Everything in Mouth

Well, you've probably got this answer already, but I would clean the toys with dish soap and water or a 1/2 vinegar 1/2 water solution.

I find it to be ironic that you can't put a bottle back in a baby's mouth but they can put the same toys in again and again too. Maybe because they dry in between (the toys). Personally I would use the dishwasher or a steamer to disinfect things - I'm not for putting bleach in my baby's mouth either!!

While it is a good idea to clean toys , I think they can also be over cleaned. Toys that are in your home & are only being played with by your child don't need to be cleaned all the time. Some germs are good for babies immune system as it helps to build it up. I would just use common sense , if the toy is dropped in the dirt then yes spray it , if it is on your carpet then it will be fine , if you have a mom's playdate at your house , and other babies are chewing on it then it would need to be cleaned.

When my husband and I adopted our son (we were there when he was born, and took him home at 6 days old) this is what we were told: You don't want to, mostly when they are very young, give them a bottle with leftover milk/formula because the bacteria from the baby's mouth reacts with the natural 'bacterias' in the milk/formula, and can cause them tummy trouble or make them sick. This is a safe rule-of-thumb, but after he was a month old I started storing the leftover milk/formula in the fridge and giving it to him later. He was fine.

Obviously you don't want to give them food that has been out for too long (according to experts, the danger zone is after 2 hours, but for little ones I would say ere on the safe side and don't leave their food out longer than one hour), so if there are leftovers, refrigerate! You can always pull it out again if they are still hungry.

Cheerios and such are okay left out; baby cereal, vegetables, yogurt, baby foods, anything with dairy/eggs in it- keep in the fridge.

In regards to toys, then: as long as they get washed once in a while, don't fret. Obviously if they have a cold, the floor is exceptionally dirty and the toys are all over it, a pet licks them, or the toys are dropped into something less than sanitary (toilet, garbage, cat's water dish, etc.), then you should wash them thoroughly.

However: if you wash the toys too rigorously (every day or multiple times a day), and worry about bacteria too much, then you could cause another problem: being too clean. When this happens, your child is not exposed to enough bacteria/germs/dirt, and their immune system does not develop the antibodies it needs. Hence why nowadays we have more allergies than ever. Better the colds and runny noses than a body that attacks itself! (http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/ResourcesforYou...)

When you do clean them, good dish soap is all you really need. That and hot water.

I hope this helps; good job asking this question! A good mom always makes sure she has her facts right when she is unsure. Way to go!

God bless!
M. D

Bleach is very alkaline and Lysol is a registered pesticide.

Cleaning your child's toy is only necessary if they are exceptionally dirty or if someone in your house has been ill and has touched your child's toys.

Washing in warm or hot water and soap should be fine (think of the instructions for pacifiers and bottles). If you really feel you need to thoroughly clean your child's toys, see if they are able to be boiled. I even throw them in the dishwasher if they are dishwasher safe. But that's only after the illness has run through the house. No use in spraying everything down all the time - when would you get to enjoy your son if you are cleaning everytime something is dropped? My 15 month old is always spitting out her paci when she goes to drink or eat something. She rarely gets sick, and I'm a clean person, but not that clean.

Otherwise, I spray my children's toys and play are down with the only EPA approved, botanical disinfectant, and use other green and safe products to use around children. I'm a customer of an online store that is very conscience of the environment and of a family's health and safety. I wouldn't shop anywhere else now that I've done some research on household cleaners and even personal products.

I hope you find the answer you are looking for.

Sincerely,
Tricia
www.4OurFamilysWellness.com

Vinegar!!!! its powerful as bleach and non toxic, can use on food surfaces without neeing a rinse. perfect sanitizer/disinfectant! throw away your chemicals now and save yourseld and baby from toxic cleaners. Also use it in the wash with a downy ball for softness and extra cleaning power. Spray your kids toys nightly with a squirt bottle half water/vingegar.

Hi J.,

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Personally, I only cleaned things if they were really dirty. They have to build up an immunity somehow, and thats one of the ways. If you are breastfeeding then you are giving the baby an immunity to all the bacteria in your house that you come into contact with anyway. AND those kisses that you give to the baby all the time, your taking them off his skin with your lips and making immunities to them in your milk. Vinegar is a natural non-toxic cleaning solution. I use it on a ton of things. Its great for carpet stain and smell removal! There are several cleaning solutions that you can make with vinegar, also some with baking soda. Good luck mama!

I agree with Mary's comments.

My neighbor and I each have two boys, roughly the same ages. Her house is MUCH cleaner than mine and she rarely let her boys play outside when they were toddlers (hers are 9 and 11 and mine are 8 and 10 now); if they were outside, she didn't let them get dirty at all and would reprimand them if they did touch anything dirty (like dirt). Those poor kids were always sick when they were little (they're all still little!); they always get every virus that goes around these days as well.

My boys are not superhuman and they do get sick, but maybe just once or rarely twice a year. But the contrast in our parenting styles and the relative health of our boys is pretty remarkable.

You can definitely be too clean.

My philosophy is that you have to let a little bacteria go. I clean off my kids toys maybe once a month unless they get something on them. Somehow I think God made these kids to put stuff in their mouths so they actually build up some resistance to these bacterias out there. Not to mention the fact that if you spend every day or several times a day cleaning toys, when will you have time for your baby?

I say you clean them if they look dirty, you just can't obsess over these things, it will make you crazy! :)

Good luck and enjoy!

No, its not. When my daughter was that age or younger, if she dropped a plastic toy on the floor, I would hand wash it like I would with dishes. If you have other children around, or there has been sickness in the house I would disinfect with bleach or lysol weekly. But in all honesty, I wouldn't be spraying lysol on the toys only to have him putting them in his mouth soon after, it just doesn't seem right to me.

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That is a very good point. I have a 5 month old obviosly doing the same thing. I must say I probably wipe some of the toys every day but others every couple of days.I will be interested in what anwsers you get for this question.And boy its really got me thinking about the toys in day care!

My son is now 14 months old and hasn't really gotten sick. My house is clean, but I've never washed his toys unless they were rubbed with peanut butter or put in the garbage. lol
Too clean isn't good. I'd say if it really bothers you, rinse w/ warm water. But really cleaning the toys- especially every week- is absurd if your baby is healthy and without any kind of immune disorder. Germs are good for us to a certain extent.
Relax and enjoy your baby. He'll be all grown too soon! :)

I read somewhere that we (Americans) over clean and sanitize and consequently our kids have little built up immunities to lots of things just around us. So I didn't clean stuff. Let the pacifier go straight from the floor to the mouth. I don't know if that was right but my kids are rarely sick, even when sickness is going around their schools. The same article wrote about letting kids be dirty, play in the mud, etc. I thought it was interesting and maybe on to some truths.

The vinegar and water solutions is perfect! It is so easy to make and put in a spray bottle. The vinegar kills germs just as well as bleach but is completely safe to use! If you look up natural or green cleaner recipes online you will find a lot of information. Here is a link to the recipe I use for cleaning just about everything http://www.babyzone.com/mom_dad/home_food/green_living/ar...
Like the other ladys said, I would reccomend cleaning them only when dirty or if there has been a sickness going around the house. Don't worry too much about it, your baby will be just fine, or even better off!

I clean toys with a vinegar & water solution which does disinfect. I do not do it extremely often unless one of my children is sick.

Exposing your child to different kinds of bacteria helps them build up an immunity to it. If you are constantly disinfecting everything, your child won't be able to fight infections/colds off very well in the future.

~S.

I always wash toys when I first get them, and then only if they are dirty (pets lick them, they get sticky fingers on them, they travel outside the home, someone walks on them with outside shoes on, another kid puts them in his mouth, etc.). I wash them when I wash his sippy cups - dish soap and hot water (or the washing machine if it is soft). There are probably toys that haven't been washed since we brought them home and there are others that go everywhere with us, and therefore at least get wiped down weekly.

If you feel the need for bleach, I would wash it after the bleach to make sure that it is fully rinsed off. Otherwise, I use a green dish soap, and haven't had any problems.

When my son was a baby, we had this toy sanitizer to remove germs from his toys: http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId...

I'd run it maybe once a week for the toys that couldn't go in the washing machine or be rinsed off. I never used anything stronger than regular dish soap and hot water when I did rinse them. I would never want to eat off something that was washed in bleach or Lysol; I can't imagine using it to wash stuff that would go in my baby's mouth.