Medela Quick Clean Micro-Steam Bags
by Medela
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List Price: Our Price: $1.98 You Save: $3.02 (60%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Baby Product See more product details |
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Baby Products Reviews of Medela Quick Clean Micro-Steam Bags
Customer Review: The MOST useful item in my Mommy Bag!
Summary: 5 Stars
Hands down, a terrific time-saving useful item that WORKS! The hospital threw one in w/ the pump we purchased. It took a few days after being home to discover it in our goodie bag, and I wish we had on Day 1. Improved my whole day/night!! Beforehand, I'd stand at the sink, run the water till it got hot (thereby WASTING water), scrub everything by hand with a soapy towel, dry everything off - what a huge hassle that took 20 mins or more!! Why struggle with something like this when there are so many other things to figure out, especially as a new mom?
With these bags, just quickly rinse items to get the milk off, put your bottles, nipples, pump access. or whatever into the bag, dump in 2oz of water and nuke for 1-1/2 min or so (there is a chart on the bag to tell you how long for what wattage microwave - longest is 3 minutes). You CAN'T mess it up! Each bag is good for 20 uses, and there's even a checkbox area to mark each time you've used the bag to help you keep track. Though, I'm guilty of sometimes using one more than 20 times, so far no problems.
1. Takes A LOT less water to clean items, helps conserve.
2. Works quickly & better than washing by hand.
3. Useful for more than pump accessories - nipples, bottles, caps, etc.
4. Items tend to dry faster, air-dry within a minute or so.
5. Leaves you more time to do other things - (enjoy your baby)
These are CHEAP!! Give them a try - if you don't like them, no biggie - but you WILL!
[I would've loved to have gotten these as a shower or new baby gift!]
Customer Review: Love these bags! Don't know how I pumped without them...
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought these after much deliberation for use pumping with baby #2. I honestly don't know now how I pumped for a year without these. I finally decided to buy this product when a reviewer said she had used them *more* than the reccomended 20 uses without any apparent problems- I have had the same experience. I am NOT of the opinion that pump parts and bottles need to be sterilized after each use- this is only true for specific situations (premature or otherwise immunocompromised babies), otherwise healthy infants should be fine with equipment that is cleaned normally. However, I am an ICU nurse, and while I am not a germophobe, there are some potentially nasty pathogens at work and I wanted to minimize baby's exposure to that. Also, I have an extra set of pump parts that I leave at work to minimize stuff that I have to cart back & forth and these bags serve as a great way to keep everything together. So far I have used just 2 bags- one for home and one for work. I'm not sure how many uses each has had, but definitley more than 20 each, without any apparent deficit. I don't routinely put bottles in to sterilize but sometimes throw in a 4oz bottle & have plenty of room for everything. After using them for awhile I did notice that the instructions on the bag say not to use with SoftFit breastshields... oops. One of my sets of breastshields are SoftFits, and I have been sterilizing them regularly, but so far haven't noticed any changes or problems so I will continue to do this despite what the instructions say. All in all a great product.Customer Review: You still have to clean the parts first...
Summary: 5 Stars
Which I don't think is a problem, but some people I've talked to and some reviews make it seem like you can just throw the dirty pump parts in and they come out clean. Steam doesn't clean, it just sterilizes. So you do have to first wash with soap and water (or Medela's Quick Clean wipes) and then these bags are very handy for sterilizing. I use these at work because I use two sets of pump parts several times a day and while I do wash them with soap and water, I don't do as good of a job as I would at home. By steam-sterilizing the parts once a day, I feel better at my sub-par washing and the bag folds up nicely in my pump bag to take along. A great product...though I'm a little curious as to what happens after 20 uses. Do they self destruct? Will they start leaching chemicals out? They're just a heavy duty plastic bag and don't seem like they'll fall apart that fast. I wish the manufacturer said WHY not to use them more than 20 times, as I'd be more likely to not just use one until it falls apart.
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Edited to say that seven months later, I am still using the same bag at work which is WELL past 20 uses (probably over 100 uses) and the original bag is still holding up fine. It has no leaks, still keeps steam inside while using, and is doing great! I don't know if I just got a really well-manufactured one, but I'd say you can definitely use these more than 20 uses.
Customer Review: You Still Need to Wash Parts!! Read the Directions First!!
Summary: 2 Stars
If you are considering these Medala Micro-Steam Bags, PLEASE READ THIS REVIEW - you will still need to disassemble and wash all parts with warm soapy water BEFORE you put the parts in the bag and steam-clean them in the microwave. I have read several reviews - ones on this site and reviews on other sites - that state that these bags are great time savers because all you have to do is rinse the parts, stick them in the bag, and nuke them for a few minutes. My mistake was that I purchased these bags off of the rave reviews of other moms and didn't read the directions closely. A month after using them, I happened to glance at the directions printed on the bags and saw that step #1 was to disassemble and wash all parts in warm, soapy water. So while I was happily throwing my rinsed off bottles and pump parts in the nuker to save time, I was actually skipping a really important sanitizing step. Now, I'm just back to using soap and the bottle brush to clean everything. So yes, if you're looking to sterilize your bottles/pump parts once in a while, these bags can work for you, but if you're thinking of using them on a daily basis, they are not worth the money.Customer Review: Makes cleaning and sanitizing so much easier!
Summary: 5 Stars
I just bought one box of these and I still haven't finished using it. Each bag can be used 20 times.
My husband was a clean freak when it comes to sanitizing all the baby stuff and he didn't trust these bags. He would take 30 minutes every day scrubbing and cleaning by hand and then putting it into the dishwasher. Once it was all dried he would check again to make sure it passed his clean test! It was painful just to watch him put in all that work.
So when he wasn't looking I would rinse off the breast shields with some soap to wipe off the oily milk residue and then plop them into the bags to sanitize. After 3 minutes, everything was clean and sanitized. And he couldn't even tell the difference!
And be really careful opening this bag after the 3 minutes, the steam is really hot and ready to fly out. I always wear my dishwashing gloves when I open it to prevent burns.
I've also put in a couple of toys and binkies into these bags and it works great too! Just avoid putting in the Medela tubings. You can read my Amazon review on Medela tubings if you need more info.