[Feefifofum]

I have the same problem with bottles coming out of the dishwasher. I usually put them on a drying rack to air dry. If you're worried about contamination from other dishes you could get a separate drying rack.

[Leeloomina]

Hi OP I also preferred them dry for expressing. What I did was after sterilising (I used an electric one), I poured boiling water into them then empty them out immediately, give the bottles a shake upside down to get rid of any excess water, then I left the bottles upright and they should dry completely in an hour or so.

[Lightning_bug]

In our case, I've never worried about it. On talking with our MCHN nurse the steralisation of bottles in contries such as ours is not considered essential anymore. At all. As long as they're thoroughly cleaned.

I'm not comfortable with that. Anyway, I find if I pour boiling water in and then straight out it hasn't been a problem. As you can imagine, they'd be unsteralised if you put anything inside them (so outside doesn't matter as such) which isn't sterile.

Boiling water seems to dry off better. But OP, a few drops of water wouldn't be a problem.

[Princess.cranky....]

Once you expose bottles to air they are not sterile so wiping them dry is fine. I used to just hand wash bottles and leave them on bottle rack and they would dry.

[chocolatecrackle]

I take mine out of the steriliser (aka saucepan) while they are still hot and shake the water out, being careful to not touch the insides or the thread. I then leave them on a clean towel on the bench to air dry for a few minutes.

I use the bottles for EBM and I don't worry too much about it being sterile, as I know for sure that my nipples aren't sterile. I also figure that my baby is starting to get all sorts of germs now he's sticking things in his mouth.

I am much more concerned about keeping the milk cold - on the basis that one or two germs from an unsterile bottle will be fine, but the accumulation of germs growing in a warm bottle and the waste products they produce would be much, much worse.

[lucky 2]

As pp's have said there isn't any need to sterilise for ebm, only for formula preparation.
Breast milk is not a sterile substance and though it is wise not to introduce microorganisms, washing bottles and equipment in hot soapy water and rinsing then air drying is adequate, the ABA website has current research based information on this.
FWIW, my bottles were not usually dry when I used ebm.

[lozoodle]

I never bothered drying them, what's the point? I'd just fill them with the cool boiled water and put in fridge ready for the next day.

[liveworkplay]

Just opening the lid of the steralizer "unsteralizes" them. I thought the recomendation for a long time now, was just to wash in hot soapy water, rinse and air dry?

I've never really used bottles so never steralized them.

[mummyinahurry]

I don't bother sterilizing for EBM. Just washed with normal dish stuff, rinsed in hot water and into fridge

[hyperkitty]

I was told by my LC that you do not need to sterilize for breast milk, only for formula