My mother, who is the nurse manager of Infection Control at a large urban hospital, feels that washing pump parts with hot soapy water or in the dishwasher is sufficient unless the baby has some specific problem like an immune deficiency. Mothers do put unsterilized pacifiers, etc. into the mouths of babes all the time. She agrees with the general thread of this discussion that it is unecessary overkill to try to sterilize pump equipment with every use. This discussion was very reassuring to me because this question comes up a lot on our local LLL helpline. Marie of WI LLLL & MOM