How to clean spouts on beakers.

[soppypreggyloon]

Ok I feel a bit of a grubby mummy asking this but I'm gonna do it ...

Ds is 2yo. He's had his tommee tippee beakers like this but with handles for god knows how long.

I've only just noticed there's a fair bit of gritty ick in the flippy spout mechanism!

How do I get it out? A bottle brush cant get in there.

You could give it a good poke with a cocktail stick or something similar :)

Use a matchstick and plenty of boiling water. Do you have a dishwasher? that might help.

Does he have a permanently dodgy tum? I bet not. I bet, in fact, that the legacy of his grubby cups is to leave him with a rock-iron constitution. You should be a proud mama!

I feel like a wasteful landfiller of a mummy to suggest this but chuck it out and buy a new one. They're cheaper in sainsburys. I once spent an hour with a jay cloth and the end of a teaspoon trying to get that gunk out .

He has had (touch wood) had relatively few tummy bugs in the last year. I'm glad I'm not (yet) being flames for being so gross!
We have a dishwasher which might be what the teeny gritty bits come from. I had thought this was better for cleaning than my slack washing up skills but maybe not.
I'm not sure what to poke it with as it's not the holes but the hinge bit that's grim.

Not the dishwasher's fault - we had the same prob before we got one. Just poor design.

If it's the hinge, use a pin to scratch away the goo whilst soaking in hot, soapy water. Far better than chucking it away.

I am wondering what "rock-iron" means...think I got my substances confused there!

do you leave the spout up in the dishwasher (I do)? I have always done mine in the dishwasher and have never had stuff stuck in the spout

seona - yes spouts up. It's not in the spout tho it's the hinge bit. Spouts are clean!

We didn't have a dishwasher when DD1 was little, and I must admit to finding some of her cups in a very sorry state

I used to clean DD1s with an old toothbrush while soaking in hot water as hers was always discusting. Luckily DS and DD2 seemed to keep theirs clean lol.

It's gross isn't it? DD has a Big Cow cup & the spout is too long for brush bristles to reach.

I put the lid bit in hot soapy water the second she has finished with it (in the hope that will stop anything congealing) and it goes into the dishwasher when it goes on. That seems to keep it under control.

If it gets grim inside then I use a wooden toothpick to scrape out the goo.

DS has a big cow cup and a tomee tippee one, both of which get full of gunk eventually.

I soaked them both in very hot water for a while and then used a wooden skewer to poke out the gunk. Very satisfying!

I've also heard that you can soak them in false-teeth cleaning solution, but haven't tried it myself.

Pipe cleaners. Very satisfying.

VERY hot soapy water and a toothbrush.

All the cups we've had seem to end up a bit gross eventually. The only one that hasn't is this one. It can be completely dismantled (easily) so seems quite easy to clean. There's a little rubber seal which is a bit discoloured but not gunky.

Cotton wool bud - cut the tips diagonally with scissors so it leaves a sharp point, and strip all but a little of the cotton wool. Its amazing what I can clean with that!