Whether you breastfeed, formula feed, exclusively pump or combination feed, chances are you have questioned yourself over sterilising; what needs to be sterilised , how often and until when?! When our babies are little, it’s our natural instinct to want to do everything we can to protect them! So… here’s a run down of what you NEED TO KNOW when it comes to protecting them from germs and bacteria when it comes to their own feeding equipment! BUT… Before we get into the detail of the ‘what, how and when’s’ of sterilising, I’ll start by answering the simple question of Why do we need to Sterilise?! The most important factor to point out here is that babies under 1 don’t have the same immune systems as us adults, or even older children. Sterilising will help kill any bacteria present in your baby’s feeding equipment, ultimately helping to protect your baby from infections that may cause your baby to suffer symptoms of sickness and diarrhoea. But don’t be daunted by the need to sterilise equipment! It really is straightforward once you get the hang of it and hopefully this blog will help you to answer some of your questions covering EVERYTHING you need to know about sterilising… What needs to be sterilised? Regardless of whether you are breast feeding or formula feeding, there is typically always something that needs sterilising! If you’re formula feeding…… Before every feed, you will need to make sure that all parts of your baby’s bottle have been sterilised; including the bottle, teat, lid and any internal parts of the bottle such as anti-colic venting tubes. If you’re breast feeding…… If expressing breast milk, the NHS advise that you should store expressed breast milk in sterilised containers or in special breast milk storage bags (which are pre-sterilised and ready to use straight away). When it comes to sterilising breast pump equipment, this isn’t an area where there is a lot of research so often advice regarding sterilising breast pumps can differ between professionals. In the UK, the NHS recommends that all equipment which comes into contact with your baby’s milk (including equipment used to collect, store or feed expressed breast milk) is sterile. However, the Association of Breastfeeding Mothers, along with the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, advise that after sterilising before first use, subsequently washing breast pump parts with hot soapy water is sufficient for healthy babies . Ultimately, how often you choose to sterilise your breast pump equipment will be your own personal decision taking into account the health of your baby, what you feel comfortable with and are able to realistically sustain on a daily basis. It’s important to remember though that sterilising will always help to add an extra layer of protection for your baby; which may be particularly important if your baby is less than 3 months old, was born prematurely or has a weakened immune system. If you haven’t used your pumping equipment in a while though, it’s always best to sterilise before using. Anything else you need to sterilise? As well as baby’s feeding equipment (such as bottles), it is also a good idea to sterilise other items which regularly go into baby’s mouth like dummies for the first six months of baby’s life - especially as these items seem to always end up on the floor! Is it Necessary to Sterilise Weaning Equipment? Once you’ve finally mastered sterilising baby bottles, it is then time for weaning! Along with a whole raft of questions you may have about weaning, in those early days you might wonder…. “ Do I need to sterilise weaning equipment?!” Rest assured… if you’re weaning around the recommended age of 6 months, then there is no need to sterilise the equipment you use for food such as bowls, spoons or cups and washing in hot soapy water or using a dishwasher will be sufficient for these weaning essentials. However, if you decide to wean before 6 months, it is recommended by the NHS that you do sterilise baby’s feeding equipment until they reach 6 months. Don’t forget though that it is always important to follow good food hygiene practices at any age! Check out some of my other blogs about preparing first foods as well as tips on storing, defrosting and reheating your baby’s food here.

There’s no doubt that there are so many exciting things to think about when you begin the weaning journey with your little one like choosing a high chair, shopping for snazzy bibs, debating which cup and cutlery is best and deciding what amazing tastes to expose your baby to first... but it’s important not to forget that amongst all of this, any food you serve needs to be safe! Babies and young children don’t have the same immune system as us adults (or even older children) so we need to make sure we’re extra careful with their little tummies! It is estimated that there are 2.4million cases of food borne illness in the UK every year but it’s not just restaurants that can give you food poisoning – You can also make yourself (or your family) ill whilst cooking at home too. The good news is that there are so many things you can do whilst preparing food to prevent this…. Keep it Clean When preparing food for your little one, keeping clean is so important! In reality, this doesn’t mean having a ‘spotless’ kitchen but instead, a clean environment where you prepare food, with clean hands using clean equipment! Here’s some top tips to help you organise your kitchen to help you safely prepare meals for your baby and the rest of the family…. Wash your hands – Always wash your hands thoroughly before preparing any food, and after handling raw meat Clean work surfaces - Disinfect food preparation surfaces using a clean dishcloth before starting any food preparation. If you can, use a paper towel squirted with anti-bacterial spray to clean surfaces after preparing raw meat and poultry as this will help make sure that you don’t pick up food poisoning germs and spread them around the kitchen! Clean utensils – Make sure equipment is clean before you start using it and if you can, opt for colour coded equipment to reduce the risk of cross contamination between raw and ready to eat foods. Never prepare ready to eat food such as salad on a board that was previously used to prepare raw meat. Wash fruit and Veg – They might be low risk foods, but bacteria can also be found on fruit and veggies too so don’t forget to wash these thoroughly under cold running water before serving to baby. If you’re using frozen veggies in baby’s food, make sure that these are cooked before serving to your baby according to the back of pack information. Don’t be tempted to wash raw chicken! Washing your chicken will not ‘wash off’ the bacteria (only cooking will make it safe to eat!). If you wash chicken, you are instead more likely to cause food poisoning by inadvertently spreading more bacteria around the kitchen. Cooking Cooking veggies by steaming/ boiling or roasting is pretty straightforward, but those first tastes don’t last for long and you’ll soon be branching out to more exciting foods for your baby to try, many of which may include meat or fish. Regardless of how you serve meat to your little one, it’s important to make sure that it is thoroughly cooked. Remember - Just because it’s cooked on the outside, doesn’t mean it is cooked on the inside! Here’s how you can check that meat is safe to eat… Use a food probe – Checking the temperature of the thickest part of meat is the most accurate way (and the way I would recommend) to check food is cooked, whilst also making sure it is not overcooked! If using a probe, make sure the probe is clean and the meat has a core temperature of 75C for at least 30 seconds. Cut into the thickest part of the meat to make sure there is no pink meat visible The meat must be steaming hot throughout Meat juices run clear

One of the things I ALWAYS get asked is whether it is safe to reheat rice! If you’re anything like me, I can never seem to gauge just how much rice to actually cook so I always seem to have left-overs. But, what’s all the fuss about with leftover rice? It’s important to know that if cooked rice is not handled correctly, it can make you (or your little one) violently ill. Rice contains bacteria called Bacillus cereus. Bacillus cereus is a spore forming bacteria; meaning that it forms protective layers (spores) which survive the heat of cooking. If cooked rice is left at room temperature for too long, then the bacteria can multiply and produce toxins; which can cause food poisoning. It’s important to point out here that once these toxins are present, they will NOT be killed by further reheating; regardless of reheating until piping hot! So, how can you handle leftover rice safely? How quickly you cool rice after cooking is critical in ensuring that your leftover rice will be safe to use. You should always make sure your rice is always cooled down as quickly as possible, but always within an hour and a half! This doesn’t mean just putting cooked rice straight in the fridge though…….. Simply putting hot rice in the fridge may not be enough to help cool it down quickly, especially as this will also raise the temperature of the fridge itself. Instead, I’d recommend stirring rice regularly and helping to speed up the cooling process either by: Running it under cold water (this works great if you’ve not added anything to the rice!) Dividing it into smaller portions Stirring regularly Using a homemade ‘ice bath’ – Like this….

It is really important to embed a good hand washing routine as early on in life as possible. As your baby progresses into a toddler, it’s important to change your hand washing technique as they grow, keeping it fun whilst giving them lots of praise and encouragement! Here’s some ideas how you can start getting your toddler involved in washing their hands and help them to understand that it’s an important part of their daily routine… Get a step stool so they can reach the sink themselves Give them independence – Toddlers LOVE the feeling of being able to do something for themselves, so supervise to make sure they wash their hands properly but let them do the main work themselves. Always communicate with them to tell them it’s time to wash their hands and why (it’s dinner time for example!) Sing a song with them whilst they wash their hands. Hands should be washed for 20 seconds which is enough time to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ twice, but you could always sing along to a nursery rhyme or any other song your child loves to make sure they stay at the sink long enough! Teach them the importance of washing their hands using body paint or glitter every so often so that they have a visual aid of how they need to wash their hands for them to be clean .. And don’t forget to also wash your hands at the same time! Not only will this help keep everyone safe, but seeing you lead by example will be a great learning tool for your little one from any age.

Anyone who has begun weaning their little one can sympathise it gets MESSY! But what about cleaning your baby before mealtimes?! We should always wash our own hands before eating and babies’ hands are no different... especially once they are old enough to start eating, crawling and getting into all sorts of mischief! Hand washing is the simplest, yet most effective way to stop the spread of bacteria and therefore keep our babies safe and protected from illnesses. For some tips on washing your baby’s hands; including the logistics and what to use on baby’s skin, I’ve answered some of the common hand washing questions below…. How should you wash your baby’s hands? One of the most straightforward ways to wash your baby’s hands is of course to hold your baby over the sink, balancing them on your knee and washing their hands with soap and water as you would your own (being careful not to press little one’s tummy into the sink whilst doing so). However, if the logistics of doing this isn’t for you (especially when your baby is little), then you can also apply soap to their hands using a dampened soapy washcloth instead, using another dampened with just water to wipe away the soap. Remember you can also put the bowl of soapy water in front of baby or toddler, using a cloth to make sure you get in between all of their fingers, and again use a damp cloth to clean off the soapy residue. Just make sure when you’re drying their hands, the towel is clean and dry.

The weaning journey with your little one is such an exciting time for so many reasons, but let’s be honest…. Regardless of whether you’re a ‘working mum’ or a ‘stay at home’ mum, preparing 3 meals a day can be nothing short of exhausting! Grabbing a home cooked meal from the freezer after a busy day or when you quite frankly just need a break is why batch cooking, or freezing portioned leftovers, is an absolute lifesaver! Whether you’re at the start of your weaning journey or not, this blog will give you some pointers about batch cooking to help you stock up your freezer safely. Remember that infants and young children do not have the same immune system as us adults so it’s always important to be extra careful when preparing and handling food for your little one. What foods can be batch cooked? You can of course make recipes specifically to portion and freeze, or you could just make more of what you’re already cooking so you can pop the leftovers in the freezer ready for another day! Whichever way you decide to batch cook, the good news is that you can freeze almost anything!! That’s right… even if you defrost raw chicken, meat or fish from the freezer, you can still portion and freeze the leftovers of the cooked meal to reheat another day! It’s important to remember here that you aren’t ‘re-freezing’ the meat as it has been cooked in between. The only exception to freezing of course are when you are simply reheating a previous meal, as you can only reheat food once.