There’s an awful lot of guilt-mongering “advice” about looking after babies. In general, if something makes your life easier, someone will come up with a reason why it’s bad for your baby.
Mrs Rob just caught me putting Rob Junior’s milk in the microwave to warm it a bit out of the fridge. Apparently you’re not supposed to do that because of “hot spots” and because it adversely affects anti-infection ingredients in the milk. Sure enough, this stuff is all over the internet.
Well the hot spot stuff set off my bullshit detector. I can see how a microwave will heat things unevenly because of interference patterns in the radio waves, but between thermodynamics and convection the temperature in the milk will even out pretty quickly.
And microwaves don’t heat things especially differently to any other method of heating. I can’t see the chemical composition being affected much. Perhaps a few molecules get super-heated and chemically changed, but on average they will be heated to, er, the average temperature of the milk, which if I get my timings right is about body temperature.
Anyway, I heated some cow’s milk in a glass in the microwave, taking out the turntable which is there to even out the heating effect, a feature which not all microwave ovens have. Then I immediately drank the milk and it was uniformly warm. Hot spots must have been invented by someone unable to think or do experiments.
So put your baby’s milk in the microwave to warm it, enjoy the convenience, and don’t let anyone make you feel guilty about it. Just don’t be an idiot about it and heat it too much.
Guardianistas love to reinforce the idea of ‘microwave radiation’ being dangerous to food. I have oft wondered whether they truly understood the difference between electromagnetic and ionizing radiation and didn’t care, as long as it could advance an agenda by scaring the bejezus out of folk.
I’m sorry to hear that Mrs Rob suffers from bullshit absorption. If she’s not happy with the diagnosis, get her to give me a ring. The number’s on the company website, and works 15/7 (0800 to 2300) without irritation.
With the microwave, I do suggest great care over the temperature. Immersion in boiling water for period x (determined by experiment for bottle and volume) is much more reliable. A thermometer is even better (but you have to wash it).
Note that I don’t do marriage counselling. For that, try: http://www.relate.org.uk
Best regards
She’s not particularly prone to it, Nigel, but neither has she studied much physics and chemistry. Would be nice if goverment agencies and other advice-mongers would stick to what they know about, too, but these organisations are, alas, staffed mainly by the Guardianistas Eddie Willers writes about.
Care indeed, with the microwave – mainly because it’s faster. For some reason advice-mongers don’t like to say “take care” when they can, to be on the safe side, say “don’t”.