12 answers

Humidifier

I am sure that someone has asked this before, but what is the best way to clean my kids humidifiers. We are getting ready to go out of town, so we have emptied them to dry them out. We have had them for about 6 weeks and we have cleaned them with just hot water, but don't feel like we are getting every bit of mold out of them. I wasn't sure if there was something that we could run through them to get them totally clean and about how often we should do it. For my youngest, we need the humidifier every night because she is constantly congested and she is 7 mo old, so there is not much else we can do for her and honestly I am not looking for an answer to that problem as we have tried everything under the sun and she has acid reflux issues so she has a hard time with any changes in her diet.

3 moms found this helpful

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It may smell a little at first, but I think the best (and safest) way to clean them is to use white distilled vinegar. That's what I use on mine. Good luck!

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I just assumed it should be cleaned with vinegar just like your coffee machine but wasn't sure so I went to www.doityourself.com/stry/cleanuphumidifier and found instructions. Yep, vinegar. Hope that helps.

1 mom found this helpful

Hi J.,
The water should be changed every night, and the humidifier should be rinsed prior to new water being added. I have a built in humidifier on my c-pap, for my sleep apnea. I was told to clean it once a week with vinegar and water. Just a bit of cautious advice, if it has mold in it you might want to get a new one, your daughter may have a mold allergy, and vinegar will not get rid of mold. Good luck!
M.

1 mom found this helpful

The instructions that came with mine suggested vinegar & bleach. We do not use toxic bleach at our house, so I used Shaklee's Basic G for the bottom portion & vinegar for the tank.

I had a humidifier that said to clean it with bleach water, but I clean mine with vinegar.

God Bless!

Good Morning J., There used to be a product made just for cleaning humidifiers. It came in a clear bottle and was blue. All you did was pour it in and turn it on. Removed all the hard water scale and stuff. You could probably do the same thing with vinegar and water. Would be less time consumming then looking to see if they still made this product.

God Bless and have a great trip
K. Nana of 5

I agree with everyone else on the humidfier cleaning but I also saw that you said your baby has bad reflux. My daughter had horrible reflux to the point she was not gaining weight and we were going to have to put her in the hospital if something did not change. I started taking her to the chiropractor at 6 weeks old. It helped tremendously!!!!! I would go so far as saying they saved my baby. You should try it. She still spit up every once in a while but every min and all her food. She seemed like a totally different baby and happier. She seemed to enjoy her visits too. We took her 3 times a week for the first month, then 2 times a week for a couple weeks, then 1 time a week for a month and then 1 time every other week until she was a year old. She is 19 months now and is doing great! Hope it helps you! E. (Mommy of 3)

It may smell a little at first, but I think the best (and safest) way to clean them is to use white distilled vinegar. That's what I use on mine. Good luck!

You didn't say what kind of humidifier you have. If you have one with a heppa filter you need to have it changed. The one I have is a steam humidifier and the only thing it said about cleaning it was with bleach solution and make sure you rinse thoroughly. This will get rid of the mold and calcium depostits. I hope this helps. I have to have a humidifier because of the dry air in the winter and the steam helps me breathe better.

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