Bringing a 1 year old - Sterilising bottles and Milk?

[donnamacfaddon]

Has anyone got any bright ideas for sterilising bottles for our 1 year old whilst camping? And does anyone know where and when we can get milk from on site (is it just the tractor that comes round or do the shops sell it?)

Any other helpful tips for those that have taken little ones that age?

Thank you!

[pie_and_a_pint]

You could visit the midwives in the green fields for advice on sterilising equipment, or else just use a bucket with a lid, water from the tap and Milton. Or take one-use disposable steri-bottles, although these aren't very envrionmentally friendly.

[Girlwiththemostcake]

You should be able to stop sterilising feeding equipment if your baby is a year old. Just wash it thoroughly.

[donnamacfaddon]

Yes milton and bucket with lid would work. Good point about not sterilising though! Is there anywhere on site that I could get hot water to wash the bottles in?

[pie_and_a_pint]

Yes milton and bucket with lid would work. Good point about not sterilising though! Is there anywhere on site that I could get hot water to wash the bottles in?

[bigbilly]

The midwifes tent in the kids field provide everything you would ever need for your baby! They even provide free food. Cant remember what brand it was but was good stuff thats not cheap in the supermarkets. Some organic brand if i remember rightly

[sunnyshoes]

Pretty sure that they have sterilising equipment in the NCT tent in the kids field. Milton tablets would be an option or are there some kind of sterilising bag thingies you can get. Not sure about hot water besides heating up yourself. Depending on how many bottles you're going to need in a day you could take a job lot to the NCT tent in the morning, sterilise a load and keep the tops on and then sterilise another loads in the evening before they close which I think is 7pm. I presume the NCT tent has somewhere to wash the bottles too before you sterilise them. However the kids field isnt open on Weds/Thursday as far as I remember.

There's the milk tractor or I've just bought from stalls before so fresh milk shouldn't be a problem.

[Jules007]

I used the steriliser bags but theyre a pain in the butt to hang somewhere, I say take a cold water steriliser and make yourself self suffient, its much easier.

The NCT tent were great and did have microwaves and sterilisers if I remember correctly.

I would recommend still sterilising if your child has just turned one and you havent yet got him/her 'climatised' to the unsterilsed world. A cow farm and poor toilet hygiene of some festival goers is going to be a challenge even for the stronger older guts around, gastroenteritis in children is pretty nasty.

A good clean and an hour in milton and festival water should be fine.

[redmosquito]

The NCT tent are amazing. They even do baby baths on an evening and give mums and dads a cup of tea whilst you wait. I'm sure they'll be able to help sterilising bottles too. They seemed really well equipped.

[Onus]

I'm bringing a 1 year old (turned 1 in April) as well. He's fine with solids so am packing a few SMA cartons that come with straws, ergo no sterilising needed! We've been training him with straws for the last couple of weeks.

[fur_q]

As others have said you shouldn't need to sterilise after 12Ms, we took our daughter at 14M a few years ago although she would never take a bottle and had given up breast feeding by that point so would just drank milk from a cup.

Cows milk is available from all the 24h stalls in the markets (the ones that sell cigs and everything). The only problem was all the stalls had run put by the Sunday night so I had a bit of a trek round the site that night to get some (a nice stall holder who was closing up for the night gave me what he had left in his fridge) so it may be a good idea to take some cartons of the long life stuff.

On the solid food front I those screw top pouches of fruit purée are good, we taught our daughter to suck them straight from the pouch before we went meaning we could always give her something to eat when she was hungry and didn't have to worry about having clean bowls or spoons, the rest of the time we always made sure one of us got something from the stalls that she could eat (jacket potatoes, and the pita and humours that came with falafels where a favourite of hers)

[bigbilly]

you can also order kids portions from most of the stalls, the pasta stalls usually still give you a massive portion for half the price, no need to give it to your kids eat it yourself to save a few quid

[NCTbabe]

Hi

The National Childbirth Trust (NCT) have a Baby Feed & Change Tent at the top of the Kidz Field and we have full sterilising facilities available (and washing up provision). The tent is geared up specificially for you and your baby and we even provide welcome cups of tea and a place to lie down. We are open the same time of the Kidz Field 9am-7pm with a nightly bath time between 5pm-6:30pm.

Also for the first time this year there will be out of hours provision in the Family Camping area behind the Kidz Field. They will be open when the NCT field is not. It will only cater to basic requirements but they will have provision to sterilise bottles.

Please note there is very little shade on site so please make sure you have plenty of protection for your little one - my worst festivals with the children have been the hot ones not the wet ones. Heat makes them fractious and miserable, so come prepared and life will be grand

See you in a couple of weeks

[donnamacfaddon]

Thanks nctbabe - only just seen this so had posted this question on the other topic about nappies. Will Wednesday be out of hours service or normal opening?

[NCTbabe]

The out of hours tent will be open from Wednesday lunch time (midday)!

Look on site map, find the Kidz field and it's in Family camping just above it

X

[whateverman]

When we did it (15 years ago!!!). We brought these nifty disposable bottles that actually had a bag system. You clipped in a fresh sterile bag each time. Not much plastic waste (compared to disposable bottles) and very easy to use. We found them a godsend to be honest.

Unfortunately I can't find a link to them. Bottle liners seem to be similar sort of thing.

[giantkatestacks]

That nct provision sounds fantastic.

I am another one who didnt bother sterilising at that age though, a sippy cup with cows milk in and youre good to go if I didnt fancy bf, after all they are crawling around putting all sorts in their mouth. Its impossible to keep a sterile environment when camping.