It may seem as if a newborn constantly eats. Take that times three and you can see how parents of triplets Christy and Aerol Peterson were overwhelmed with how many bottles of milk their precious angels consumed in a day.
Parents of triplets who bottle-feed recommend having at least 12 to 24 bottles on hand ready to go to feed the babies. Christy and Aerol’s triplets Natashia, Ayra and Trae blew through their bottles of milk regularly and it was hard keeping up with the demand.
It’s also wise to prepare bottles beforehand and have them ready to go in the refrigerator. They must be consumed within 24 hours.
Labeling the bottles, too, means mom and dad (or whoever has graciously volunteered to help juggle feeding time) know just how much each baby has drank, which comes in handy to monitor growth.
Once the Olympic feat of feeding triplets wraps up, it’s usually time to put those sweet babies down for a nap. By the time that task is done, everybody wants a nap.
But that’s not happening right away. Those used bottled must be cleaned and ready to go again.
It isn’t always easy to get baby bottles perfectly clean and imagine that job times three for triplets. Sure there are tons of tools to help with this parental duty, such as fancy bottle brushes, but most parents develop their own method that works best for them.
If bottles are dishwasher safe, parents can take them apart, rinse them with warm water and place in the dishwasher for a hot, sanitizing wash cycle, according to the CDC. If cleaning them by hand, it’s advised not to wash directly in the sink since it can contain germs and to use hot water and soap, the CDC noted.
A scrub brush should be used exclusively to clean bottles and nothing else. Once scrubbed, the bottles should be rinsed then set out to air dry.
Imagine Christy’s surprise when she came home to find Aerol, 32, cleaning their seven-month-old triplets’ bottles in a crazy but very successful manner. And it worked wonderfully!
He was clutching a power drill and cleaning the bottles! She instantly whipped out her phone so she could share the clever trick her hubby came up with.
Who knew?
“We feed them seven times a day, every three hours, so 21 bottles. After doing dishes for so long, I got tired of doing one after another by hand, so I thought, ‘You know what, I wonder if this will fit in the drill. So I put it in the chuck, and it worked.”
They had a high-quality bottle brush, but it wasn’t quite getting the job done. So he attached a bottle brush onto the end of his power drill and squeezed the trigger.
Next, magic happened!
“My parents kind of raised me up to think about what you’re doing and if there’s a better way to do it, try it and improve upon the process. And that kind of came from the Marines as well. There’s always room for improvement.”
The power tool spun the bottle brush around in record time, knocking off any funk from the interior of the bottle. Now that’s one way to clean a bottle!
“She came home from grocery shopping and gave me this face like, ‘What are you doing?’ I was already done with the dishes and [she asked me to] grab a couple more.”
The video of this shortcut has gone viral and launched the Nebraska dad into unexpected stardom. He even exuberantly tells Christy in the video how snazzy his technique is.
“See? It works beautifully … Smarter, not harder, bro.”
Christy’s video was shared with Good Morning America and has drawn thousands of comments and shares from parents across the globe, especially from those who were kicking themselves for not thinking of the idea themselves.
“Think of all the time we could of saved.”
“Why didn’t we think of this!”
Peterson works in construction and often uses tools in surprising and unconventional ways. This particular hack has parents around the world feeling quite grateful for his handy and efficient method.
“He does crazy stuff like that all the time. It’s never a dull moment with him, so when I got home I thought it was very comical. I wanted to record him, something to show the kiddos later just for fun.”
See for yourself in the video below how easy and thorough Aerol’s technique happens to be. It’s crazy to watch but really works!
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