Breastfeeding exclusively during the first six months of life is critical for your baby. Breast Milk provides the best nutrition to your child and also helps in building up a strong immune system which will last their lifetime. Even when you are breastfeeding, there will be phases when you will need to seek the help of equipment like breast pumps. Many parents need to bottle feed along with breastfeeding and many exclusively bottle feed. After six months, when your baby starts transitioning to solids, you will need to use bowls and spoons.
It is essential to sterilize everything that you are using to feed your baby, before every use like parts of a breast pump, bottles, nipples, spoons, bowls, pacifiers and toys as well. Food, especially milk is an excellent medium for the growth of microorganisms, which can be harmful to a baby as they have an immature immune system. This can lead to tummy upsets and a sick and unhappy baby. A baby falling sick again and again is a constant worry to the parents. We all know that boiling is one of the best methods of sterilizing. But, without any temperature and time control parents do tend to overboil and damage feeding bottles, and nipples required for feeding a baby.
The quick, easy and efficient option for sterilizing is using a bottle sterilizer which uses steam and heat. As a new parent, you do not need to worry much about searching for a bottle sterilizer for your baby. There are a number of bottle sterilizers available across stores which you can easily purchase online. Though, which one to choose can be mind-boggling!
At Mumpa, we have just made the task easy for you. We have shortlisted the most popular bottle sterilizers for you to browse and select. Mumpa has also graded the bottle sterilizers based on certain parameters like capacity, storage, portability, compatibility, ease of use and price. Comparing always helps in choosing the best.
What to look for while buying a sterilizer?
When you are deciding to buy a bottle sterilizer, be sure to consider the following factors.
- Capacity – This means how many bottles or items you require every day for sterilization. Working mothers will require more bottles to sterilize in one cycle. In that case, you should be looking for a bottle sterilizer which can accommodate more bottles in one cycle for your convenience.
- Storage/ portability – Some bottle sterilizers will occupy a lot of space. Try to look for sleek models which fit in your kitchen spaces perfectly. Storing a big-sized model can sometimes become a big hassle. Some sterilizers are portable enough to be carried while you are travelling with your baby. Check for portability also.
- Compatibility – Some bottle sterilizers work for a particular type of bottle. Go for those which can sterilize a whole range of bottles.
- Ease of use – Choose a sterilizer that is easy to clean and operate. Moreover, it should have a sterilization cycle of fewer than 10 minutes and can accommodate other than bottles, parts of a breast pump, toys and pacifiers as well. This helps you to be on your chores and not stand and monitor the sterilizer. Let us compare the popular bottle sterilizers according to ease of use. Mumpa has graded them on a scale of 5.
As you will find, chicco digital bottle warmer, philips avent microwave steam sterilizer and philips avent express microwave sterilizer score the highest on ease of use followed by Philips Avent electric bottle warmer, philips avent bottle warmer fast, pigeon bottle and food warmer, mee mee compact 3 in 1 sterilizers and mee mee universal bottle sterilizer.
- Budget – Baby sterilizers come in competitive prices, and there are some higher-end products also available. However, do keep your budget flexible in case you stumble on a product which meets all your needs. You can compare the price ranges of the popular sterilizers from the chart below. As you will find, most bottle sterilizers are available within a price range of Rs 3,000- Rs 5,000.
Check out the total scores by mumpa here. The scores are on a scale of 100. Chicco digital bottle warmer, philips avent microwave Steam sterilizer and philips avent express microwave sterilizer are the top scorers followed by philips avent electric bottle warmer, philips avent bottle warmer fast, pigeon bottle and food warmer, mee mee compact 3 in 1 sterilizers and mee mee universal bottle sterilizer.
