Mothercare Dishwasher basket for teats etc..

TargetWidow

Am I doing it wrong or does anyone else find this to be a rubbish product which does not do what it says on the tin? The cage is too small to take the standard avent teats and squishes them up so that the water doesnt get all the way into them to clean them properly. Im not the kind of person who complains but these are really poorly made and fall apart at the slightest bit of pressure (necessary to jam it shut with the teats being too big!) I am considering taking these back and saying they are not fit for purpose. They were dirt cheap but I would have paid ten times the money for a decent product but it was all they had. Any ideas for a better product?

Nevyn

What standard sized teats is it meant for ?

embee

Thaedydal wrote: »

What standard sized teats is it meant for ?

The Mothercare own brand ones, I think. I could be wrong on that though.

Why do you need a special dishwasher basket for your teats? I just pop mine on the wee shelf above the cups in the dishwasher along with the screw top rings, cleans them perfectly.

Seriously, there are so many gimmicky "must-have" products out there that can honest to god be done without. I never understood those little round formula dispensers that you take out and about with you with coiled boiled water made in the bottles, ready for you to mix... Just adding to the crap you've to bring around with you. I used to just keep the bottle in the fridge until the last minute before I left the house, kept it in the cooler section of the changing bag, there's no need for all this nonsense of mixing formula out and about. Always found that the water should be tepid when mixing, as cooled water used to leave lumps in the formula.

TargetWidow

Girls I'd be lost without ye!!!! The cardboard thingy around them didn't specify what teats would fit and tbh I just assumed they would. I'm gonna try your suggestion tonight embee and see what happens. Usually the bottle caps end up being turned upside down and you get a cap full of dishwasher sludge that ends up having to be handwashed anyway so I was afraid that the teats would suffer the same fate.

You're right about the formula mixer carry on though...... I fell for that for all of about 5 minutes before I got sick of carrying half the house around with me. Anyway if you mix the formula with water that has cooled for 30 minutes it is "supposed" to kill off any bacteria that are in it.....

While I have ye here now here's another one for ye. I plan to continue with growing up milk when she gets to 1, and I know that it is no longer necessary to sterilise the bottles and teats etc at that stage but do you have to continue with the cooled boiled water to make it up or can you use filtered tap water cold? My least favourite part of the day is making those bloody bottles!

nesf

embee wrote: »

Why do you need a special dishwasher basket for your teats? I just pop mine on the wee shelf above the cups in the dishwasher along with the screw top rings, cleans them perfectly.

We did the same and had no problems. A lot of these products are wholly unnecessary.

Quackles

I like having the basket - stops them flying around the dishwasher and lying there full of dirty water like the lids do. I don't remember the make of my basket, but I bought it in smyths, it was about 10 yoyos, and it fits avent teats.

embee

TargetWidow wrote: »

While I have ye here now here's another one for ye. I plan to continue with growing up milk when she gets to 1, and I know that it is no longer necessary to sterilise the bottles and teats etc at that stage but do you have to continue with the cooled boiled water to make it up or can you use filtered tap water cold? My least favourite part of the day is making those bloody bottles!

Does that growing up milk not come ready made?

You don't need that growing up milk either if your baby's eating a good diet past the age of one. The day of my wee ones first birthday, I packed up the steriliser and put it away. Milk wise, I weaned her onto cows milk straight away - she was on full fat cows milk from about 12 months and one week old. Growing up milk is a cod - it's fortified with iron but if you are getting enough red meat, leafy greens and vitamin C (to help with absorption of iron) into the childs diet then you really don't need it. A lot of the baby biscuits (Liga, Rusks etc) are fortified with iron too, as are breakfast cereals. A good idea for a breakfast is to give some sort of cereal that's fortified with iron, and a glass of orange juice. Loads of iron to start the day off, then some sort of meat and/or leafy green veg (my little one like spinach) with lunch will do the trick.

Too much iron will make a toddler constipated, and no one wants that!

TargetWidow

Thanks again girls. Tried just popping them on the little shelf but as happened with Quackles they flew all over the place and ended up full of sludge. I've just been into Smyths site and they only currently stock a Dr Browns one for under 8 yoyo which will fit 3 sets of Dr Browns stuff but no mention of other brands. I got the lids to stay put by laying a butter knife across the top of them. I need to figure out how to weigh down the teats! Is there no end to a mammy's creativity?!

On the formula issue I was severely anaemic up until my early 20s myself (probably due to being virtually a freaky eater with poor diet choices), but the impovrishment of college sorted that out as I learned to eat anything that was free. I worry that she'll be a fussy eater like I used to be (although to her credit she is a great grubber). Its the immunofortis thingy that I find attractive because she is in daycare and has taken to molesting any little boy she can pin down on the ground (she got a valentines card for goodness sake - she's 10 months old!!!!), although she has become very tough on the immunity front lately. I always end up feeling guilty that she spends 40 hours a week away from me and try to overcompensate on making sure that everything else is as good as it possibly can be, whatever the personal cost! I suppose ye are right. So long as the diet is ok then she should be fine on cows milk. I might wean her onto it over a week or so as I already have a tub of it bought maybe giving her more cows milk and less formula in the bottle each day. I have a few weeks to go yet anyway. She turns one the week before Easter.

When did ye give your little ones their first sweets/chocolate? Someone in her creche recently gave her a digestive biscuit and although I said nothing I didn't like it one bit. I dont give her any sugary treats at all. She snacks on cheese and fruit and breadsticks and ricecakes. Those rusks can contain as much sugar as a donut!! You can make homemade ones that are lovely and healthy too by baking slices of vienna in the oven for 20 mins. In the States they call it Zwiebak Toast (twice baked). Since her birthday is near Easter Im wondering if I should let her have a little chocolate egg... She has 8 teeth with two more on the way today. She wont let me brush her teeth. She just chews on her little brush but she loves to see us do our own teeth.

nesf

TargetWidow wrote: »

Thanks again girls.

Some of us are daddies.

embee

TargetWidow wrote: »

Its the immunofortis thingy that I find attractive because she is in daycare and has taken to molesting any little boy she can pin down on the ground (she got a valentines card for goodness sake - she's 10 months old!!!!), although she has become very tough on the immunity front lately.

The immune system is only going to develop properly and healthily if it is challenged once in a while. Once babies are crawling, they're exposing themselves to a whole world of germs and dirt (not even the cleanest house is totally germ free). It is best to let them have some level of exposure to germs. Their bodies have to learn what to do with pathogens etc

When she's in daycare, it's the same situation. Obviously, you'd rather that she wasn't sick all the time, but she does need some exposure to germs and bugs that are going around. Chickenpox for example - it is best that you get chickenpox as a child - the virus that causes them can cause shingles in adults which is a lot more painful and sickening.

PS - don't worry about the guilt too much - it gets to all parents at some stage

TargetWidow

nesf wrote: »

Some of us are daddies.

Oops! So sorry nesf!