Silly Question--Washing Bottles...what's your routine?

shady06

I swear, the bottles are literally endless.  My DH and I are trying to figure out a way to make things easier when it comes to getting them washed.  How do you guys do it?   Do you wash immediately?  Do you let them soak in soapy or regular water and wash them all at once?  Do you use the dishwasher?  Can you use a dishwasher for them if they are not BPA free?

So many questions...

FaeryStarGazer

We used the dishwasher if it was full. We didn't run it just for bottles. We weren't worried about BPA, MOTY.  We otherwise just fill the bottles with hot soapy water and shake the hell out of them. Wash out the nipple and set on the counter to dry. Wash as you go, unless you don't have time.

rispergirl

We have enough to get us through the day, so we let them pile up during the day.  Then after we put them to bed, I wash all the bottles and make new pitchers of formula.  It takes a little while, but it's so nice to only have to deal with those things once a day.  We don't normally soak them, but sometimes we'll take them apart and put the pieces in soapy water in the sink.

DramaGirl06

We have 8 bottles for each baby. I pretty much keep up on washing during the day.  They still get up every 3 hours at night to eat so they pile up at night.  In the morning I let them all soak in hot soapy water (I use Method free/clear dish detergent).  I then wash all the bottles with a brush and clean the nipples under HOT water and then let them dry.  Every few days I'll use one of those microwaveable Munchkin bags that steam cleans the bottles and nipples.  You just throw the parts in the bag with 2oz water and microwave for 90 seconds or so. 

We used to make all the bottles for the day each morning and refrigerate them.  We soon learned that soaking them in hot water to warm up took more time than making the bottle as needed.  Our tap water is great in our city so we use warm tap water.  I have 4 bottles for each baby made ahead of time with the formula powder in them for night feedings.  We then just measure out the water to add to the bottles.

nbjenni

The left top rack in our dishwasher is for bottles. We have about 10 per baby and just let them stack up. After they are in bed around 8:30, we collect them and put them in the dishwasher.

MandieSueM

We let the empties pile up until DH did dishes (that's right - I said DH does the dishes!!!  LOVE HIM!!!  LOL) after the kids were in bed.  When they were little we had a steam sterilizer so we'd give 'em a quick rinse and scrub with the bottle brush, and run the sterilizer.  When that broke we just started wahing them by hand.  If the dishwaser was full (about every other day) I'd just load them in at the end of the day and run it so everything was clean when DH got home from work.  After bottles we'd make ALL the formula for the next day, fill the bottles, add meds, and store them in the fridge, 3 wide and 4 rows back.  That way everything was done only once and ready to go the next day.  That hour it took to wash bottles and prep formula was busy (while DH did all that I cleaned up the toys and made us supper), but it made it much easier for me during the day, and we didn't have to worry about it again, once it was done, until the next night.  The bottle brigade was nice since we had a little system going that kept everything moving smoothly and we knew what to expect and it really helped me during the day to a) have bottles ready to go at feeding times, and b) not have to worry about washing bottles all day.

HTH!  Good luck!

Kim&Jim

At first, we had bottles with BPA in them so we hand washed them.  Once we switched them out for BPA free bottles, we've been using the dishwasher and haven't looked back!!

I just use the bottles and let them sit on the counter with the nipple still on.  If I open them and don't rinse them out right away, the formula gets hard and is hard to get off.

Each night, I load up the dishwasher and run them.  Sometimes it's not 100% full, but that's when I throw in the dish drainer or the pans from the stove or something like that to fill it up.

PianoPlayingSarah

Dishwasher.  We ran it once a day.  Still do - with endless sippie cups, plates, bowls and spoons. 

 

CMW

We use drop-ins so that makes things a bit easier. 

I make bottles once a day (in the evening).  I put all the bottles and parts in warm soapy water and wash.

This seems to be the easiest way for us.

 

Temp159135562506975

we have always washed the bottle (main part) in the dish washer and hand washed the nipple and other pieces.... We keep a small basin in the sink filled with soapy water and put the cap/nipple in there to soak... so when hand washing nothing is dried on and sticky.

these days there really is no reason to NOT have bpa free bottles- since all the new ones are bpa free - if you are using old bottles, I would personally get rid of them and get BPA free ones.  We got rid of all of the bottles we used for DS and got new bpa free ones for the twins.

jlc071903

Here's what we do....of course my girls don't eat as frequently as your guys do now that they are older.

1- WE had enough bottles for every feeding.

2- we washed bottles after 3 feedings...but in the mean time would rinse them out and then put some fresh water and a little antibac. dish soap in them and shake them up and leave them like that until we washed them.

3- IN the evenings, after all the bottles were washed (again)  we'd make all their bottles for the next day.

**TIP...make sure you have extra nipples...just a few....they do break down after awhile.

macchiatto

THe bottles do seem endless, don't they?
We have enough to last 24 hours. We used to wash as we go and make formula as we go; we are always coming up with new systems, it seems! But now we wash bottles once a day and make formula once a day. We rinse as we go but when it's time to wash, I sterilize the stainless steel sink, let them soak in hot soapy water, wash them all, then rinse them all (DH showed me that doing it that way rather than wash one, rinse it, wash the next, rinse that, etc., really saves time) and let them air-dry. For a while I washed them in the dishwasher but htey'd sometimes have little crumbs, etc., caked on so I don't do that anymore! (Wish we had a better dishwasher!)

MNheidi

At first I was nervous about using the dishwasher - we had mostly non-BPAfree bottles.  But, it's something i let go of and it was incredibly liberating.  We rinse everything and put it in the dishwasher which gets ran every night.