Thanks for your responses ladies!

It's fascinating... seems I might perhaps be being a little too obsessive. Or maybe not! Some of you think cafe tables are fine, but fingers aren't; and others think fingers are fine but cafe tables aren't! So I guess it's one of those every mum for themselves types of things!

I do appreciate that bubs do need contact with germs to build up their immune systems, but I figured that if you are supposed to sterilise bottles, etc when they're very little, then it made sense to try and keep their environment pretty clean too.

Does anyone know what age you normally stop sterilising stuff (bottles, etc)??? I've never used bottles with bub so I'm not too familiar with the usual standards, but I figure that will give an indication of when babies systems are better able to cope with non-sterile stuff. IYKWIM

And just one other thing... what about other people letting your bub put their fingers (bub's fingers) in their (the other person's) mouths? Any thoughts on that one? A friend of my dad's let DS put DS's fingers in his mouth and I was a little horrified - but I don't mind if it is his own or DH's or my mouth he shoves them into.

Thanks again!