get steamed up (Avent Microwave Steriliser)

Member Name: west_jenn

Product:	Avent Microwave Steriliser
Date:	15/04/05 (674 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: quick and easy to use

Disadvantages: fiddly to assemble stuff in it

My main worry when thinking through all the equipment needed in order to give Scarlett bottles of expressed breast milk was sterilising. I had this paranoid fear that she would come into contact with something not properly sterilised and come down with something awful.

To state the obvious its very important to sterilise baby feeding equipment. In their first year of life their immune systems are still fragile and immature meaning that they are very susceptible to picking up bugs. According to www.babycenter.com the bugs that stick to milk curds on partially cleansed bottles can be particularly nasty.

We decided what we needed was a simple, speedy, foolproof way to sterilise equipment. So that there would be no margin for error. The steriliser is shaped like a big plastic bowl, it has a green plastic inlay with different shaped grooves where you can fit baby feeding equipment. It has a shape a bit like a fancy serving dish with a silver lid.

You can put bottles, teats, breast pump parts and baby plates and cups into the steriliser. You can put any brand of equipment in it, not just avent stuff. You can get about four bottles and their accessories in there. Or breast pump parts and one bottle. Its important to position the equipment to allow the best circulation of steam, which means so they don’t touch each other and bottles are top down so that they trap the steam. It’s a bit fiddly positioning equipment like this and it usually takes me a few goes as things usually move when I slot the lid on.

You need to put 200ml of water into the steriliser and put it on for 4-8 minutes depending on your microwave type, it should say in the instruction booklet. I’m not sure how the steam actually sterilises the equipment, I’m not too hot on stuff like that!
You should allow two minutes cooling time. It does come out very hot! Items will remain sterile for up to three hours as long as the lid stays on. Its quite a good price at about £20 and you can buy it from places like boots, mother care and I can’t think of any other places but you can’t go far on the high chair with finding a boots or mother care. I think we made the right choice with this when we need to sterilise some equipment, no fiddling with tablets or boiling stuff just chuck it all in the microwave!

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