How to wash baby bottles

Washing is not sterilizing, and washing is the required one

This is the thing worth getting straight before anything else. Per CDC guidance on cleaning, sanitizing and storing infant feeding items, feeding items must be cleaned after every use. Sanitizing is an extra step on top, and it matters daily only if your baby is less than two months old, was born prematurely, or has a weakened immune system. For an older, healthy baby, careful cleaning after each use is the requirement and daily sanitizing may not be necessary at all.

Which is the opposite of how most people shop for this. Parents buy a sterilizer and then wonder whether to bother washing first; the honest order is wash properly every time, and sanitize when the CDC says it matters. We argue the purchase side of this in do I need a bottle sterilizer, how often to sterilize bottles and when to stop sterilizing baby bottles. The sterilizing method itself is how to sterilize baby bottles.

Washing by hand, step by step

Two steps in that list are the ones people skip, and both come straight from the CDC. The first is the wash basin: washing feeding items directly in the sink is discouraged because sinks and drains carry germs, so a plastic basin used only for bottles is a genuinely worthwhile two-dollar purchase. The second is air drying: do not towel-dry bottle parts, because a dish towel puts back what you just removed. Stand them upright on a clean, unused towel or a rack and leave them.

Washing in a dishwasher

Easier and, in one respect, better. Take everything apart, rinse the parts first, then put small items — nipples, collars, caps, vent inserts — in a closed-top basket or mesh bag so they do not end up in the filter. Run a cycle with hot water. If your machine has a heated drying or sanitizing setting, use it: per the CDC that cycle sanitizes as well as cleans, which means you can stop thinking about a separate sterilizer entirely.

Check your bottles are dishwasher safe and where they go. Most are top rack only, and plenty of silicone and soft parts are exceptions — the maker's instruction wins over any general rule. Take items out as soon as the cycle is done, and if anything is still damp, let it air dry rather than assembling it. The dishwasher-versus-sterilizer argument in full is bottle sterilizer vs dishwasher.

When a machine is worth it

If you have no dishwasher and you are running eight or more bottles a day, or you are exclusively pumping and washing pump parts several times daily, a bottle washer stops being an indulgence. The Grownsy EaseClean Bottle Washer Pro is the value pick: it washes, steam sterilizes and dries, takes eight bottles plus cups and pump parts, and its interior pieces detach so awkward pump parts actually fit. Our head-to-head is Baby Brezza vs Grownsy, and the full field is the best bottle washers.

For two or three bottles a day with a dishwasher in the house, buy neither. A brush, a basin and a rack is the correct answer and it costs almost nothing.

Washing bottles away from home

Hotel rooms, flights, long days out and relatives' kitchens are where the routine breaks down, and the fix is low-tech. Rinse immediately so milk does not dry on — that single step does most of the work. Carry a small folding bottle brush and a travel-size bottle of dish soap. Wash in a basin or a clean sink with hot water from the tap, and if the water supply is one you would not drink, use bottled or boiled water for the final rinse.

If you want a sanitizing option in a bag, Medela Quick Clean micro-steam bags do one pump set or a few bottle parts in any microwave and are reusable for a set number of cycles, which makes them the obvious travel choice. A Munchkin Steam Guard microwave sterilizer does around four bottles for very little money if you have counter space in a rental. Neither replaces the wash — both are the step after it. Travelling with the milk itself is a separate problem: how to travel with breast milk.

Pump parts follow a different page, but the same principle

If you pump, the parts that touch milk get cleaned after every session too, and the CDC has separate breast pump hygiene guidance for them — including the instruction to discard tubing immediately if milk or mold gets inside it, because tubing cannot be cleaned properly. Our method page is how to clean breast pump parts, and the wear-and-replacement schedule is how often to replace breast pump parts.

Washing bottles for the first time, before you use them

New bottles get washed before first use — they have been handled, boxed and shipped. Take everything apart, wash as above, and then, if your baby is under two months, was born prematurely, or has a weakened immune system, sanitize as well before the first feed. That is the one case where sanitizing new items is clearly worth doing rather than optional. What you need in total, and how many of each, is in how many bottles do I need and what do I need for bottle feeding.

Where this comes from

Every step of the hand-washing routine, the wash-basin instruction, the air-drying instruction, the dishwasher sanitizing rule and the under-two-months sanitizing rule are from the CDC's guidance on cleaning, sanitizing and storing infant feeding items, with pump-specific rules from its breast pump hygiene guidance, both checked on 10 October 2026. Machine capability claims come from the makers' published specifications — including Grownsy's EaseClean Bottle Washer Pro — and from the independent testing in Mommyhood101's washer and sterilizer tests.