The short version
Boiling, steam and sterilising tablets all work equally well; washing the bottle properly first matters more. A steam steriliser saves about an hour a day. The NHS says sterilise until 12 months; the CDC says a thorough wash is enough after 2 months for healthy babies.
What happened
My mother boiled bottles. Her mother boiled bottles. So I boiled bottles: a big steel pot, a rolling boil, ten minutes by the phone timer, then fishing them out with tongs and lining them up on a muslin to dry. Four times a day. I did the maths once, at 2am, and it came to roughly an hour a day of standing at a stove.
The scald happened in month three. He was crying in the other room, I rushed the tongs, and a bottle of boiling water went over my wrist. Nothing serious, but I stood at the sink with it under the tap thinking: a machine would have done this in six minutes while I held him.
The steam steriliser I finally bought takes six bottles, a measure of water, and a button. It beeps when done and the bottles stay sterile inside with the lid shut for a day. The time it gave back was real; the thing it gave back that I didn't expect was the end of a small daily resentment.
What I learned afterwards is that the method matters less than I thought. Boiling, steam and sterilising tablets all work about the same. What matters is the scrubbing before: milk film left in the thread of a bottle will survive any of them. So buy a good bottle brush first, and the machine second.
How long to keep going is where the experts disagree, which I find oddly reassuring. The NHS says sterilise until twelve months. The American CDC says after two months a healthy baby's bottles just need a proper wash, with daily sterilising only for premature or unwell babies. We stopped at around nine months, when he was putting the dog's toys in his mouth anyway.
Boiling, steam and cold-water chemical sterilising all decontaminate feeding equipment effectively; a Cardiff study found no significant difference between methods, and no Cronobacter in 800 sampled sites after disinfection. A 2026 systematic review of 17 studies concluded the key step is mechanical washing before heat.
Redmond E, Griffith CJ, J Fam Health Care 2009;19(1):26. Source · Haque R et al., Maternal & Child Nutrition 2026.The NHS advises sterilising all bottle-feeding equipment until the baby is at least 12 months old. The US CDC says daily sanitising is needed for babies under 2 months, premature or immunocompromised, and may not be necessary for older healthy babies if items are washed thoroughly.
NHS, Sterilising baby bottles (2023). Source · CDC, Clean, sanitize and store infant feeding items (2025). SourceThe verdicts
Philips Avent 3-in-1 electric steam steriliser (SCF284)
Six bottles in one cycle, and it took pump parts and pacifiers too. Check the current manual for cycle time and how long contents stay sterile with the lid closed; I'm quoting our routine, not the spec sheet.
A long-handled bottle brush with a teat brush on the end
The step the research says matters most: washing before any sterilising. Replace when the bristles splay.
Cubworthy, with a catch
The big steel pot and tongs
It works, and it costs nothing. It also costs an hour a day and, in my case, one scalded wrist. Fine for a month, not for a year.
Cubworthy, with a catch
Microwave steriliser bags
Great for travel, wasteful at home. We kept two in the diaper bag and never used them in the kitchen.
Product details are as we used them; the version on sale now may differ. Check the exact model and the manufacturer's instructions.