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How Should I Clean My Nebulizer and Acapella Device
I have only been diagnosed a few months and have been cleaning my nebulizer and Acapella after each use by soaking in soapy water, rinsing with tap water and rinsing again with purified water. Once a week I soak them all in hydrogen peroxide and rinse again. I then let them air dry. So far I have not had an infection but wondering if I am doing it wrong.
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Actually the boiling may damage my Acapella so using a baby sterilizer from Philips I just ordered to see how that goes. This website pointed me to the baby sterilizer idea and I believe that will do what I want. I don't have a long term infection like a lot of people do and I want to keep it that way. Thanks.
I'm not sure about using the baby bottle sterilizer with the Acapella. It is different plastic than the Aerobika, which can be cleaned with baby bottle sterilizer. It may be fine-companies recommend only what they have tested. I tried Acapella for about 6 weeks (worked great, but little part broke) and didn't have Bololo then, but their website says don't use dishwasher. I'd test an old one in your bottle sterilizer. When I used it, I put it in alcohol kept in Costco sized jam jar. (I'm retired nurse and peroxide was frowned upon for cleaning when I worked-find I'm still biased.) I did take a look at National Jewish and they say both are ok.
Here's link. https://www.nationaljewish.org/NJH/media/pdf/1-Ed-Chan.pdf
Your story sounds like mine except it was PCP rather than ENT. Had a bad cough for 2-3 years with episodes of low grade fever. An urgent care doc finally ordered Xray, then CT that showed nodules. The one year recommend follow up CT showed trees-in-bud, ground glass, etc that looked like MAC lung. It took a while, but finally had bronch at Mayo and MAC was ruled out. Getting my sinuses and mild asthma under control got rid of coughs. I changed PCP.
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2 ReactionsI rinse them with water and a little and then I put all my devices in a
I can put up to 6nat times
It takes short time to sterilize everything much easier
I see lots of different opinions on ways to clean nebulizers, etc. What I am doing now is putting my nebulizer cup and Acapella in a bowl with clear warm dish soap to rinse off any particles that may be stuck there. Then I rinse off each piece of equipment and put it in my Phillips baby bottle sterilizer which I understand gets hot enough to sterilize everything. I leave it in the Phillips until I need it again which is three times a day. Question: Is this enough or am I supposed to be doing something else?
I’ve read you can just use dish detergent and water daily and air dry. Then do sanitize like baby bottle sterilizing or top rack dishwasher once/week.
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1 ReactionI've been putting Acapella in Phillips Baby Bottle Sterilizer and it works just fine. No issues.
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1 ReactionI'm glad. I put my little water reservoir for water pick in mine and it ruined it-very distorted.
Not every plastic is heat resistant. Some brands of nebulizer mouthpieces (like Pari) are made so they can withstand high temps, like boiling for 15 min or top rack of dishwasher or sterilizing in baby bottle sterilizer.
As far as I can tell, all of the nebulizers (that is the cup and mouthpiece) that are meant for reuse over a period of time can be sterilized - either in boiling water or a baby bottle sterilizer. Even without MAC "on the menu" we have always (40 years) sanitized ours. Those labeled for "individual use only" "single use" or disposable will melt.
I buy generic reusable ones from a nebulizer supply company. Just ONCE I tried to get them cheaper by buying from a non-medical supply. They were labeled "reusable" and melted. Lesson learned.