We’re all concerned with how to keep ourselves healthy, even with our busy lifestyles. And the health of our little ones is an even greater treasure.
But there’s one aspect that is easy to overlook: your infant’s pacifier.
It’s such an omnipresent part of your day-to-day life that you may give it little more thought than your car keys or your smartphone. But bacteria, mold spores, and other pathogens can easily contaminate an unattended binky. Knowing to clean, sanitize, and how to store pacifiers safely can mean the difference between a happy child and an ill one. For instance, we found dummy clips particularly useful, preventing the pacifier from falling on the floor and picking up dirt in the first place.
So to help keep your little ones healthy and happy, be sure to always follow these key points.
How to Clean and Sterilize Pacifiers
Knowing how to clean pacifiers will often depend on what materials they’re made of. If, for example, you can be certain that your pacifiers don’t contain heavy metals or carcinogens that could leech out of them, boiling them for a minute or two is a quick and easy way to ensure that they’re completely cleaned and sterilized every time. By the same token, running them through the dishwasher is another popular method if that material permits it.
Barring that, washing them with hot water and simple dish soap is considered adequate for most situations.
How to Store Pacifiers
Having cleaned and sanitized them, the final step is finding the best way to store pacifiers. After all, leaving them lying out in the open air invites all manner of ambient contaminants to make them their new home.
You want them in a place with easy access where you’re unlikely to forget about them. Hence, many parents will opt to keep spare pacifiers in their diaper bags with the rest of their daily supplies.
It’s convenient, but keeping loose pacifiers in a diaper bag is less-than-ideal. They could be exposed to baby wipes or other cleaning materials that, at best, will make for an unpleasant surprise the next time you hand it to a fussy child. And at worst, they may contain harmful ingredients that were never intended for consumption.
So whether you need to store pacifiers at home or on the go, keeping a dedicated container like a multicolor pacifier case is a good move. Aside from keeping clean pacifiers clean until they’re needed, color-coding can help you keep track of which ones are fresh and which ones need to be cleaned before their next use.
Health and Safety for the Whole Family
A pacifier is an essential item for any parent with a fussy child. But knowing how to store pacifiers as well as clean and sterilize them is essential to ensuring that they are kept safe for daily use.
But naturally, pacifiers are just one tool that you and your infant rely on almost every day. To help make sure that you and your baby are always healthy, happy, and safe, be sure to keep up with all our latest health and home guides.
