At least they don't have any yeast on them.

[rivka]

Alex has thrush, which is a minor and relatively common-in-babies yeast infection in the mouth. She's had it a lot. So we've got the drill down. When we're treating for yeast, we sterilize her bottle nipples after each use, and her pacifier every time we treat her mouth.

This morning I washed up bottles while boiling water fot my tea. I put the nipples and her most recent pacifier in a little pan of water and set them over a flame to boil. I poured my tea and fixed a bowl of cereal. I ate my breakfast while Alex played on the floor. We played some together. I went upstairs and put some files I needed for work on a thumb drive, and set up the work laptop on the couch. I fixed Alex a bottle. Here's what I did not do: maintain any recollection of the pot boiling on the stove.

Suddenly I heard a couple of pops and smelled something sort of electrical. I looked anxiously at the laptop, but it seemed fine. The smell continued.

"Oh my God!" I set Alex down on the floor and ran into the kitchen. Sure enough, the pan had boiled dry and her pacifier had begun to melt. The nipples had taken on a weird cloudy cast. I turned off the stove and ran cold water into the pan.

Accidents happen, right? Except that this is, conservatively, the third time Michael or I have ruined nipples and pacifiers while trying to sterilize them. I always laughed at the people who paid money for a separate sterilizer - why didn't they just use boiling water? - but now I'm beginning to get the idea.

Comments

[ewein2412]

I once managed to VAPORIZE a plastic cup, lid and spoon. Literally. When the clouds cleared and the pot was cool enough to touch, I took the lid off and there was NOTHING IN IT.

Are you Steve Wald's sister or am I making that up? Hi, it's Elizabeth Wein here!

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

Hee! Next time, set a timer? My microwave timer can be set to go for a good long time and it is loud enough when it goes off that I hear it elswehere in the house. This is how I keep from watering the garden for 72 consecutive hours (when I remember to water the garden at all, that is.) Of course, then there's the moment when the timer goes off and you can't remember what you set it for, and you're hunting about the kitchen for something left on, but that's another story!

Steriliser

[ailbhe]

We used boiling water for a bit until we realised I couldn't not boil it dry, and then got a microwave steriliser, because they are smaller than the countertop ones and anyway can live in the microwave. When we stopped sterilising the bottle bodies, we moved on to Steriboxes, which are small microwave boxes that will take two soothers and a teat tongs at a time. Very useful animals.

What I would be very wary of is a cold water steriliser, because the whole bleach thing bothers me greatly.

I never realised bottle-fed babies got thrush. It seems obvious, now I think of it, but for some reason my head puts it in with mastitis as a breastfeeding illness.

Medela micro-steam bags...

[(Anonymous)]

... are a life-saver. They seem expensive at first, but you can use them for far more times than the 20 they specify. And you can put bottles, nipples, pacifiers, etc., in them - not just pump parts.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

I used to have the same problem with boiling water for tea. Eventually I started setting a timer whenever I put water on, then carrying the timer wherever I was going. It helped.

[wandra.livejournal.com]

Oops. Yes - accidents do happen. The time my parents managed to explode one of my little brother's feeding bottles - all over the kitchen walls and ceiling - went down in family history.

Forgetting pans-on-stove is unfortunately one of my bad habits.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes. The smell of burning rubbber in ther morning. Microwave sterilizers are a good idea.

[lysana.livejournal.com]

At risk of causing offense, and please forgive me for letting concern lead me down that path if it does, but if Alex keeps getting thrush, perhaps you should consider what in her diet may be doing that? Thrush is a yeast infection, if I remember correctly. Her intestinal flora may be out of whack.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I second all those who commend a timer.

I also recommend the use of 1: a cake-rack in the bottom of the pan, 2: placing that cake rack high in a large pot and 3: the investment of a Sil-pat to place on the cake rack. That ought to provide enough insulation to save them, even if you forget.

Given my kitchen, I'd use the pasta boiler, in lieu of a double-boiler, but I have one, and not everyone does, nor has the space to put one.

TK

[fourgates.livejournal.com]

*fights off mental image of Rivka sterilizing a nipple using a spoon and a cigarette lighter*

[firecat]

Ah yes, this is why I got a dedicated hard boiled egg cooker. (The last time I decided to boil eggs in a saucepan, I got a sudden wild hair to go upstairs to my craft room, where I couldn't hear the timer.)

[edschweppe.livejournal.com]

Now, I'm a single guy who doesn't have a clue about this, so take anything I say with the proverbial large grain of sodium chloride.

That disclaimer being disclaimed, my first reaction was "timer!".

My second reaction was "could you use a double boiler for this?" Being the aforementioned clueless single guy, I don't know if the top of a double boiler would get hot enough.

My third reaction is to suggest that if you tend to boil little pans of water dry, use big pans of water. With lots of water. And maybe an extra timer...

[boxofdelights]

See, there's another good reason to have a dog. Somnus interruptus is hard on the cognitive functioning, you know? Of course you know. More than once, when Phoebe was a baby, Panda alerted me that something smelled scary in the kitchen (long before I or the fire alarm would have noticed that something smelled scary).

[(Anonymous)]

Rivka,
If you have a microwave oven, get a microwave steriliser. I had four kids before i got one, boiled a million bottles, teats and dummies (pacifiers) into mush, and then with the fifth, never boiled another one.

I can't recommend them highly enough.

Of course, if you don't have a microwave, you need a timer that really screams.

Give my best regards to Jae. I'm glad Alex is thriving so well.

Emma

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Medela has these new bags which will sterilize bottles etc in a microwave. I swear by them - they are AMAZING and each bag has 20 uses!