Washing Baby Dishes

Those who know me know that I abhor germs. A nasty bout with salmonella when I was young has made me diligent about cleaning the kitchen thoroughly. I used to rinse raw chicken before cooking but the most recent philosophy on raw chicken is just to cook it as is. Rinsing raw chicken in your sink just spreads bacteria all over the sink. When I read this, I started thinking about what happens to the bacteria that you wash off of your hands - it spreads in the sink. It's well known that the kitchen sink has more deadly bacteria than a toilet seat. That thing needs to be scrubbed daily.

With all of that in mind, imagine coming home with a newborn babe, giving him a bottle, and then tossing that bottle into the salmonella and e. coli filled sink. Of course the process of washing with soap and hot water will do the trick but why risk contamination at all?
My mother-in-law made the wonderful suggestion of getting a plastic basin to create a sink within a sink (we don't have a double sink). We do have a extremely large trough-like sink and when I spotted the Boholmen at IKEA, I was sold. The Boholmen is a flexible, plastic tub with handles that is used as a wash basin. It's large enough for a day worth of kid dishes or baby bottles. I just fill it with some warm water and a few suds and let the dishes soak in there instead of in the main sink. If you need the entire sink for something, just grab the Boholmen by the handlesand set it on the counter. I love it. For those of you who agree that separating baby dishes from the rest of the sink is important, run to your IKEA and get yourself one of these (for $15).  They'd also be great as toy and book storage.

Image: Kim Vallee