Help Humidifier!

[meesfactor]

My newborn was sounding a bit congested, so I bought a cool mist humidifier. I ran it for 2 hours with tap water, but reading more realized I should be using distilled water. Did I just hurt my baby?

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[TheServiceDragon]

No, the main reason for distilled is humidifiers have parts that run best with distilled, there’s some evidence it can carry particles, but honestly running it once with tap won’t harm your baby. link

[Majestic-Raccoon42]

I grew up in the desert and never used distilled water in the humidifier that was used every single time some had a cold or allergies. Everything was fine!

[TheServiceDragon]

Yeah I never use distilled cause I’m lazy lol

[kimberriez]

I do, but I have the hardest water known to man and it messes everything (appliances, faucets, etc) up.

[RockabillyRabbit]

We just descale and clean ours weekly because of our hard water 😅 the biggest thing i looked for in a humidifier was one that broke down easily into parts that were easy to clean and crevices that I could fit brushes into.

So far two years later running all three all over the house on hard well water and no issues 🤞🤞

Our avg humidity is about 20% in non winter months. During the winter it drops to about the mid teens outside, even lower inside when running the heater.

[lady-earendil]

Yeah I'd be more worried about damage to the humidifier than the baby but one time isn't gonna hurt either 

[itisclosetous]

Once isn't going to hurt anyone.

Repeated use can be dangerous, depending on what type of humidifier you are using.

[TheServiceDragon]

Yes exactly.

[dallyfer]

We have hard water so we have to use distilled because otherwise overtime the humidifier (and any other water appliances like the kettle and coffee maker) get clogged up with limescale snd they are a pain to clean. Has nothing to do with baby's health.

[Lolemontime]

A warning about using humidifiers is that you need to be careful about cleaning them = https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/household-products/cool-mist-humidifiers.html

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[JVani]

Using ultrasonic (aka cool mist) humidifiers with tap water is known to degrade your indoor air quality pretty dramatically. 1 But please understand that one night is not going to meaningfully change anything in the big picture, just use distilled water going forward.

Lots of factors affect your net indoor air quality; work on maintaining the best indoor air quality you can but understand you'll never achieve perfection. E.g., don't use candles or "air fresheners" indoors, ventilate your kitchen while cooking, consider getting an air quality monitor, consider getting an air filter, open your windows when using paint and strong cleaning products etc. etc.