How do you clean your toys after a playdate? I have been actually taking bleach water and washing down each toy but it is very time consuming and very rough on my hands. Wondering if there is a good spray product that is safe for children to put the toy in the mouth once dry?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated
Lysterine kills germs and is designed to go in the mouth. This may not work on spraying all toys but is great for teethers!
Disinfectant wipes - the kind for cleansing hands. Or the gel stuff on a paper towel works well, dries quickly.
Unless your kid has an immunity problem, don't waste your time. I've never cleaned toys after a playdate unless a really sick kid was over and played a lot with a specific toy.
Here's a great article on making your own disinfectants that are less harmful to people and the environment - http://www.ehow.com/how_###-###-####_make-natural-disinfe.... Seventh Generation just came out with a safe alternative and you can get coupons on their website, www.seventhgeneration.com.
FYI, The production process for chlorine bleach is pretty nasty; it releases cancer-causing dioxin as well as brain-damaging mercury into the air surrounding chlorine plants. If you have kids in the house, you need to take precautions: According to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, chlorine bleach poisoned 14,400 children under age 6 in 2007 (the last year for which data is available).
Clorox anywhere/hard surface spray works great! I watch a 4mo old & every day when he leaves, I spray down everything that he's put in his mouth. It is completely non toxic, dries really fast, and doesn't contain any bleach products. If you're looking for something to use on a daily or regular basis, that works great!
The Clorox anywhere sounds like a great solution. I use it on toys that cannot be put in the dishwasher (because of batteries/electronics). Otherwise, everything goes on the top rack of the dishwasher at the end of the day.
I would be much more worried about the chemicals your children would be ingesting from Lysol, Clorox, etc, than the germs.
If you want info on the safe nontoxic germicide I use, let me know. But I don't think you have to worry too much about this.
Victoria
um NO! what it does to your hands is what it will do to their mouth. try vinegar and water
I use vinegar on lots and lots of stuff. I also put washable plastic toys in the dishwasher and washable plush toys in the washing machine.
Child care centers clean their toys every day. Sometimes more than once a day. They mix bleach in a spray bottle of water. Like 2 Tablespoons per gallon of water. It's not a lot. But anyway we take the toys out and put them on the strainer by the sink and saturate them. They must air dry to be more sanitary. It is much less time consuming and you can just turn each toy over as the spray hits it and you can get all sides this way. Make sure you don't have anything on that you don't want splashes on, I wore an old apron just for that.
I'm a HUGE germophobe... once a month, I use bleachwater... other than that, lysol spray. I encourage my kids to keep their toys out of their mouths, so I feel pretty safe about using it. That's what all the daycares in this area use, so I guess I'm not too far off the mark, safety wise!
I have two kids and I run an in home daycare once a week I do a bleach/water cleaning every night I spray everything with lysol spray that way it's dry before they play with it again!!
Personally, I didn't wash my childrens' toys everyday (only if the toys were outside), or if it were a toy that they specifically put in their mouths, and I never had issues with them getting sick. Most hospital use a bleach-water solution because it is said to be the best germ killer available. Another affective solution is Isopropyl (rubbing alcohol). It is the main active ingredient in hand sanitizer. I would suggest you wear rubber gloves when using the bleach if you insist on using bleach-water solution. Just make sure you rinse them THOROUGHLY in hot water and let them and air dry. Otherwise, mix the solution in a spray bottle for larger items, rinse them and place them in a plastic bin to dry with paper towels on the bottom to absorb the excess water. Hope this is helpful for you.
My vote is with the Clorox Anywhere Hard Surface. I've actually called the company to make sure that it was safe to be used on toys that end up my baby's mouth. They said yes. Teethers and things I still wash myself, but for bigger toys like learning tables and things with batteries in them I use the Clorox spray.
I have 3 kids and have never cleaned the toys! If something has been puked up on or if the kids say this needs to be cleaned I use soap and hot water. My 3 kids are healthy and have survived! I think cleaning toys with bleach and other chemicals is dangerous! For one thing kids need to be exposed to germs to build up their immunities! My advice...relax. Most germs do not suvive on the toys anyways!
By trying to do something good for your child you may actually do something that is harmful. I just got a magazine from Northwestern University in today's mail that posted results of a study that concluded that homes that are too clean are not good for your child's health. It is important that your child's immune system has a chance to get stronger. The only way it can do so is by being exposed to germs that it can learn to fight off. I would not recommend cleaning these toys at all, unless they were super dirty and then just wash them with water. If you really need to clean them with something, you can do so naturally by using water with a little bit of vinegar. I would not expose my child to bleach either. It is very toxic and the less of it in your child's life the better.
Clorox Anywhere Spray! I use it to clean up my girls' toys and tons of other places in the house, when we're out, etc.. Like some others have mentioned, I clean small things like teethers by hand, but for other larger toys and surfaces, this spray is great!
