For Grandparents
My Grandbaby Was Screaming for Her Bottle. What Came Out of My Faucet Was Thick and Brown.
I got through that morning by luck. That night I made a promise it would never happen again, and here's exactly what's in my house now.
Marlene Gentry · Grandmother of two, Tennessee
Updated November 2026 · 8 min read
Let me tell you about one morning last spring. My hands still aren't right when I think about it.
I'm telling you because I was just like you. I've raised three children. I've been through blizzards and a house fire. I thought I could handle anything.
It started like any other week
My daughter had a job two towns away that week, so her kids were with me. Eli is five. Rosie was eight months old and on formula.
It's just me at the house since Harold passed. While those two are under my roof, there's no other grown-up to turn to.
A big storm rolled in after supper, and the power went out. That didn't scare me a bit. We lit candles, got out the flashlight and the cookies, and told ghost stories. Eli said it was the best night of his life.
I went to bed thinking I'd handled that pretty well.
Then my phone buzzed at 7:10 the next morning
Boil water notice. Flooding at the water plant, it said. Nothing from the tap for drinking. Not even for your toothbrush.
I went to the kitchen faucet to look. It coughed. It ran cloudy. Then it ran thick and brown.
I felt a little hand tug my sleeve. "Grandma, I'm thirsty."
And behind me, Rosie started up. In ten minutes she was scream-crying for her bottle, red in the face, with her whole little body shaking. Her formula is a powder. It needs water.
I stood there holding that can, and I had no answer for either one of them.
I thought six bottles was plenty
I had six bottles of water in the pantry. I'd always figured that was more than enough.
I sat down later and did the arithmetic. Six bottles is about three-quarters of a gallon. The CDC says at least a gallon per person, per day. Everything I had was less than one person's water for one day, and there were three of us.
Nobody tells you how fast it goes. You need it to mix a bottle and to wash the bottle. You need it for small hands and sticky faces. By 8:00 I was down to four.
The water aisle was already empty
I buckled them both into the car and drove through the branches with Rosie screaming the whole way.
You can guess the rest. Empty shelves, end to end. A man was walking out with the very last case before I got to the back of the store. I looked at that case. God forgive me, I thought about asking him for it.
I stood in that aisle feeling sick. I'd raised three children, and I couldn't get a baby a clean drink of water.
See What's in My Drawer Now★★★★★ 4.8 stars, 2,318 reviews
Everything I thought of, I couldn't do
Fine, I thought. I'll boil it. Then I remembered my stove is electric, and it was as dead as the lights.
The man next door has a gas grill. I walked over with Rosie on my hip. He lifted the tank and we both heard it. Empty.
And suppose I got it boiling. How would I get the dirt out of water that color?
I remembered reading that a few drops of bleach will clean water. I didn't have any. I couldn't remember how many drops anyway, and my hands weren't steady, and this was an eight-month-old.
By then the baby had been crying for two hours. Eli had stopped asking. He was just looking at me. I can't tell you what that look did to me.
The promise I made in that chair
It came out all right. My girl pulled in after dark with water and a full tank of propane. Nobody got sick, thank God.
I didn't sleep. I sat up in the chair, listening to the two of them breathing, and I prayed. One thought kept going around in my head.
They had nobody but me, and I had let them down.Me, at 2 in the morning
Right there I swore to it. Never again. Not in my house. Not with those two.
When I looked it up, I found out it wasn't only me. More than 14 million Texans were affected by boil water notices at one point in the 2021 freeze. Asheville's water crisis ran 53 days after Helene. Those towns had plenty of grandmothers in them, and plenty of babies. I was lucky mine was one day.
What I tried first was wrong
My first idea was to buy a lot of water. So I priced it out. Two weeks for the three of us at a gallon a day is 42 gallons. That's about 14 cases and about 350 pounds. I'm 71. Who's going to carry that? And if I ever had to leave in a hurry, it would all sit there in the garage.
Worse, it only goes down. You open a bottle and you're one bottle closer to where I was that morning.
I was on the phone with Bev, an old friend from work, telling her about the storm. She stopped me.
You're thinking about it backwards. Quit trying to store it all. Get something that cleans the water you've already got around you.Bev, my old co-worker
She'd already done the homework, and she told me about a small filter straw from a company called MINIMLS. I looked it up, and I bought it.
Here's why I'll always have one
It's tiny. It's 2 ounces, about 8 inches long, and it fits right in my purse. I forget it's there.
No power. No batteries. No waiting on a pot.
One end goes in the water and you sip at the other. Or you screw it onto a regular water bottle, fill the bottle and squeeze. The squeezing is how I do it, into a cup for Eli. The first couple of draws take some effort, and then it goes along fine.
My son-in-law explained how it works in a way I could follow. Inside are thousands of tiny hollow tubes, 0.01 micron. The water fits through. The bacteria and the little bugs don't. It's that simple, and there's nothing in it to run out. The company says it has 100,000+ customers.
- It removes 99.99% of bacteria and protozoa, the germs with names like E. coli, Salmonella and Giardia
- It also blocks microplastics, and it's BPA-free
- The company says it's third-party lab tested for bacteria and protozoa removal, and pressure-tested for leaks
- It's rated for 1,800 gallons, more than 550 cases of bottled water. That's years of clean water from a single straw
- It has no expiration date when stored dry. You keep it from freezing and let it dry before you put it away
Eli and I tried it on the back steps with water from the neighbor's rain barrel. I'll be honest, I held my breath. It tasted like water. Eli asked if he could do it again.
They told me the truth, so I'll tell you
This straw does not remove viruses, chemicals, heavy metals or salt. MINIMLS prints that on their own page, where anybody can read it. When viruses are a concern, you boil it or add tablets. If you think there's fuel or chemicals in the water, you don't drink it at all.
That's actually what made me trust them. They're not promising you the moon.
And here's the most important thing I'll tell you on this whole page. A filter straw is not how you feed a baby, and it's not how you make formula. A baby can't drink through a straw, and a filter that doesn't take out viruses isn't good enough for an infant's bottle.
I called Rosie's pediatrician's office to be sure. For formula, you use sealed water, or you boil the water and let it cool. The CDC says boiling is the best way to kill germs: a rolling boil for 1 minute, or 3 minutes above 6,500 feet. If you suspect chemicals in the water, boiling won't fix it, so use sealed water or ready-to-feed formula.
So this is what's in my house now. It's a short list, and I had all of it inside a week.
- A way to boil with no power. A camp stove and a full spare tank. Outdoors only, never in the house or garage.
- Water that belongs to the baby. A few sealed gallons with tape on them that says BABY. Nobody else touches it.
- Ready-to-feed formula. A few small containers that need no water. Ask your pediatrician what they'd want you to keep.
- A filter for everyone old enough to use it. That's so nobody else is drinking the baby's water.
The fire and the sealed water are for the baby. The filter is for everybody else. That's what I didn't have that morning. If I'd had a straw for Eli and me, those six bottles would have been Rosie's, all of them.
One wasn't near enough
I didn't stop at one. Once I'd tried it, I got the Family Pack: 5 straws, 1 free included, for $79.99. Bought one at a time, five would be $149.95, so that's $69.96 less, about $16 a straw.
- One in my kitchen drawer
- One in my car, for the day the store has nothing
- One in my purse
- One in the go-bag by the door
- One for my daughter's house
- One in the diaper bag, for the grown-up carrying it, and never for the baby's bottle
I read through the reviews one night, and it felt like reading letters from women I knew, caught short once and not about to let it happen twice. It has 4.8 stars from 2,318 reviews. Then I ordered more for my other girl and my sister. Best present I ever gave, and I didn't have to explain a thing.
Emergency Preparedness Sale ends in
- Filters 99.99% of bacteria and protozoa
- Rated for 1,800 gallons
- No batteries, no pump, no expiration when stored dry
Up to 67% off. Try it for 30 days. If you're not happy, email us and we'll refund you. Not sold on Amazon.
One simple decision
Here's the biggest change. I quit lying awake running through the what-ifs.
There's another storm coming. There always is. And I won't be standing in an empty aisle with two scared kids. I'll be the one who was ready.
If you've got little ones in your house even one day a week, please don't wait for your own 7:10. A package takes days, and a boil notice gives you none. The aisle empties the day the storm hits the forecast. The only good time to buy this is before.
They're running their Emergency Preparedness Sale right now, up to 67% off. You've got nothing to lose by it. Try it for 30 days, and if you're not happy, email them and they'll refund you. Unused or used.
You aren't a prepper. Neither am I. I'm somebody who babysits. Check the propane, tape up the baby's water, and put the straws away. It's an afternoon's work, and then you can get back to spoiling them.
Tap the button below and cover everyone you love. You will never once be sorry you did.
Emergency Preparedness Sale: up to 67% off.
Family Pack made the most sense. One for each of us and one for the car.
Linda P.I keep it in my purse now. Honestly forget it's there.
Carol S.Read the instructions and prime it. I didn't and thought it was broken. After a few squeezes it flows fine.
Jim K.
Try it for 30 days. If you're not happy, email us and we'll refund you.
Get the Family Pack: 5 Straws for $79.9930-day money back.
Need more for the whole family? 10 straws, 2 of them free, are $129.99, about $13 a straw. 40, 8 of them free, are $389.99, about $10 a straw.
P.S. Eli calls his the "magic straw" now, and every visitor gets a demonstration. I pray he never needs it for real. But the next time a small hand tugs my sleeve, I'll know exactly what to do.
Sources, checked October 31, 2026: CDC, emergency water supply and water treatment guidance. Fox 5 on Texas 2021. WUNC on Asheville, November 18, 2024.