Keeping Your Kids Toys Clean To Prevent Spreading Germs
From a very young age, children are taught to share their toys. You will see this with Infants and toddlers, they love to explore new things by placing them in their mouths, touching them and carrying them around, then another child follows behind and scoops the toy up.
This is also the reason that if you have more than one small child when your kids share toys with their friends, they can open themselves up to the spread of germs causing colds, the flu and other infections.
However, if the toys are not clean, this can end up making your children sick. It’s even worse if a sick child plays with a toy that is passed to a well child and is not cleaned in between. Many parents are a little confused when it comes to cleaning and disinfecting their children’s toys.
While kids are easily susceptible to these things, parents can make sure that they their children enjoy themselves freely while lessening the risk of illnesses or infections. I have provided a few healthy tips that may assist you in taking care of your children’s toys so they can continue to play together and stay safe.
What To Look For
- Toys needing to be cleaned and/or disinfected to prevent the spread of germs and dirt.
Healthy Tips
- Buy toys that you can wash easily whenever possible.
- If you have a baby or a toddler, you will need to clean their toys after every use.
- Pay attention to the toys your child spends time chewing on and touching and disinfect those items each day.
- For older children, clean their toys as needed, or at least once a week.
- You can also keep a bin for dirty toys. When a toy gets dirty you can just toss it into the bin to wash later.
- Use hot water and soap to hand wash toys – this removes the dirt, saliva and/or stickiness.
- After washing the toys, disinfect them with a non-toxic disinfectant.
- If you can wash stuffed animals or soft toys in the washing machine, use hot water and a mild detergent. Be sure to dry toys thoroughly.
- Some toys are dishwasher safe. You can use the top rack and run the toys through the wash/dry cycle completely for cleaning and disinfecting.
