Mandarin Scrub

A good friend of mine, who happens to be a seasoned parent, gave us food nets for Oliver to try. They're exactly what they sound like: little nets, latched closed by a plastic nuk-looking thing, to house chunks of food that little kids might otherwise choke on. So the kid gnaws on the net and sucks out the juices of apples, oranges, pineapples, you get the idea.



Ollie loves them. I would love them more if I didn't have to clean them out. When you open the latch, you see a slimy pile of strands from sucked-on fruit fibers. Like an exceptionally rank diaper, I hold it out as far as I can in front of me when I'm giving it a good scrub in all directions.



I found a solution, though: give Oliver mandarin oranges. He goes after them with such vengeance, there's practically nothing left in the net.



Which then means giving Oliver a good scrub in all directions.