Please talk me down...self cleaning oven fumes :(

[Amila]

I am such an idiot. I put my oven on self clean because it has some food stuck to it that makes it smoke every time I turn it on...well 20 minutes later my eyes were burning and the smell was awful so i turned it off and opened some windows and doors. My 2 and 4 year old were in the other room.

Then my husband tells me one of his customers said you should never be home when you are cleaning an oven because it is so bad it actually killed all of their pet birds! OMG. Did I just kill my baby or give my kids lung cancer?!?!?!

I am really freaked out. I should have known better

[shoefairy3]

I wouldnt feel comfortable leaving an oven on while we WEREN'T home.

[AFWife]

Originally Posted by shoefairy3

I wouldnt feel comfortable leaving an oven on while we WEREN'T home.

Exactly. Next time turn on the vent hood (if you have one) and maybe open doors and windows and have a fan going. Play outside if you want...but stay close.

[GreenGranolaMama]

Take a deep breath Mama I can TOTALLY relate to your concern, I am super weird about chemicals/ potential teratogens.

I know our self cleaning oven works by heating up to a super hot temperature to burn off the stuck on food, so there are no chemicals involved- just an intense amount of heat. It is good that you noticed it was bothering you and opened the windows.

Did you add some type of oven cleaning spray or something like that? This would be the only thing that would concern me.

I have a friend who owns a restaurant and has had 3 young children and I know for a fact that she scrubbed the store ovens (more than once) during pregnancy WITH oven cleaner, with her face/head right in the oven (while it was off of course) and her children are perfect.

[Amila]

No I didn't put any cleaner in it or anything. It smelled like I did though! UGH. I wasn't that freaked out until my husband told me about the pet birds that died. Then i read about other cases of birds dying from it, so it couldn't have been good for my kids or the fetus. UGHHH.

[MaerynPearl]

Originally Posted by shoefairy3

I wouldnt feel comfortable leaving an oven on while we WEREN'T home.

very much so

Did you make sure to clean out any excess food left in the bottom of the oven before turning it on? Having too much stuff in there burning off can cause the reaction you described.

I would not worry about the baby or your kids or your own lung health from this, really, as you likely were not sitting there for hours in this air and probably cleared it all out within minutes of it starting to burn.

BTW... you and your children are not birds. Things that are toxic to them are not always toxic to you. Things that are toxic to you are not always toxic to them. Keep that in mind.

[Tresa]

I'm on the super cautious (my fiance thinks, insane) end of the chemical/fume spectrum, and I would rather have fumes from the self cleaning oven than a chemical oven cleaner in my house. It DOES stink to high holy heaven, and you probably shouldn't be hanging out in your closed up house while it's doing its thing, but it's just burning burnt stuff.

Probably not great, but there are a lot of worse things. Ventilate, find somewhere else (I second close because that oven gets hot and who knows what's bound to happen, it seems ominous to me) to go for a while, think happy thoughts. Drink lots of water to flush out anything that might've gotten to you. Eat extra vitamin C for good measure.

Totally throwin those last two things out there, but when I do them when I get scared about something it always makes me feel better, like at least I'm doing something....

[Amila]

Thanks guys I do feel a bit better.

[ellemenope]

I cannot stand the smell put off by oven cleaning. It is smells toxic, and it makes me sick. There is no way that that smell can be good for anyone.

But, I am sure your babies are fine. It will not be the worst thing your kids will be exposed to. I know someone who run who runs the self-cleaner at least once a week. I don't know how they do it. (This is where I get exposed.) They are fine.

(does anyone else think it is rude to run the self cleaner when you have guests over?)

FWIW, I don't think I have talked to one mama who didn't have a story like this. It is either an MRI exposure, roller coaster, trampoline, IBuprofrun, soda, coffee, alcohol, etc.

[2xy]

The smell is because most modern ovens are covered with a non-stick surface. Heating non-stick pans to a very high temperature can also kill pet birds.

But birds are not people. Birds can be killed by the bacteria in a cat's saliva, but if my cat licks me, I'm fine.

Sure, smelling those fumes are probably not good for any living creature, but they probably aren't any worse than the fumes from rush-hour traffic.

[trekkingirl]

I don't think you are supposed to put oven cleaner in a self cleaning oven. You may have done some damage to your oven. I'm no expert, but I think that's why they are called self cleaning, because you don't need cleaners.

[MaerynPearl]

Originally Posted by trekkingirl

I don't think you are supposed to put oven cleaner in a self cleaning oven. You may have done some damage to your oven. I'm no expert, but I think that's why they are called self cleaning, because you don't need cleaners.

The OP said she didnt put cleaners in it... the burning was likely due to the increased amount of smoke from not cleaning out the oven first (if you left a pile of cheese that fell off your pizza, for example, rather than cleaning that stuff out before you self-clean)

Originally Posted by ellemenope

(does anyone else think it is rude to run the self cleaner when you have guests over?)

depends on the guest... tbh. if it were my best friend and I was over almost every day... no. If it were my sister-in-law and I rarely come over, yes.

[2xy]

Originally Posted by trekkingirl

I don't think you are supposed to put oven cleaner in a self cleaning oven. You may have done some damage to your oven. I'm no expert, but I think that's why they are called self cleaning, because you don't need cleaners.

I went back and re-read the thread and can't find anyone who said they did this...? Am I missing something?

[myk]

oven cleaners can be toxic to animals, which you know already the pet birds most likely died because of oven cleaner, not self-cleaning oven. birds are especially sensitive to air quality - that's why they used to take canaries into mines. i wouldn't worry about it at all.