Oh this makes me so ANGRY, I went through similar things when i had my first, when it came to my second i flatly refused to go to the clinic at all, just to the GP for jabs etc. Only you know what is right for your baby. The real reason that we're all instructed to have baby weighed weekly, and have intrusive HV is because of the section of mothers who have no idea i.e young teenagers and because of the potential possibility of catching abuse/neglect early. HV have no imagination and only see the rule book therefore they treat every mother the same, they can't cope with anyone who has basic common sense as it falls outside their training!

As a side swipe, bear in mind most HV have no kids themselves on the rare occasion that you find one that does you'll find that they think the same way you do.

In a nutshell - keep doing what you are doing the way you want to, you'll have a normal, healthy, well adjusted child, how could you fail to with such a wonderful mother bringing her up.

[baldowrie]

My HV had a son who was profoundly deaf, and she missed it!

The side effect was all the boys she saw where deaf

[Hawthorn]

I stopped sterilising stuff from about four months I think.....once baby started to want to crawl around on the floor.
Never had any trouble with any of my babies getting ill

Health visitors? What are those? Although after suffering pnd with my third child, mine came in handy - she was lovely though, I've never had any use for them. My kids are all fine and healthy, and I've spotted myself when somethings been up and taken them to the doctors. All the health visitors tell you to do is take them to the doctors if your concerned anyway
I did see health visitors when my youngest was a little un, but very rarely.......one locum type health visitor actually sat and talked with me, and we whittered on about the benefits of baby slings and cloth nappies for nigh on an hour Never saw her again though.
The prevailing attitude of health visitors I find is that they know so much better than you how to bring up your child. How can they when they see so little of them?
Very nice if you're young and haven't a clue.....the guidance comes in handy, but for more experienced mums, not much use at all I've found :)

[mrsflibble]

I stopped sterilising at 5 months. I used antibac washing up liquid. I started using filtered tap water at 7 months. my daughter is happy and healthy and i hate my heath visitor 'cos she's a total numpty.

[ina]

Having no children myself, I would never dare tell any mother what to do for the best... However: 20-odd years ago I saw a wee one, just starting to crawl across the farm yard, happily chewing away on some chicken poo. He's a strapping young man now.

[flower]

My eldest is 18.
My youngest is four.

The rules (or rather fashions) changed completely between the two but sadly, the interfering bossiness of health visitors remained the same.

As for sterilising, I feel that germs can and do sometimes acculmulate to a dangerous level for children. Yes, some kids (including mine) seem to thrive on a bit of dirt....but what if every now and then the bit of dirt contains ecoli or something and the child suffers.

once mine were on the move and weaning I steralised things twice a week or so. Not everything you understand, just what came to hand. A fave rattle, a teething ring or two, the lids from spouted cups and some spoons for example. I figured that this would mean it all got steralised often enough to prevent a build up without me becoming a slave to it.

Now of course I use the steamer to steralise receptacles for sloe gin and rhubarb wine

[Cornelian]

The rules on sterlising everything within 6 miles of children just seems too odd to me. Keep things clean, yes. Sterilise bottles I am fine with ... but everyone needs to come into contact with the natural bacteria and germies in their own environment in order to boost their immune system, build immunity etc. I will not even have disinfectant in my house. I keep things clean (well, mostly ) but I will not sterilise or disinfect for anyone.