Can you buy used bottles, dummies or a breast pump at a car boot sale?

What do screened baby sales refuse that a car boot may still sell?

NCT's Nearly New sellers' principles (August 2023 text on the page we checked) say you must not bring used breast pumps or baby bottles, and they also refuse bottle-propping devices. That is hygiene-and-organiser policy for a screened sale. It is not a sentence in the Business Companion car-boot guide.

Little Pickles Markets, a baby-sale organiser, publishes a consumer note advising against selling dummies, beakers or cups, and potties or toilet-training seats unless they are brand new in packaging. Netmums' second-hand round-up repeats the NCT hygiene lines on bottles, formula and breast pumps. Car-boot stalls are not those screened tables. The same crate still appears in a sandwich bag on a Sunday.

What does NHS sterilising guidance actually cover?

NHS Best Start guidance on sterilising feeding equipment is written for your own bottles, teats and pump parts after you have washed them. It is not a car-boot buying protocol. The steps still matter because they start with a damage check that a sealed sandwich bag hides.

• Wash hands and clean the worktop first.
• Check the bottle and teat are not damaged, then wash in hot soapy water with a bottle brush. A dishwasher cleans equipment; NHS says it does not sterilise it.
• Rinse in clean, cold running water, then steam (follow the maker's instructions, openings facing down), use a cold-water solution (at least 30 minutes; change the solution every 24 hours), or boil for at least 10 minutes.
• NHS notes that teats tend to wear faster if you boil them, and that you should keep checking teats and bottles for tears, cracks or damage.

Those NHS steps assume you can see every surface and that the item is still in one piece. They are not a medical all-clear for a pump or dummy whose last owner you cannot name. MayTally does not give feeding or clinical advice.

How should I inspect a crate of bottles or dummies in the aisle?

1. 1
   Open the bag If the seller will not let you handle each bottle or dummy, you cannot do the NHS damage check. Walk on.
2. 2
   Look at teats and dummy teats in daylight NHS tells you to look for tears, cracks and damage. Sticky residue, a split slit or a chalky ring at the base is the opposite of that check.
3. 3
   Read any remaining marks A dummy or bottle still in dated retail packaging is a different object from a loose teat in a freezer bag. Little Pickles' 'new in packaging' line is the organiser's hygiene cut. Match what you are actually being offered.
4. 4
   For a pump, name every part Shields, valves, bottles and tubing are the parts that touched milk. NCT refuses the used pump as a whole. A motor unit with no parts list is two gaps: hygiene history and missing spares.
5. 5
   Do not turn a wash story into a record Which? describes how some parents sanitise removable pump and bottle parts. That is a consumer-magazine method, not an NCT sale rule and not an NHS car-boot protocol. A seller saying 'I boiled them' is a sentence, not a log.

Is a used breast pump a different problem from a bottle?

NCT puts used pumps and used bottles on the same do-not-bring line. The practical difference on a stall is parts. A bottle is one vessel and a teat. An electric pump is a motor, a charging point, valves and shields that wear and that makers often sell as replacements. Which? discusses wiping the motor and sanitising removable parts. NCT still will not take the used pump onto a Nearly New table.

A manual pump with cracked flanges is closer to a damaged bottle than to a working motor. Either way, you have no milk-history and no NCT-style screen. That is the process fact. It is not a diagnosis.

What if a magazine says pumps and bottles can be sanitised?

Which?'s October 2025 second-hand piece describes boiling, steam or sterilising solution for removable parts that have touched milk. NCT's 2023 principles still refuse those used items at Nearly New. Both pages can be true at once: a magazine can describe a wash, and a screened sale can still say no. A car boot has neither Which?'s kitchen nor NCT's volunteer check.

In shortIn short: NCT refuses used bottles and pumps; some baby markets also refuse used dummies unless they are new in the pack. NHS sterilising starts with an undamaged item you can wash. A bag on a stall is organiser-free. No page on this site calls a used teat a pass.