Wednesday, November 28, 2012

The Swamp Creature

I'm going to share a dark and dirty secret with you. I never thought about cleaning my daughter's humidifier until now. I am putting this one on the "fail" side of my parenting checklist. I know that I have probably made some pretty spectacular parenting faux pas, but as of right now this one takes the cake.

Here's the deal, Jellybean has been sick for months. I'm not exaggerating. I know that sometimes it can FEEL like your kid has been sick for months and it's just multiple colds. This was 13 straight weeks of cranky, snotty, puky, coughing, multiple antibiotic taking, multiple doctor visits, and finally corticosteroid taking mess! That's 3 months, a little over 1/8 of this child's entire life. Ouch!

When all of this started I turned out the trusty humidifier and put on my cape. That's right, super mom had the humidifier set up in the room just for this sort of occasion. All we needed were the little pediatric Vicks vapor tabs and we were set for toddler cold season. Or so we thought. You see, the reality of the situation is this; we were spraying mold into Jellybean's room. Just look:


Ack! It's the creature from the deep!! This is what I have been spraying in the air for my kid to BREATHE. No wonder she wasn't getting better! She was breathing poison!

Needless to say I whipped out my best cleaning friend, white vinegar, and got to work. I took apart every piece that is supposed to come apart and soaked anything not connected to electricity in a 50/50 vinegar/water solution for about 10 minutes. I then went after every nook and cranny with a bristle brush, and yes, more vinegar. I scrubbed for over an hour, at some point I got and old toothbrush and some pipe cleaners to help with the trickier bits. While I was scrubbing I let the tank sit full of a much more diluted vinegar solution. Probably about 90/10, the majority of it being water that was as hot as my faucet could get.

After I got as much scrubbed as possible (there is a part I can't get to) I rinsed it all with cool water (as there was no hot water left) and started putting pieces back together. After that I emptied the tank and scrubbed it, inside and out. Then I refilled it half way with water and a generous squirt of hydrogen peroxide. I swished this around, emptied it, refilled it, and it is back on the shelf in Jellbean's room.

This has been a public service announcement. Please clean your humidifiers!

Happy breathing!
Tori

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