Moms, what is the best way to clean bath toys (foam, plastic, soft scrubbie animals, laminated books)? How often do you clean them? I have a squeeze duckie with a hole in the bottom but it gets gross and I can't get the insides clean.
If I squeeze all of the water out every time, and don't store them anywhere damp (I keep the toys in an open basket in a cupboard, not in the bath) they don't get grungy. But once they do get that black gunk inside, I throw them away. My favorite bath toys are the ones that don't have a "squirt" function (they have no holes) so no water can get in.
soak them in hot water with 1 T of bleach...Or try the dishwasher. Get rid of the duckie..eww
Unfortunately no matter how much you spent on those fun tub toys once the inside starts to grow mold it's time to say adios. The best way to prevent this is to empty the water from all the toys right away and put them some place to dry. But eventually they will grow mold that can make you and your child sick and it is the time to throw it out. I have spent lots of money on these toys that eventually instead of squirting water in the tub squirt mold in the tub. I find it best to buy toys without holes if possible or spend very little on the ones that do have holes. Good luck!
I take all bath toys about once a month and put them in a sink full or bleach water. That way all bacteria and mold is killed. If you really love the sqeezy duck with the "squirty hole" you can clean the insides with bleach after every bath so mold does not grow. Just get a bowl full of bleach water. Suck it up into the duck and let sit for a while... then squeeze out. Rinse with water(sqeezed into the duck several times) and let dry. But.... i always try not to have the squirty toys. Or replace it often! The animal scrubbies can be thrown into the washer with your bleahable whites.... just make sure you air dry it or it will melt in the dryer (I forgot about one once).
My friend also used to throw her bathtoys in the dishwasher every once in a while... I'm not really sure how that worked for her but you can try it.
Make sure that they are dry before you put them away!
Hope this helps :)
As much as I do not like bleach, i have a front loader washer and run her toys thru a cylcle with bleach then a cycle with nothing, if there is alot of gunk then i simly throw it away. it sometimes is a never ending battle.
good luck
We have almost never cleaned our bath toys - we just dry them really well and we don't have any that don't drain. However, the couple of times we've had a kid go potty in the tub we've put them in the tub with bleach diluted by water - then a couple of good rinses and make sure they dry before we use them again. I'd try that for the duck letting it soak in bleach because it probably has algea or mildew inside. If it isn't easy to clean - I'd make it a non water toy or throw it away.
The ones with the holes in them -- squeaky ones or squrity ones -- need to be thrown out every so often. Water and gunk get inside and just do NOT come out. Well, the gross gunk does come out in the bath but not when you wash them. It's pretty disgusting. Better to toss them and get knew ones (preferable ones without holes). What I do is to put them all in one of those lingerie bags and then stick them in the top rack of the dishwasher and just run the machine (with other dishes too - why waste water). I do this for other small toys as well such as hot wheels cars that have seen a little too much activity, etc.
