This lunchbox mistake might cause you to fall ill

Do you always give your kids their lunch in a lunchbox before they’re off to school every day? Or do you have one of those for your own lunch? Then we’re asking you to be honest right now: do you wash the lunchbox in question every day or do you just wipe out the crumbs and put fresh bread in it? Be honest! Because if it’s the latter, you might be making yourself quite ill.

You can’t just wipe bacteria from lunchboxes.

Lunchbox

We’re all familiar with the issue. Life is hectic enough with small children around, especially when they don’t do what you want them to do. You regularly have to take soft, brown bananas out of their backpacks or stinky shirts and shorts out of their gym bags. They also often forget about their lunchbox. It gets left behind in their backpacks and you have to go and find it the next morning. You quickly wipe away the leftover crumbs and put in the new, freshly made sandwiches for that day.

Ill

It’s a mistake to just wipe away the crumbs from the lunchbox, though. Kids grab the bread with their grubby hands and leave behind quite a lot of crumbs and other food scraps. This is a source of bacteria! The bacteria can stew in the warm lunchbox, which causes you and your kids to become ill more quickly. That’s why you should put the lunchboxes of everyone in the family in the dishwasher every night, or wash them by hand with hot water and dish soap. You’ll prevent you and your family from being contaminated with a cold, the flu or, even worse: E.coli or salmonella. The same goes for water bottles or milk glasses – those items don’t get cleaned often enough either.

Read more: Why you shouldn’t wash your hands with soap or hand sanitiser too often

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Source: Apartment Therapy | Image: Unsplash