Washing Bottles

The best way to wash bottles is to sterilize them. I bought a Philips AVENT iQ 24 Electronic Steam Sterilizer. Its about $90, but its worth it!

The timing depends a lot on your baby. I tried at two months - faild, 3 months - a littel better but not much, 4 months she took to it like a pro (grandma helped.)
For the soap issue, I don't know why the bottles you purchased say not to use those soaps but I do know that over use of antibacterial products has been linked to multi-drug resistant bacteria and that's not good. So I steer clear of them in general. I do use purell but that's alcohol based and therefore a disinfectant not an antibiodic (the difference is how it kills the bugs.)
Any way someone brought up the BPA issue. I got some really great bottles from Green to Grow. My daughter loves them. Their non-toxic and the company is committed to green practices.
Last thing. about cleaning. Yes hand washing and air dry. This is what I do. I put a cap full of bleach in the rinse water (here again a disinfectant not an antibiotic) and it is very safe. once it dries it is converted into salt.

Congrats on the baby, you obviously had a fun tax day.

Hi S.,
There are some really bad stuff in some bottles out there called BPA (the toxic chemical bisphenol A)> It has been known to do great harm in tests on animals and the governement is in the process of banning it because they think its doing irreversible damage to infants and unborn fetuses. Theres a website you could check out, http://www.babystoxicbottle.org. One thing I do know about recycable plastics is that only the #'s 1,2,4 and 5 are safe so avoid all the rest when you heat these plastics toxins leach out of the plastic and literally soak up into our skin! Its very scary. Theres some great info out there. I've heard that the antibacterial can do harm to the plastic (although I dont know why, Im sure the answers out there somewhere.
As for your other question with starting the bottle, the sooner you start the better, now sounds like a great time, we use avent, the nipple is close to the real thing.I just had dad start trying one bottle a day at first, you go out of the room so the baby cant hear you, this is a good time for a bubble bath:) Good Luck

S.,
I wouldn't recommend putting them in the dishwasher. I have read in Parent magazines that Extreme hot water ruins the bottles. They also say about Plastic bottles and how after long use and extreme hot water makes certain parts of the bottle deteriate, so google plastic baby bottles, they have some out there that are not made of that plastic material they say are not good in baby bottles.

Congratulations on the little one and good luck

Hi.

The sooner you introduce the bottle, the better. I really had to battle my infant once - it was heartbreaking and I wouldn't have done it if I didn't have to. So, start now. It took me 3-4 weeks to get her to accept a bottle and it wasn't until I was actually absent before she really made peace with it.

I have no idea about the antibacterial soap, but I'm sure it could be Googled easily enough. I am guessing it has something to do with the plastic. Hmm. Bet there are still glass baby bottles out there.

Congratulations on your baby!

When my daughter was an infant I used the Medella steam bags and when she was older I just put them in the dishwasher.

Sheryl

Hi S.,
There's no need to use antibacterial soap or dishsoap. I used to work at Clorox and know a decent amount about disinfecting things! Both antibacterial soap and dishsoap only work on porous surfaces, such as your hands, not on hard surfaces like bottles or dishes. If you look carefully at antibac dishsoap bottles, they specify in small writing that they are antibacterial for hands after about 30 seconds of lathering -- something like that. For the bottles, you can either put bottles in the top rack of the dishwasher, which gets hot enough to disinfect, or get a microwave steam system to disinfect. Avent makes one that works with other bottles as well. With the microwave system, we soaked the bottles in sudsy (regular dishsoap) water, rinsed them thoroughly, and then used the steam dealie. The dishwasher is easier, and we bought a small basket (open wire looking thing) that is designed to hold small items (bottle neck, nipples, etc.) in the top rack of the dishwasher so that they don't fly around. Just make sure you get non-BPH bottles (nothing to do with disinfecting).
Congratulations and best!
K.

I'm not sure why they would say no to the soap? Medella makes steam bags that you use in the microwave to steam the germs (they say they clean 99% of germs). I wash mine then pop them in the steamer for extra germ killing. They are super easy to use and make me feel better. I think I found them at Target.

We introduced our baby to a bottle at 4 weeks, he had nothing but the breast until then,(my first baby got nipple confusion,so I waited with this baby.)anyway he has gone back and forth between bottle and breast no problem. And for the bottle cleaning I like the old fashion way of boiling them in a pot of water, But I have also used the madella steam bags too and those work well.