Washing baby's toys before first use?

onlyroz

Nope, never washed a toy and my kids are still alive.

emweaver

Those that wash /wipe new toys , what is it like on xmas day? Do the children not get upset waiting for you to wipe all their toys down before they can play with them?

I'm not being nasty, asking out of curiousity.

threemuttleys

Nope...never washed toys

Amanda65

Feel a bit guilty now as it never occurred to me to wash a toy before giving toy before giving it to my children. As they are 21, 19 and 16 though and were never really ill I guess it was OK not to.

Mind you I am also the mother who was surprised when I learnt that a local mother covered her child's birthday cake with cling film before lighting the candles to prevent germs being blown over it after happy birthday was sung :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

kettlefish

Another one in the "why bother when they put everything in their mouth anyway?" camp, although I do admit to taking a little packet of baby wipes into the soft play areas - but that's more because I learnt the hard way that you never know what you're going to kneel in!

DD had all her toys out yesterday but still managed to find a dead woodlouse to chomp on. I stopped being too worried about everything being super clean when she licked a friend's dog!

Enigma80

Wash all new clothes, and generally let play with majority of toys. Cuddly toys we try to wash as they tend to trap dust and dirt anyway. We wash our son's two main comforters (cuddly lamb and a blanket) every other day while he's asleep in bed. It's dragged all over the nursery floor and during the day so can get grubby. (he has two of each so one for bed while the other is being washed).

We routinely wipe his other toys, just as we do our phones, keys, door handles etc....

scaredm

Goodness, I must be such a bad mother as I have never washed or wiped any brand new toys, ever. However, I'm a big believer that over-sterilisation can cause more problems than not sterilising at all. It does a baby good to build up a bit of immunity. We have a dog and our babies have both regularly crawled around picking up the dogs toys and getting licked by the dog. And both are very healthy and hardly get any illnesses (*touches wood)

System

Ive never washed toys before giving them to the kids to play with. I recon if they are old enough to reach out and grab things to put in their mouths, they are old enough to cope with a few germs.

Obviously if a teether fell out of a pushchair whilst we were out i'd wash it before giving it back to my child but in the house? No i wouldnt have bothered. I might with grandchildren now though cause of the dogs.

Enigma80

It would be interesting to know how many people wear outdoor footwear in the house?

Surely if you're conscious about outdoor dirt/germs enough to clean a teether, and you wear outdoor shoes indoors, then you should be equally as concerned as those outdoor germs are transferred indoors via your footwear.

I've been brought up to remove outdoor footwear at the point of entry of a home. "If it's not you're home, then you should always ask!" as I was instructed by my parents.

We've moved into our house and the kitchen floor tiles are the type that look slightly rustic, so no matter how hard you scrub or leave the bleach to soak they'll never look sparkly clean. We'll replace them when we refurbish the kitchen.

mrcow

Never washed any toys either.

All of them are still alive and well as i type.