A horrified mother is warning parents to be vigilant with their children’s sippy cups — after making a disturbing discovery when cleaning her baby daughter’s cup from daycare.
TikTok user @danit___ posted a now-viral video of her little girl’s 360 cup riddled with mold, revealing she has been drinking from the cup “daily” and it has resulted in ongoing health issues.
“GROSS,” the concerned mom wrote on the clip. “[This] explains her constant stubborn cough.”
The 31-year-old, who has not yet revealed her name or the exact age of her offspring, then showed what the sippy cup — designed for toddlers to drink from any side — looks like when it’s clean in comparison to what her daughter’s cup looks like.
Her series of viral posts about the fungal incident have racked up more than 3 million views on TikTok as of Thursday afternoon.
The user later added in a comment she didn’t make the video to blame the daycare, but to raise awareness that cups claiming ‘easy to clean’ designs can still harbor mold.
“This is not an ‘I’m mad about it post,’” she wrote. “Just an awareness spread for others that use them & don’t know either.”
According to the vigilant mom, the excess mold is a build up of months worth of old milk and had been there for approximately six months.
“Her home cups are properly cleaned,” she later updated followers, adding she has new cups now.
1 in 4 people confess to finding mold while cleaning
Mold may seem obvious to clean, however a new survey of 1,145 Americans released Thursday found many people are unaware they have mold in their home, despite the health risks associated.
One in four study respondents only found mold when organizing their home, most of them finding it in the kitchen. Millennials were most likely to find mold in their house while cleaning — and Gen Z reported “substantially higher levels of having their own bedroom be gross,” while “Gen X had the highest percentage saying their children’s rooms were gross.”
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), mold produces allergens and irritants that can also cause asthma attacks in people.
“In addition, mold exposure can irritate the eyes, skin, nose, throat, and lungs of both mold-allergic and non-allergic people,” the EPA reports. “Symptoms other than the allergic and irritant types are not commonly reported as a result of inhaling mold”.
