Water bottle mould

[musicinspring1]

Cleaning DC water bottle and found some black sludgy stuff in the top of the complicated straw bit - have obviously taken apart , properly cleaned and dried etc and cursed myself for not doing so / previously noticing - how worried would you be about DC having drunk from it ??

A healthy child with a healthy immune system would likely see zero effects from that - it’s not nice to think about, but the digestive system is pretty robust in terms of such things and we breathe in those mould/mildew spores all the time. Obviously it’s not ideal on an ongoing basis!

I would throw the bottle away though tbh — in many of them unless you can take all the bits of the lid apart and put them through the dishwasher on a regular basis, they do unfortunately start accumulating mildew and bacteria after a while whatever you do. I stopped using the ones with nozzles or filters/straws in for DD, and only used the wide neck bottles in which all parts can be easily cleaned and put through the dishwasher because of this.

I have a bottle with a built in straw / flip lid type thing, to clean it once a week I put it in a bowl of Milton. That seems to take care with fiddling cleaning bits .

Thanks both - I’ll definitely get a different style bottle this one is a pain 😫

You can buy thin brushes that fit the straw and sipper drinks bottles and clean them really well. I just put a little washing up liquid on then give them a good scrub and rinse with hot water.

I can recommend Contigo Autoseal for ease of use and cleaning
I I have a 750ml one but they do nice Children’s versions

This sort of thing

We ended up buying the Tritan style Sistema bottles or other ones with similar open flip top screw lids and no filter/straw. They’re easier to spill, unfortunately; but they can go in the dishwasher and don’t accumulate the mould.

Thanks everyone I appreciate the practical tips (and also reassurance about the mould not being ideal but nothing to catastrophise over). Have looked in to the different water bottle options and cleaning things already

I chuck mine and buy one a different shape as soon as I see any mould. It's pointless cleaning it. If it appeared once, it'll appear twice.