Feeding the baby, especially in the first year of life, requires strict sanitary and hygienic requirements. First of all, it is necessary to take care of the quality of baby food. But no less important is the condition of utensils and bottles, from which the child is fed. Baby bottles are not enough to simply wash, they are still desirable to sterilize, and the child is younger, the more relevant this rule is. Today there are several varieties of bottle sterilizers. To answer the question, how to choose a sterilizer for baby bottles, you need, first of all, to understand what they are and how they differ from each other.
Types of sterilizers
Household sterilizers are of two main types:
- Steam (bottles in them are disinfected by steam);
- Cold (they use special substances, antiseptics).
Most often in shops you can find steam sterilizers. Before use, pure water is poured into a special container, the steam from the boiling of which processes bottles and nipples located on top. These sterilizers we will consider in more detail.
What should I look for when choosing a sterilizer?
Steam sterilizers are divided into three main types:
- Electrical sterilizers for bottles (operate from the network);
- sterilizers for microwave ovens;
- sterilizer for bottles with preheater.
The first two devices from the list differ slightly. Electric plugs into the outlet, for the second necessarily the presence of microwave. Both are calculated for a different number of bottles, usually two, four or six.
Sterilizer for microwave is more compact than electric. Nevertheless, in some microwave ovens sterilizers do not fit in size.
The operating time for different types of steam sterilizers is approximately the same: from two to eight minutes and depends on the specific model or power of the microwave oven. After sterilization, the bottles remain sterile for a few more hours, but only until the lid is opened.
When choosing a particular model of the device, the size of the bottles you use is also important, as some bottles are already, others are wider. If you choose a sterilizer and bottles of one manufacturer, then they will exactly match each other.
Models for microwave are much cheaper than electric, but they can only place utensils and bottles suitable for microwave ovens, a metal spoon in it can not be sterilized any more.
Separately, one should pay attention to sterilizers heaters, they are usually designed for one bottle, so they take up little space. Such models will be useful for amateurs to travel with a child, since such sterilizers work not only from the network, but also from the car cigarette lighter.
It is difficult to say which sterilizer for baby bottles is better. It depends on how you are going to use it and how much money is ready to spend on it. If you feed your baby with a baby formula, you are likely to use several bottles and a nipple. In this case, it is better to choose a more spacious model. And if a child from a bottle drinks some water a day, then the sterilizer for one or two bottles is quite suitable.
Many parents are wondering if a sterilizer is needed at all,
It is worth noting that, despite the use of a sterilizer, there are microbes that survive even in boiling water, for example Staphylococcus aureus. Therefore, the control of the quality of the child's food remains on the first place. Well, of course, be sure to check the sterilizer's safety before buying it and do not forget to carefully study the instructions.