One of the most essential parts of having a breast pump is to ensure it is clean and sterilized. Since the product comes into regular contact with your baby, it is essential it is the cleanest it can be, and sterilization can do this.
For hundreds of years, parents all over the world have been using the historical way of sterilizing baby items and products which is just simply boiling them in hot water.
However, there is a special and effective way to sterilize a breast pump without the hassle and that doesn’t cost a lot of money. There are so many new and potential parents out there that spend hundreds of dollars on sterilization kits to ensure their baby is safe from bacteria and germs when they’re born, but the most effective way doesn’t even cost a fraction of the price.
What is Sterilization?
Before we get into the deep depths of sterilizing your breast pump and the best methods you could choose, it is important to know exactly what sterilization is. While some people think that it is simply cleaning and ensuring products and items look clean, it is about much more.
When you sterilize products, you are totally destroying and eradicating all of the organisms and their spores. This can ensure anything that comes into contact with your baby is safe, which is important as babies are extremely vulnerable to harmful bacteria and germs. As you grow older and your body becomes a lot more resilient to germs, so you no longer need to sterilize things you come into contact with; however, before this happens (such as when you’re a baby) you need to ensure that everything is clean and safe to use.
Why Should You Sterilize Your Breast Pump?
Despite breast pumps only coming into contact with your breast and the machine it is attached to, it is essential that you take the time to learn how your breast pump works and the best ways to sterilize and clean it. It is great to clean as well as sterilize your breast pump as this will make sure that all germs are completely gone and there is no trace of any milk or bacteria left that could possibly grow and result in your child having an upset tummy. Sterilizing is so much more important than you may initially think and doing it properly can mean you have a much happier and healthier baby.
How to Sterilize Your Breast Pump Efficiently
There are countless ways to sterilize a breast pump, from hot soapy water to utilizing and making the most of your dishwasher. The most traditional way to sterilize the breast pump is to boil it in hot water and this is the technique we will be going into detail about in this article.
Before you start any of the steps to sterilization, you need to ensure you have cleaned the breast pump and completely checked it for any left-over milk or residue. You can wash your breast pump by reading the manual guide and follow it to ensure the breast pump is sufficiently cleaned before you sterilize it. Rinsing each part of the breast pump is important as you want every single part of it to be as clean as possible; therefore, no germs or bacteria will be transferred to your baby.
To sterilize your breast pump, take a big pan of boiling water (you may want to boil it on the stove or in the kettle before you add anything to it), then you can add all of the individual pieces of the breast pump to the water and cover. Leave them to simmer for around 10 minutes and then take it off the heat. All of the parts will be extremely hot, so you will need some tongs to remove them; don’t touch them with your hands.
Transfer them onto a clean and dry towel (big enough to fit all of the parts on individually), then leave to dry for a few hours. Ensure that wherever you leave them to dry is clean and doesn’t have bacteria floating around in the air. The best place to allow it to dry is a steamed-out bathroom or in a fresh bedroom; many other places and rooms within a house won’t be bacteria-free enough.
As well as being able to boil the parts of the breast pump, other people often use breast pump wipes to ensure all of the bacteria is gone. You can either choose to use them before or after you have boiled the parts in the water – either is effective. Choosing to clean the breast pump with wipes can also allow you to quickly clean it while you’re on the go or whenever you’re not in the comfort of your own home!