Name: Hetal

hi....
microwave safe or not depnds on type of food,vessels,cover and the ofcourse the usage in itself,,whether you are using it for boiling,,heating,warming,cooking,,frying,defrosting,and time of cooking !

abt heating MILK :if its human breast milk, when re-heated in a microwave, loses some of its abilities to fight infection,,thereby reduces the nutrients of bm,,,
about formula/infant or toddler/fomula,,whnever heated to high temperature,tends to lose the nutrients and it doesnt sterilize the water thats used in the formula...
about cows milk :with recnt outbreak of ecoli in US, a recent study shows, that E Coli bacteria grew 5-20 times faster in microwaved cow's milk.
when left unattended,,microwaved milk spoils after 2hours of room temperature,,if not converted to other form,,human body takes 3-4hours to digest ne food, and 1-2hours to digest liquids,,if this milk is not digested by that time,,it often causes other stomach discomforts..
however, though the above surveys,,are not the ones recognised body/health authorities,,or ne countries FDA,,i will not like to comment on it,,and its your personal decision whether or not to use microwave...

wat microwave does is just disturbs the inneerr moluculer structure of food..now whether or not,,it has reduced its nutritnal value or not has been a conflicting reports..there is no evidence by ne recognised body or org,about microwave being harmful,,,unless the vessel used or the cover used was inappropriate,,,or as not recmnded by the brand of microwave that you are using !
here is one site/link tht i happen to rem abt the safe use of microwave,,its a pdf,,might take some time to open but has really good info !

http(:)//engineering(.)tamu(.)edu/safety/guidelines/Tips_on_Safe_Microwave_Oven.pdf

interesting thing is no where in ne baby book or websites,,its written that DONT USE MICROWAVE..wat you will find is sentences like NEVER USE MICROWAVE TO STERILIZE OR HEATING BABY FORMULA/BM OR HEAT INFANT BABY FOOD.reasons often given are hot spots caused by uneven heating in microwave. you must have also seen sentences that give foods FULLY COOKED AND BOILED until your baby is 1 year,,which means,,basically you are purifying the foods that you offer alongwith cooking them !
surprsing though it sounds,,gerber foods,,itself mentions to heat the jar itself in the microwave !!
water boiled in microwave,,shows that even though water is boiled/heated up which is actually due to disturbances caused by micro WAVES,,and the water temperature goes above its boiling point,,but ITS ACTUALLY WITHOUT BOILING..

boiling actually means, even heating of each and every molecule of food/liquid,,with rising or consistent temprature,,,letting the heat pass thru it nd trying to vaporize it ! this process forms bubbles.
in microwave,,you will see bubbles that will be of diff pattern,,mostly popping up from all over the container and disturbing pattern,,,,and not emerging from the bottom of the pan like you will see whn you actually boil the water...
and so,,whenever there is an impurity in the food or water,,the heat is passed thru it and thats what causes the bubble,,,,and it actually vaporizes it pushing it in the upward direction/one direction,, and thus in the process the heat gets intensified,,further vaporizing the matter...which means the impurity is no longer existing..,
in microwave,the bubbles are of disturbed patterns which makes it quite unpredictable as to whether or not it actually kills the foreign body....most studies show that the organisms or forgn bodies are not removed or vaporised, but they stay in disturbed form inside the food,,instead of vaporizng it....and as to how this disturbed form are harmful for human body is again an ongoing research without a proved result !
while,,proved fact : boiling food or water on stove, kills most bacteria,,amoebas,and other pathogens,,that causes cholera,dysentery,or ne such bacterial infections or caused by these organisms....

crux of the matter :
1. Heating something in a microwave doesn't expose you to any significant radiation,,there is no proved facts that say tht its harmful for baby or during pregnancy...
2.if you fear ne leakage about the radiation,,thn do the test of leak..put your hand by the door and see if you feel ne air leaking out..otherway is put a piece of paper while closing the door in such a way that it is halfway in and halfway out..when the microwave is closed, and onn,try to pull it..if at all you can remove the paper with lil effort without tearing off,,your microwave needs to be replaced because its throwing out the radiation,,which is unsafe not only for the food that is cooked in but also for the person standing next to microwave !!!!
3.avoid using opaque plastic containers for heating,,use the clear plastic containers that have tough plastic and not the ones that gets soft while heating..i noticed gladware often softens when nething is simmered in it when put to microwave...steinshield,ziplocks are great plastics..go for such other brands that have hard,visible plastic..after a year of use,,throw them..rem plastic when exposed to high temperatures in longer run, reduces its quality.
4.whnever baby food is heated in microwave,,give it a good stir, and thn test the temperature by putting some food in your mouth,,if its unevenly heatedup,,,,add some room temperature water and good to go....avoid putting bottle directly in microwave,,instead keep one bottle only to heat the milk,,and use that only,,serve in other,,and stir or shake it well..dont shake the bottle of breastmilk a vigrous shake..bm is made of human living cells, a lil shake is enough !
5.make sure whatever vessel you use, has the instruction written \"; safe to use in microwave\";..
6.Don’t use the microwave oven for deep-frying, canning or heating the baby bottles. This is considered unsafe as the microwave oven do not have enough temperature controlss.go for the lowest time setting when it comes to heating baby food,,e.g.5sec,and onwards,,
7. never use plastic wraps/cooking foils/aluminium foils,inside the microwave..even though your model allows you to do so !!
8.follow the instructions given in the manual of the microwave,,for safety measures.

good luck and a very happy new year to all of you,,and you all have a safe and lovely year ahead !

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