dishwashers and cross contamination

[mumat39]

Hello

I wash all pots, plates, cups, glasses, cutlery etc that I use for DD by hand as I have always assumed that I shoudln't use our dishwasher as we wash other things in that that have been used to foods that my DD is allergic to, if that makes sense.

Someone said recently that surely dishwashers are more hygeinic than washing by hand, so is that true?

Our dishwasher doesn't dry things very well and sometimes that water that sits on the bottom of upturned cups looks like it has bits floating in it, so I've always been paranoid about food residues.

I really need to make things a bit easier for me and if I could get rid of the constant washing up that I have that would be great and would also free up quite alot of my time.

So could I safely put my DD's things into the dishwasher to be washed along with the stuff we use?

Many Thanks in advance

One reason that dishwashers are more hygienic than hand washing is that the temperature is much higher. Everything is basically boil washed and steam dried.
This is excellent for killing all bugs and making everything hygenically clean.
However, allergies are not usually caused by bacteria and viruses.
It might be possible for food residues to cause contamination, but it must be very unlikely.
You could wash everything in the machine and just rinse off any specific items that concern you with regards to residues.

If you have stuff floating in the bottom of your dishwasher then you need to check/wash/clean your filters.

Otherwise, dishwashers are much more hygienic than hand washing because of the temperature that they reach. You can use a dishwasher to sterilise glass jars for pickling, which gives you some indication of how hot the water must be.

I always use the dishwasher for the reasons the other mentioned ie the heat. Once a month I use a dishwasher cleaner to make sure it's really clean. To be honest, I don't worry about it quite that much. We eat out occasionally & obviously I can't control how they wash their plates, cutlery etc so while I do try to avoid cross-contamination at home I don't get too Hung up about it.

Thanks everyone.

Ruthchan, thanks. I suppose I knew about the heat and hygiene, I'm just not sure whether the heat is enough to stop cross contamination being a problem.

BIWI, it's not stuff floating in the bottom of the dishwasher, it's just stuff that I sometimes notice on the top of cups where sometime water gathers.

Freefrommum, I've always been overly careful as in the early days, so about 3.5 years ago, DD used to have really odd reactions and it took me ages to figure out that it was the pots that was causing this. We used to use non stick pans at the time, so not sure if it could have been the coating on the pan that was the problem.

DD is now 4.5 years old and she has only had restaurant food once, and had a reaction even though the staff had been really careful. As a result she doesn't ever have meals unless I've prepared them. As she has allergies to so many things we always take all of our own pots and stuff whenever we visit family or friends as it just removes any uncertainty.

I know you use your dishwasher but just as an aside Do you think the heat in the dishwasher together with the dishwasher tablets is enough to denature the allergens to make them less 'allergenic'? Also, we tend to use alot of plastic (Ikea) plates and cups and cutlery, so do you think allergens might 'stick' to these more and would it would be better to move to 'proper' plates, knives,forks, spoons glasses etc?

I spend so much of my time just being confused about what to do so your replies are really very much appreciated. It's really helpful knowing how everyone in the same situation deals with things so Thank you for taking teh time to reply.

Babybarrister, is that because your dc has an egg allergy?

I use the dishwasher for everything, because of the extreme heat used. I just think it does a more thorough job then I ever could.

Thanks Babybarrister. So you wouldn't wash the pan in the d/w but you would put the plate and cutlery that were used for the egg food in the same wash as your DS's plates,cutlery and glass etc?

DD is anaphylactic to wheat and has loads of other allergies so I was always worried about wheaty things in the dishwasher.

Do you always rinse plates and things off before they go in? We don't do that so wonder if that's something we should be doing.

Sorry to be asking so many questions, but thankyou - again :)

Thanks BabyBarrister. I called AllergyUK and teh Anaphylaxis Campaign helplines and they both said that it should be ok but I won't know until I try so I'm going to give it a go.

As freefrommum does, I'm going to clean the dishwasher and make sure the filter is clean and then do it. eeek. the thought of no more (or at least a lot less) washing up is just too too exciting. [i need to get a life emoticon]

Thank you all for your replies. You've just helped make my life (as long as it works ok) alot lot easier!