Hygiene of infant-feeding utensils. Practices and standards in the home

Of 758 infants' feeding-bottles and teats collected aseptically by health visitors in four areas of Great Britain and examined in public health laboratories, less than two-thirds of the bottles and just over half of the teats produced results within an arbitrary "satisfactory" level. The mothers who said they used the hypochlorite method of sterilization and of storage of bottles and teats produced significantly better results. More of the mothers with satisfactory results had attended mothercraft classes. Twenty-two per cent. of babies in the sample were said to have suffered from diarrhoea, or vomiting, or both.The standards of home sterilization of bottles and teats could be improved, and straightforward and effective health education is required, together with professional backing, so that mothers would put into practice what they had been taught.