My Single Mom Life

After my recent bout of stomach woes with a wicked stomach infection causing my white cell count to skyrocket so badly, I had 3 specialists overseeing my care in the hospital, I picked up my Dr. Manny book, The Checklist, today because I recalled something about toothbrushes and toilet germs.
There it was, steps to prevent germs on toothbrushes.
I almost threw up the first time I heard that every time you flush the toilet, about 50,000 germs you can't see, come flying up out of the bowl and into the air, and landing on everything we have in the bathroom.
The very place we do all our personal care.

This got me thinking about my stomach issues. Our bathroom is microscopic. Tiny. Like a closet. Our toothbrushes are just sitting there in the rack or in cups.
Could I be sick from this stuff?
Maybe, maybe not. I still have more testing to do.
So, I threw out all our old ones just now and sanitized the new ones in peroxide, and then stored them in the medicine cabinet.
I honestly don't know how well that is going to work because my medicine cabinet is right above the toilet.
*sigh*
But for those of you who don't know about the germies in the bathroom, here are some tips for your toothbrushes thanks to Dr. Manny.

1. Sanitize your toothbrush weekly. To eliminate bacteria, mix a disinfectant solution of 50 percent water and 50 percent hydrogen peroxide. Stir these two ingredients together with your brush and then let the brush sit in the mixture, bristle side down, for a few minutes. This should be enough to kill any bacteria on the brush. A higher-tech, more expensive option is to purchase a toothbrush sanitizer. These gadgets use ultra violet light and are able to kill 99 percent of bacteria.

2. Prevent bacteria growth on your toothbrush by storing it upright, allowing it to air-dry after each use. As convenient as it might be to leave that brush lying on the side of the sink, not allowing the brush to dry allows bacteria to multiply.

3. Store your toothbrush in a location where it isn’t touching another family member’s brush. By doing so you prevent the transference of germs from brush to brush.

4. Never share a toothbrush with anyone (even your spouse.)

5. To prevent toilet spray from reaching your toothbrush, store it inside a medicine cabinet or closet, or some other place where the bacteria-filled mist cannot reach it.

6. Doctors recommend discarding and replacing toothbrushes every few months.

__________________

I am also absolutely loving this.
I have always hated cleaning the shower. Hated it.
This thing really works and it works really well.
After the first week of using it every day after the last person showers, my shower is clean. No soap scum, no mildew.
It rocks.
I hung mine up much higher than the position of the shower head they recommend using a hook screwed into the wall, because the spray was only reaching about halfway up the shower wall.
Now when it sprays, it sprays from the top of the shower walls all the way down.
It sparkles in there!
It was totally worth the cost of the thing to not have to scrub shower walls anymore.
W00t!

Technorati tags: dr. manny and scrubbing bubbles