Hello mama – if you’re new to the baby Bottle and breast pump washing process, it can certainly be a little daunting. Baby bottle sterilizers are NOT necessary, so save your money. All you need is a pan, hot water and non-toxic soap. It’s pretty easy to clean your baby bottles, nipples and pump all at once. Soon you will have this daily routine down in no time.

What is the best dish soap for cleaning baby bottles and breast pump parts?

You’ll want a super non-toxic natural dish soap, because this is for cleaning your baby’s precious food source containers. Our choice is the Attitude baby dish liquid. It’s vegan, hypoallergenic, Ecologo certified and free of fragrance, carcinogen and by-products (yes if you can believe it, we have to worry about this stuff). A little goes a long way, and the EWG score gives it an “A”.

Why you should properly clean your baby bottles and breast pump parts, every time:

Sad and heart-breaking, there has been an extremely unfortunate tragic death of an infant caused by contaminated breast pump parts due to improper cleaning (read the article here). In 2017, there were updated Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines on sterilizing breast pump parts. Our simple cleaning method takes their new guidelines into consideration:

How to properly clean and sterilize your baby bottles, nipples and pump:

1. Reminder: always wash hands thoroughly before starting. Bring about 20-30 oz. of water to a boil in a tea kettle (or anything that will hold water and you can easily pour).
2. Separate and rinse any milk residue off all bottle and breast pump parts and place in a pan. (Keep an eye on those pesky white flapper things, which are called “membranes”.)
3. Add a little non-toxic dish soap. We recommend the non-toxic vegan Attitude baby dish liquid.
4. Pour the hot water into the pan and let sit for about 5 minutes.
5. Scrub all parts with a bottle cleaner: we love the OXO tot bottle brush which also has a nipple cleaner on the handle.
6. Rinse thoroughly and place all parts onto a drying rack (our favorite is the “grass” drying rack which is free of phthalates, PVC and BPA).
7. Your bottles and pump will be dry and ready to go for the next morning.

Here’s a quick how-to video showing the process of soaking glass baby bottles:

That’s it! We like to have a designated scrubber and drying rack for bottle and pump parts; it just seems to keep everything cleaner. It really is a quick and effective process and easy to do every day. Any questions? Ask below and we’ll be happy to answer.