How Often Do You Wash Baby Bottles? My Real Life Routine With Two Kids

If you are bottle feeding, it can feel like half your day is spent making bottles and the other half is spent washing them. With my first baby, we somehow ended every day with what felt like an entire sink full of bottles and bottle parts. My husband and I would stand there washing everything at the end of the night, and we both hated it.

By baby number two, I had a much better system.

So, how often do you actually need to wash baby bottles? I use a fresh, clean bottle for every feeding, but I do not wash a bottle immediately after every feed. Instead, I keep enough bottles in rotation that I can wash the dirty ones together in batches.

Here is exactly what that has looked like with both of my kids.

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Do You Have to Wash Baby Bottles After Every Use?

Yes, I use a freshly washed bottle for every feeding. But that does not mean I am standing at the sink washing a bottle the second my baby finishes eating.

There is an important distinction here. After my baby finishes a bottle, that bottle is considered dirty and does not get used for another feeding until it has been properly washed. I simply wait until I have several dirty bottles before washing them all at once.

This is one of the reasons I think having the right number of bottles makes such a difference. You want enough that you are not constantly washing a single bottle because you need it again an hour later, but you also do not necessarily need an enormous collection.

If you are trying to figure out the right number, I have a separate guide on how many baby bottles you actually need where I break down what has worked for us.

How I Washed Bottles With My First Baby

With my first baby, my bottle washing setup was very simple.

I kept a large bowl in my sink and filled it with soapy water. After we finished a bottle, I would take it apart and put the bottle and all of its pieces into the bowl to soak. I liked doing this because it kept milk from drying onto everything and becoming harder to clean later.

When I was ready to wash a batch, I used an OXO bottle brush and Dapple baby dish soap to clean everything. Then I put all of the pieces onto my drying rack.

I still love that drying rack. One of the reasons I prefer it to more traditional bottle racks is that you can stick all of the random little bottle pieces onto it instead of only having designated spaces for bottles. It is also really easy to clean.

The system worked perfectly well. The problem was that washing bottles by hand was just time consuming.

We would get to the end of the day with so many dirty bottles, and my husband and I would have to wash all of them. Washing one bottle is no big deal. Washing an entire day's worth of bottles and parts when you are exhausted and just want to go to bed is another story.

What I Do With Baby Number Two

For my second baby, my mother in law gave us the Momcozy bottle washer, and it has completely changed our bottle routine.

The machine washes, sterilizes, and dries the bottles in the same cycle. I use all three functions every time, although you can adjust the settings depending on what you want it to do.

Instead of accumulating a huge pile of bottles and washing everything at the end of the day, I typically run the bottle washer about twice during the day.

Because I can wash bottles so easily and frequently, I actually own fewer bottles this time around. We currently have four 8 ounce bottles and two 4 ounce bottles in regular rotation.

It has been plenty for us, and I much prefer this system to dealing with a huge pile of dirty bottles at the end of the night.

My Daycare Bottle Washing Routine

Daycare is another reason I think about the number of bottles I own a little differently.

I send my daughter to daycare with three bottles. When she comes home, those three bottles go directly into the Momcozy bottle washer. I run a load, and then I have clean bottles ready for the evening, including her bedtime feeding.

If your baby is going to daycare, I would take that into consideration when deciding how many bottles to buy. You want enough bottles that you can send what you need for the day without leaving yourself with no clean bottles at home.

For me, having a smaller number of bottles and washing them more frequently has actually been easier than owning a huge number and dealing with a mountain of dirty bottles at night.

How Often Should You Sterilize Baby Bottles?

With my first baby, I sterilized new bottles on the stove in boiling water according to the bottle manufacturer's instructions. Beyond that, I probably only sterilized bottles a handful of times.

My pediatrician told me that we did not need to sterilize bottles after every feeding, so it was not something I regularly did.

With my second baby, I technically sterilize bottles much more frequently because the Momcozy bottle washer does it automatically as part of the cycle I use. I am not sterilizing more because I decided every bottle suddenly needs to be sterilized after every feeding. It is simply built into my washing routine now.

Sterilizing recommendations can vary depending on your baby's age and health, so this is an area where I would follow your pediatrician's guidance. This can be particularly important if your baby was born prematurely or has specific health considerations.

What About Bottles in the Middle of the Night?

My goal during the newborn stage was always to have enough clean bottles ready before I went to bed. The last thing I wanted to do during a middle of the night feeding was wash a bottle.

At home, I used the Baby Brezza formula maker, which made nighttime bottles incredibly easy. When I was traveling or did not have the Baby Brezza available, I would prefill clean bottles with the correct amount of water and premeasure the formula into a formula dispenser.

I kept everything ready to go on my nightstand so I could quickly make a fresh bottle when the baby woke up.

Whatever system you use, I would prioritize making nighttime feeding as easy as possible. Having clean bottles ready before you go to sleep is a very small thing that feels very important when you are awake at 3 a.m.

How Many Bottles Do You Need If You Wash Them Every Day?

I do not think you need to buy a massive number of bottles just to avoid washing them.

Think about how many bottles your baby typically takes in a day and how often you realistically want to wash them. If your baby takes four or five bottles during the day, for example, you could have four 8 ounce bottles and plan to run a load or wash them before the final feeding.

That is essentially what we do now.

If your baby goes to daycare, make sure you account for those bottles too. My daughter takes three bottles to daycare, so I need enough bottles that I can send those with her while still making our routine at home work.

Before buying a bunch of bottles, I would also read my guide to 4 oz vs. 8 oz baby bottles. I use both sizes, but you may not need as many of each size as you think.

How Often Do You Wash Baby Bottles? My Biggest Tip

Batch your bottle washing.

You absolutely want to use a clean bottle for every feeding, but you do not have to wash each dirty bottle the moment the feeding ends. Having enough bottles in rotation allows you to collect a few dirty ones and wash everything together.

With my first baby, that meant soaking bottles and washing them by hand in batches. With my second, it means running the bottle washer roughly twice a day.

Either way, I find it much easier than treating bottle washing like a chore that needs to happen after every single feeding.

If you are building your bottle feeding setup from scratch, my newborn feeding essentials guide has everything I actually used for feeding both of my babies.

Frequently Asked Questions About Washing Baby Bottles

Do baby bottles need to be washed after every use?

I use a freshly cleaned bottle for every feeding. Once my baby has used a bottle, I consider it dirty until it has been properly washed. That does not mean I wash it immediately, though. I collect several dirty bottles and wash them together.

Can I rinse a baby bottle and use it again?

That is not something I do. I use a fresh, clean bottle for each feeding rather than simply rinsing a used bottle and using it again.

Do you have to sterilize baby bottles after every use?

I did not sterilize bottles after every use with my first baby based on guidance from our pediatrician. With my second baby, my bottle washer happens to sterilize during every cycle, so I do it much more often simply because it is convenient. Talk to your pediatrician about what is appropriate for your baby, especially if your baby was born prematurely or has particular health needs.

How often do you run a bottle washer?

I typically run mine about twice a day. I wait until I have enough dirty bottles to make running a cycle worthwhile rather than running it after every feeding.

How do you keep milk from drying inside dirty bottles?

When I washed bottles by hand, I liked putting the bottles and parts into a bowl of soapy water to soak until I was ready to wash them. I found that this helped prevent dried milk from becoming harder to clean later.

How many baby bottles should I own?

There is no single number that works for everyone, but I currently use four 8 ounce bottles and two 4 ounce bottles. That works for us because I wash bottles throughout the day. If your baby attends daycare, make sure you have enough to send the required bottles to daycare while still making your feeding routine at home manageable.