How to clean babies toys

[CJ1990]

Really stupid question I know, but many of my daughters toys you can’t wash in the washing machine and say just use a damp cloth, like the Lamaze toys as an example and her play mat. But that just doesn’t seem enough? We’ve all been sick over Christmas so want to get rid of all germs but not sure what I can use that’s safe?

Any help for a silly first time mum appreciated!

Milton spray or soaking in Milton tablets for anything hard and plastic.

And I would hand wash and drip dry the play mat.

If the soft toys have no electronics in them I'd risk putting them on a delicate or handwash cycle in the washing machine.

Spray with dettol and leave to dry.

I machine washed my lamaze toys on delicate, it doesn't do the squeakers much good unfortunatly but the coulours seemed to stay put.

You can also buy a dettol aerosol spray that can be used on fabrics.

Dish washer?

Steamer?

You get detol aerosol spray. I

If it can’t be hand washed I just wipe down with an antibacterial wipe. I don’t think germs live that long on things.
If the play mat just has rattles and squeakers in it I’d try the washer, I’ve washed mine loads of times.

Soft toys go in the washing machine on cold, minimum spin in a laundry bag to catch anything that detaches. No disasters to date. Admittedly non machine wash toys have a higher needs washing threshold than general grime.

It would get washed regardless!

Well the playmate we had got caught in one of dc’s nappy failures. It got hot washed at 60 deg. It didn’t look brand new and dc could still lay on it. But it was either that or bin it. All soft toys in this house gonin the wash, I have dust allergies so it’s either they get washed or they don’t have them.

Please do not dettol spray baby toys, unless you want your child exposed to worse things than germs.

If I needed to wash those and they had no batteries or electronics, I would push them in the washing machine (I have after taking ours out of storage between babies, they were all fine). But I also wouldn’t bother because of illness unless it’s norovirus. A normal cold can’t survive long on a surface outside the body anyway. Your floor is likely to be much more covered in germs than the toys.

Did our Lamaze firefly recently in the washing machine, I put it inside a laundry bag incase it fell to pieces. It came out fine.

I'd be careful of washing toys in the dishwasher. If water gets trapped in a squeaker or inside a plastic toy, it could become full of mould without you seeing it.

I'd just give them a wipe with a cloth soaked in water and mild detergent and then leave them to dry in the sun.

I just wipe everything with an antibac wipe every so often

We just stick in washer anyhow on a gentle wash- can't be bothered with all that faff!

Agree with pp though- you can't wash germs away as won't stay ages on toys. Although apparently hand foot and mouth can. We allow baby to play with reasonably dirty toys and stick them in the wash now and ten. Bad parents, I know!

@mindutopia sorry I know this is an old thread but I saw your comment about not using dettol spray on toys and I was looking for an answer to that as I was going to use it as we’ve all had norovirus. I just wondered if you would mind elaborating on why you can’t use it on babies items because it states elsewhere you can 🙂