Tub Toy Funk

I swore off 'squirty-toys' long ago (after squirting out a dispicable green blob followed by yucky water) :bad:

How do you keep your tub toys sanitary?

What toys do you have? How often do you replace them?

TIA

 

We still use squirky toys! To resolve the ick factor, we buy the cheapest Wally World version and throw them away every 4 months. Usually that keeps things from getting out of control! We also use cups, and buckets in the tub.

 

Our favorite tub toys are:
Guys from McDonalds. They don't usually hold water, so dry completely. They are also so inexpensive/junky that I can toss them if they get too yucky. It helps keep our cheap-o toys to a minimum as well. I think their water play is better with 'guys' anyhow, rather than boats or squirty toys.

Squirty syringes. I suppose this would be specific to our family..... Matt has cancer and has a central line in his chest. Each day I have to flush the line with sterile saline and heparin. This means we have a never ending supply of sterile syringes from the saline (without needles, obviously). They make GREAT tub toys!

 

We have some squirty toys. If they get too gross they get tossed. They have one hippo that I believe is made by the company Sassy that claims to not get moldy and so far so good. They also like cups, empty bottles from their body wash or shampoo and foam letters and numbers that stick onto the wall when they are wet.

 

What I've found to work amazingly well for all our tub toy, including squirty toys is bleach. Every few weeks I dump all our toys in the tub and flip over the tub mat and fill the tub up with bleach water and let them soak. It takes care of all the yucky stuff.

 

I recently HATE tub toys! They throw them out of the water and they land on my lap. It doesnt matter how many times I tellt them to stop. I know this it totally OT but needed to share this frustration somewhere!

 

We give our tubby toys a bleach and water bath of there own every couple of weeks and i make sure they suck up the bleach water and spit it out a couple times.

 

We also do the bleach treatment. Also important is to squeeze all the water out of the toys after every bath . . . you can never get every last drop out, but it's better than leaving them full of stagnant water all the time. Then every week or so I fill them up with a weak bleach solution - make sure you squeeze out all the air, then put it in the bleach and water and let it fill up. Shake them around, and let them sit for a few hours or overnight. It does the trick around here.

-Rachel

 

No squirty toys here (blech!). My guys love the foam shapes that stick to the walls. We have the alphabet (of course) and also some cars and roads. In addition, we have all different sizes of plastic containers that they love to play mad scientist with in the water. I suggest cleaning out your tupperware cabinet and giving them the things you never use. They have also played with this set which I loved a lot but my guys were just so-so about it.

To hold the toys, we have a few of those mesh bags that stick to the wall with suction cups and everything dries nicely in there.

 

I agree with the bleach & squirting the water out after each bath. I also just let everything soak every couple of weeks in some bleach water & swish it around inside the squirty toys.....I usually have to find something like a big plate to put in the sink on top of them b/c all the toys float, of course!

 

I use a syringe to squirt the bleach water solution into our rubber duckies and let them set overnight. Then I squeeze all the solution out and use the syringe to squirt water into the duckies and rinse several times.

 

I am quickly learning to use cheap toys so that we can just throw them out when they get moldy looking....we also have one of those "frog pods" that stick to the wall that is supposed to let all of the water drip out. We also use the "Chlorox Anywhere Sanitizing Spray" and spray down the bathtub & toys after each bath....

 

Thanks for all the tips, guys. I think I will try a bleach bath IN the tub (love the tip of turning over the bath mat, Trish).

I have been hauling everything into the kitchen and doing it in the dishwasher....PITA!

 

I usually thrown them away after a while. Other times I have plugged the hole with crazy glue. Granted, they are no longer "squirty" toys but K&M don't seem to mind.