I probably wouldn't have looked this closely at the water in our home if I didn't have to get up at night to make formula. Our baby is a little over a year old and still has one night feeding. To avoid waking him, I keep the night light on and use a flashlight while I mix the bottle.
One night, in that narrow beam, I noticed very fine suspended particles in the water. At first I blamed the thermos. I swapped it for another one, but the particles were still there. That made me uneasy. If the water looked like that, what was it doing in a baby's bottle? I searched online and found plenty of people in other places describing the same thing.
We had installed a tap-water purifier at home long before this, partly because we knew how much water matters and partly because we didn't trust the tap supply. I thought the purifier gave us some protection. After seeing the particles, I called Baishao's after-sales service. A technician came fairly quickly, checked the unit, and cleaned it.
The cleaning was surprisingly simple. He disconnected the purifier, covered the outlet, and shook it hard. A lot of yellow dirty water came out. He said it needed a cleaning agent and quoted 80 yuan. I agreed. He brought out a bottle of Baishao ultrafiltration membrane cleaner, put a small amount into a container, dissolved it in water, poured the solution into the purifier's water inlet, covered the opening, and shook it vigorously. Then he hooked the unit back up to the tap and let water run through it for more than ten minutes. That was the whole process.
He filled a bowl with water and told me the quality was now very good. I said that at night, with a flashlight, I could still see fine floating particles. He replied that tap water will always have some suspended matter in it.
That night, when I got up to make formula, I checked again. The particles were still there, though there seemed to be fewer of them. At work, I asked a colleague whether he had noticed anything similar at home. He said the water quality wasn't ideal either. His attitude was more resigned: the overall environment isn't great, so don't expect too much; as long as you boil it, it should be fine.
Maybe he's right. But when I'm standing in the dark with a flashlight, mixing a bottle for a one-year-old, "should be fine" doesn't feel quite as reassuring as it sounds.