Quick and Easy Ways to Sanitize Your Infant and Toddler's Plastic Toys

Because children share more than fun when they play, washing and sanitizing your infant and toddlers toys is a must if you want to prevent illness and keep the germs at bay.

Since kids don't care what they put in their mouths, it is our job as adults to care for them. Any parent will attest to the fact that most toys seem to have a permanent home in the mouth of an infant or toddler.

I have discovered three quick and simple ways to sanitize my children's plastic toys.

You can use the dishwasher

I absolutely love this idea. If I'm on my way out of the door, I can load the dishwasher with all sorts of toys. This is not the most cost efficient way, but it is certainly the easiest. The hot water does a great job of cleaning all of the stuff that gets into the cracks of your children toys.

You can use the washing machine

The washing machine is a great idea for cleaning infant and toddler toys. It would be wise to place all of your toys in a mesh bag before putting them into the machine. The mesh bag will keep the toys together and it will prevent the smaller toys from getting stuck in your washing machine. You can add a little bleach to the water to kill the germs. Turn your washing machine on a light wash cycle. This method will clean and disinfect at the same time.

You can use the kitchen sink

This is probably the most cost efficient way to sanitize your infant and toddler toys. It works great if you have a double sink. You will need to put all of the toys into a mesh bag, fill one sink with hot bleach water and fill the other sink with plain hot water for rinsing. Swish the bag full of toys around in the bleach and water solution and let them sit for a few minutes. Once you remove the toys from the sanitizing solution, let them drain. Dip the mesh bag in the sink containing the plain water to rinse the bleach off of the toys. Find a place above the sink to hang the toys until they dry.

Obviously, these ideas can not be used for battery operated toys. The best way to sanitize toys that contain batteries is to dip a clean towel in a bleach water solution and wipe them down.