Fast Food for Babies (Tomy Six Bottle Steam Steriliser)

Member Name: sersha

Product:	Tomy Six Bottle Steam Steriliser
Date:	16/04/05 (1659 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: quick and easy way to sterilise, comes with accessories

Disadvantages: needs descaling every four weeks

A steriliser was not something I had thought I would need to buy when Leah was first born, as I was intending to breast feed and didn't think I would want to express milk for someone else to give her in a bottle. However many breast-feeding mothers prefer to do this when they are out and about, or simply so that they can leave their baby with someone else for a few hours. And of course, for a bottle-fed baby a steriliser is an absolute necessity!

The recommendation is that you sterilise everything for babies up to 6 months of age, including feeding bowls and weaning spoons, but this is really a matter of personal choice. There are no absolute rights and wrongs with babies it seems - everyone has their own opinion!

Because I hadn't thought I would need one, our purchase was not something we had any time to think about, so we basically spent five minutes scanning the shelves in Tescos to see the different kinds of sterlisers available with Leah sleeping in the trolley! I knew already that I didn't want a cold water one, as I used one in hospital and hated having to fiddle about with bottles in the tanks of solution. The best option for us was a steam steriliser, and we chose this one largely because it was on special offer and came with three bottles and other equipment we thought we might need to get started.

How to use the steriliser
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It is incredibly simple to use and only takes 2 minutes to set up. You unplug the base part of the unit, pour any old water away, add 80ml of fresh cold water, and plug the unit back in. Then you position the main unit on top of the base unit.

You then fill the main unit with clean, washed bottles and equipment you want to sterilise. A bottle brush is provided which is very helpful because milk residue is very hard to clean off, and you must ensure the bottles are thoroughly washed before sterlising.

The main unit holds six bottles at any one time. They sit upside down on plastic rings which hold them in place. The rings stack neatly onto a vertical plastic spike alongside the bottles. The teats and bottle lids fit onto a plastic tray which sits on top of this unit. There is also space on this tray for the plastic tongs (so you don't have to put the sterilised bottles together with your fingers) and I usually find room for the odd spoon, or little syringe, or whatever else I need to sterlise. Then you simply place the lid over the tray by clicking it into place, shut the lid unit, and turn the sterliser on by pressing the button at the front of the unit.

There is a lockable lid, so you know that everything is secure before you start, and would be especially handy if you had a prying toddler! The lid is also hinged, so that all the condensation runs back into the unit, so you don't have puddles to contend with.

A green light lets you know that it is working through the cycle. It takes ten minutes, by which time there is a lot of steam coming from the vents, and then sounds an alarm to let you know that it is finished.

Using the tongs provided, you can then make up bottles with cool, boiled water and milk powder, or ready made cartons of milk. I make up all my feeds at once and refrigerate them for up to 24 hours.


The plusses
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The fact that it only takes eight minutes is a godsend (although ten minutes can seem like forever if you have a hungry baby to feed!) The old fashioned way to steam sterilise, by boiling bottles in a pan with the lid on is just as effective, but it would take 20-25 minutes, so this saves you valuable time and effort.

If you keep the lid shut, the bottles etc remain sterilised for up to 3 hours, so you don't have to make up feeds the instant the sterliser is finished. The sterliser itself tells you when the 3 hours is up as the light goes off. You can also set a timer to delay the cycle starting. This was very handy as a new, stressed out mum, as when I decided to boil the kettle and leave it for the recommended 45 mins to cool, Leah usually decided that was when she needed me, so I would have to start over again. Luckily I only needed to reboil the kettle and wait another 45 minutes, and not re-sterilise everything!

You can detach the main unit from the base unit, so that all the pieces inside the main unit are easily cleaned. It's great that it comes apart so easily and all the bits fit together without any hassle.

It's has good capacity compared to some other sterilisers on the market and there is plenty space to add extras like a breast pump, or feeding spoons and bowls as well as the standard 6 bottles.

One of the three tommee tippee bottles has a temperature gauge so you can see whether the milk is "h" (too hot) or "OK" which is fine for your baby to drink. Personally I prefer to check the temperature by dropping some milk onto the back of my wrist (I don't trust bath thermometers either and use my elbow!)

It is a well-designed shape with a flat back. This means you store the unit up against the wall at the back of your kitchen worktop and it doesn't take up too much space.

Also included in the set is a free feeding cup, which is useful when baby is old enough to drink from a cup.

The minuses
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The sterliser needs to be descaled every four weeks. You should clean all the component parts before descaling. It's not difficult to do, but it is a bit of a chore. Instructions vary according to which descaling agent you choose to use (I buy sachets of citric acid), but generally involves running a couple of cycles, one empty and one with the acid.

The bottles can be really hot when you first fish them out, so be careful when handling them.

The alarm sounds a bit like my mobile phone sending me a text, and I have almost been caught out and opened it too early when it wasn't finished the cycle. (The red and green lights on the unit are useful clues, but when you have baby brain you can get a bit muddled!)

Why this one?
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Price £39.99 (Mine was £29.99). Compared to the others we looked at, this one was very quick (8 minutes), was big enough to hold lots of equipment, and was very reasonably priced. I preferred the "kit" to the plain sterliser, because as a new mum I wasn't sure what I would need, and this gave me confidence that everything I needed would be included!

N.B This review is of the Kit, which includes steriliser, bottles and accessories!

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