How to Clean Bath Toys

Bath toys are prone to mould growth and it's important to clean them regularly. Here's some tips on how to keep them clean and prevent mould build up.

What most parents don’t know is that the insides of every kids’ bath toys are perfect breeding grounds for moulds and bacteria. Mould thrives in damp and dark environments and with a combination of dead skin and soap scum mixed in water, don’t be surprised if something blackish-gray gunk is building up inside your kid’s bath toys.

It’s quite concerning as parents that our kids continue to play with these toys. Most kids even drink some bathwater where these toys are dumped into. While an exposure to small amounts of bacteria and mould can help strengthen your child’s immune system, keep in mind that some of these bacteria and fungi are known to cause infection. You don’t want your child chewing a mouldy bath toy or drinking bathwater out of mouldy cups.

The good news is there are several ways on how you can clean your child’s bath toys inside and out to prevent mould growth.

The Basics

There are two ways to clean the insides of your child’s bath toys. One is by soaking them in something that kills mould like diluted vinegar or bleach. The other method is by boiling them in hot water to sterilise them.

Before jumping into cleaning the insides of bath toys with the aforementioned methods, make sure that they are as clean as possible. Give them a good rinse and a bit of scrub in hot soapy water. For toys with holes, such as the classic rubber ducky, you can fill them with soapy water, shake them and squirt the water out.

Boiling

Boiling or sterilisation requires nothing but water. This is a great way to thoroughly clean bath toys provided that they can withstand heat. However, please keep in mind that you can’t boil all bath toys. For instance, natural rubber bath toys deform and degrade the rubber quite easily when exposed to high temperatures. So make sure to read the manufacturer’s washing instructions before doing anything that might destroy your child’s bath toys.

Here’s the steps on how to boil bath toys:

Pop bath toys in a pan of cold water enough to cover them.
Bring to a boil then cover. Let it boil for 15 minutes.
Remove from heat and allow to cool.
Drain the water and remove the toys. Leave them to dry on a cooling rack, towel or under the sun but make sure to not leave them for too long as the color may fade. Drying them under the sun will not only speed up the process but will improve the results as well.

Soaking Bath Toys

For soaking, you can choose among bleach, vinegar and Milton cleaning solutions. Vinegar is highly recommended because it’s natural and will never damage most rubber toys.

Make the cleaning solution and fill the toys with it. Do it twice for squirty toys while sitting them upside down the second time to make sure that the inside of the toy is filled with your cleaning solution.

Leave them overnight or for an hour. Make sure to rinse them properly especially if you are using bleach. Allow them to dry before giving them back to your children.