Have you noticed this in your child’s bottle?

A father who discovered his daughter’s reusable water bottle was “hoarding bacteria” has issued a warning to other parents.

Craig Beresford, from Stalybridge in Greater Manchester, shared pictures of the dirt-laden Sistema Twist ‘N’ Sip cap in a Facebook post on February 10 about what he had discovered when he broke the lid apart.

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Mr Beresford said he and his partner could not work out why their seven-year-old daughter had been poorly – suffering an “upset stomach and occasional runs” for about four weeks. A conversation with a friend prompted him to take a closer look at his daughter’s drinking bottle.

Writing on his facebook page, Mr Berefsford said, “The lid did not come apart, I tried to unscrew it but couldn’t so I broke it apart with a knife and looked inside.”

He said he discovered black dirt inside, adding:

“I have seen some pretty grim things in my life – I was heartbroken. It was a bit of a shock, we could not believe she had been using that.”

“We have been absolutely meticulous about cleaning the bottle and cap every day with boiling water and even used dispersible sterilising tablets.”

Ok, so I’m having to edit this post from the start, due to hundreds of inept people not willing to read beyond the first…

Posted by Craig Beresford on Wednesday, 10 February 2016

The post has been shared over 50,000 times with many people thanking the dad for his post.

“My daughter also has one and I can’t believe what I found inside. It’s gone straight in the bin so thank you,” said one user.

Another said: “We just checked our daughter’s bottle and yep, sure enough it was disgusting inside. She only ever has water in it tho so it must be from food particles. It is now clean and being sterilised.”

Despite not tagging Sistema, the company has responded to parents’ fears over bacteria growing in drink bottles.

“Recently a number of our customers have advised us that they are having difficulty cleaning our Twist ‘n’ Sip drink bottle caps,” said a statement on the Sistema website.

“We take this feedback very seriously and have therefore posted on our website (www.sistemaplastics.com) videos and instructions that demonstrate how to take apart and clean each of the three tops we currently have on the market.

“We manufacture our tops to meet international child safety standards and it is for this reason they can be difficult to disassemble.”

To clean the water bottle Sistema recommends:

Removing the cap from the bottle after use
Extend the lid to open
Put the top either in the dishwasher or hand wash and then place in water for five minutes with a sterilising solution.

For parents wanting to disassemble their water bottles, visit the Sistema website for videos on how to clean each lid type: Twist ‘n’ Sip, Davina and the Wave & Gripper.