Do I Need to Sanitize Bottles?

CDC bottle sanitizing recs: They are unrealistic, right? What am I risking by not following them?
—Anonymous

The CDC bottle washing recommendations say to take the bottles apart, carefully handwash them, and then sanitize them by either boiling them or using a dedicated steam bottle sanitizer. This is a lot of work. (Alternatively, you could put them through the dishwasher.)

The worry if you do not sanitize bottles is that bacteria could grow and make infants sick. The younger the baby, the bigger a worry this would be; the CDC draws a distinction between babies above and below 3 months, between premature and full-term, and between immune-compromised and not. The fact is that illness from improperly sanitized bottles is likely extremely rare, sufficiently so that we do not know how much of a possibility it even is (not at all? maybe!).

Baby bottles are drying on a towel after being washed. — Getty Images

Is it a good idea to wash bottles after your child eats from them? Yes. Just like you wash your own cups. If you can run them through the dishwasher, do that. Should you obsessively sanitize every time? Definitely not.It reminds me of this article I wrote about how we ask parents to do too much, which cites, in particular, the idea that you need to boil water for formula. There are only 24 hours in the day. We cannot expect people to spend them all sanitizing.