To feel sick and a crap mum

[Rolandoratto]

My teen DS has a reusable water bottle he carries everywhere with him. He rinses and refills but hasn’t been leaving it for me to wash properly and I’ve not thought about how long it had been since it was washed out properly. Today I took it from him to wash and it had a layer of black slime inside the spout. I feel sick. I feel like I might have damaged his health by neglecting this. He only drinks water and I didn’t think about anything growing on it since it’s constantly rinsed and refilled. He’s got an awful cough at the moment - did I do this?

To have not raised him to exercise proper hygiene practices, to an extent you're culpable.

Live you and you learn.

He’ll be fine just wash it. Think about it, kids swim in lakes and rivers and ingest stagnant water without major issues. The water in the bottle will be chlorinated as well not with mud and algae in. Just get some Milton sterilising fluid and give it a good soak.

Get yourself some of the tablets used for baby bottles. Bowl of water and drop one in, leave to soak for a bit and then wash with hot water.

dont feel too bad. It happens.

my best advice is get 3 bottles.
1 to use, 1 clean and 1 to clean and rotate them.

It’s not a big deal. How old is he?

No your not a crap mum, an easy thing to over look and you've spotted it now so you know to look out for it, don't beat yourself up easy done

I have exact same issue with my ASD teen DD who only drinks water.
I washed her water bottle today as a matter of fact. No slime. But I couldn’t remember the last time I’d thoroughly washed it. I was thinking about adding a reminder to my phone to alert me every three days to wash her bottle.

🤢 we wash water bottles with hot soapy water every single day in this house. My advice in your shoes is to maybe ditch the plastic and ģet a metal bottle. We have several Chillys bottles they're brilliant. We still wash them everyday too but they're less likely to go manky if you forget for a while than the plastic ones.

This happened to me. I changed the water bottle to one with a wider opening and bought a bottle brush and showed DS how to clean it! You didn't realise! (I didn't realise - It was like some nasty science experiment gone wrong! - still makes me feel sick and I considered just buying loads of water bottles but that wasn't the answer! )

As a side note I use pipe cleaners from the kids craft stuff to scrub inside the straws of these water bottles, quick and easy

Of course you are not a crap mum - he is old enough to wash it himself, or at least notice it needs a wash!

13 or 19 yo?

Because I'd say that's different. You do need to teach them to wash them regularly when they're younger.

He's a teen, why can't he wash it himself?

He is 14 but quite a young 14. I’ve made him a bit too dependent on me by doing everything for him but I’m teaching him things and he is willing - he’s getting better at things. I have ADHD so am not always on the ball. I will pass over responsibility to at least bring it for a good wash. Thanks everyone for making me feel a bit better and giving solutions. I’ll have one to wash and one to use and maybe one spare and get him to swap them over

I’ve made him a bit too dependent on me by doing everything for him

Unless you want him to grow into one of the useless feckers so many MNers post about, you'll do well to reverse this ASAP!