How to clean an at-breast supplementer
The Supplemental Nursing System (SNS) can be cleaned quickly and easily and it can be boiled or sterilized usually once a day. Other devices are cleaned by syringe and hot (soapy) water and rinsed, some cannot be sterilized.
How do you clean the Supplemental Nursing System?
If your baby was born around the due date, is healthy and older than two weeks, you can very easily clean the SNS. You need very little time for this:
Place the SNS in the sink and pour in water that is nearly boiling.
Screw on the top again, hold the SNS upside down, shake it lightly and let some hot water run through the tubes.
Empty the remainder and repeat.
In this way, the SNS is clean. Place the SNS and the attachment ring on a clean kitchen towel. It is ready for the next feed. You see this quick cleaning method in the following video:
Once a day:
The parts of the Supplemental Nursing System are boiled for 3 minutes in distilled water.
take apart the yellow attachment ring
rinse the parts under running water
sterilize them or boil them in distilled water for about 3 minutes (distilled water prevents calcification)
If you occasionally clean the device with dish detergent you need to rinse it very well. If your baby was born prematurely and/or there are health problems, it is necessary to take apart the attachment ring, use dish detergent and sterilize it every time.
Cleaning is also described in the booklet on the SNS.
The next steps
After you and your baby had your first breastfeeds and you gradually gain confidence in your ability to breastfeed with an at-breast supplementer some Essential changes later are very important in order to prepare for weaning from the device later on.
Helpful for at-breast supplementation are some Important details & further information
Back to the Overview At-breast supplementation
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