With cold/flu season upon us and germs so easily passed among young children, I am just curious if/how often you clean your young child's (infant/toddler/preschool) toys? What type of cleaner do you use?
Thanks all!
I have worked in a day care setting and am familiar with those rules. Now I just am home and watch a couple kids 1-2 times per week. I was just curious if moms out there clean toys on a regular basis like child care centers do. I usually don't - unless something is getting a lot of mouth attention, or is visibly dirty. But I was just curious to see what others did :-) Thanks!! :-)
Um...never. Maybe that's just me. Do you have many children? Or play dates?
The cleaners you use are probably more harmful than some germs they get from their own toys.
Now if you take the toys out to a public place...or have lots of other kids over.....that's another story....
I have a home daycare and I use vinegar and water or just hot water and soap.
As far as frequency goes, I clean them as needed or once a week. Sometimes I take toys out if kids are sick. For example, if kids have a cold I will put up the play food, cups, utensils etc... because those most often go in mouths. When I say "as needed" I mean that if I see a child put a toy in their mouth, it goes in the sink to be washed, or if there is obvious yuck on a toy.
As for spreading germs, they are just out there. Usually if a child comes in with something, most of the kids are going to catch it because kids sneeze and cough without covering and they rub their noses on their sleeves when they are little. We practice frequent hand washing and teaching covering (coughing sneezing into the arm rather than on hands).
All kids have to go through building their immune system, which usually equates to being sick with a cold about once a month and 3 or so flus during the sick season for the first year or two in a group child environment. That's true for daycare, preschool or kinder... whichever they begin first group care.
Very rarely do I clean my own son's toys, unless we're around someone who is obviously sick. But as a family, it's just a rule of thumb for us to wash our hands whenever we return in from being out.
He's also in kindergarten now. I'm pretty sure that just like preschool, he's getting exposed to everything.
Seventh Generation makes a Thyme oil wipe that I used when I had my preschool. White vinegar and lemon juice make a great spray, too.
Only as needed, meaning they are visibly dirty. I have 8 kids, once the flu or a cold enters this house it's a given it's just gonna work it's way among everyone.
LOL, um, I never did.
Unless there was vomit or some other nastiness involved.
My kids are 19, 17 and 13 now and very healthy (as are we, mom and dad) so I guess it all works out (?!)
Oh, and on the rare occasion I DID clean toys?
Hot water and soap.
I used to work in a daycare's infant room. Every night we would scoop up all the toys (they were plastic, mostly, no cloth) and put them in a cloth net, place the toy-filled net in the sink and spray them down liberally with a 1/2 and 1/2 mix of bleach and water. We'd let them set for about 30 mins, then rinse very thoroughly and hang the net'/toys to dry overnight. Of course, if you are working with just your own kids and possible friends now and then, you don't have to do it every night.
I only cleaned my kids toys if they were dirty. I wasn't worried about my own kids spreading their own germs with their own toys, and if they had friends over, they would all be exposed to the same germs anyway. At work we clean the toys in a sanitizer solution (bleach and water 50-100ppm) once a week, whether they need it or not.
