How Do You Sterilize Toys?

[Unregistered]

I can honestly say that the kids that come here rarely get sick, I had one kid who got everyone sick and I termed him and voila the kids never became sick again (he's been seeing spec. since march) I think it has to do alot with not wiping and steralizing things like crazy.

Long time lurker, I rarely post. I posted in Feb about terminating two siblings because they gave everyone (including myself) Norwalk. Everyone acted like I was out of my mind and couldn't pinpoint who gave it to us. I knew it was them. I also knew they were sickly, because their parents had poor hygiene on them. The parents also seemed dirty on their own bodies. I do think some kids are just sickly/dirty (in my case). They should be termed. I also agree about the over sanitizing. However, where I am, we have to use bleach. I do about once a week. They look for the bleach bottles. With my own children, I don't use bleach except for rare occasions.

[Unregistered]

K3 Keeping Klean

I teach a classroom of 10-14 three and four-year-olds. My favorite method of routine sanitizing is turning the toy washing into a center.

At the beginning of each month, I apply a tag to each of my plastic toy baskets. Three times a week the sensory center gets a few inches of warm water and antibacterial soap / shaving cream. My students can't wait for their turn to grab a sponge and wash every inch of our toys. After the basket is clean, I let it sit on our table overnight to dry.

The wooden toys or unwashable toys, we usually wipe down with wet wipes that have diluted germ-x added. Some unwashable toys may also be taken to the playground to get some sun on the picnic tables while we enjoy the equipment.

Our favorite method of cleaning the larger areas is playing "Dirt hunt". At the end of the day, each student gets a sanitizer wet wipe and tries to find as much dirt as possible before our music stops. This also allows me to gauge which areas I may not be sanitizing sufficiently myself. (I keep a bucket of sanitizer water handy throughout the day for spot cleaning as well as end of the day wipe downs.)

[trix23]

I don't sanitize toys, but I try to only let babies mouth toys to cut down on this issue. If a toy is visibly dirty, I will clean it, or if it's been mouthed, I might put it up to be cleaned. I also believe some germs are good. We avoid illnesses here through handwashing, cleaning often, and being sure to wash hands after potty training and diaper changing.

[MrsSteinel'sHouse]

Binky- just plop it in your own mouth and hand it back to the kid, right??!! That one drives me crazy when I see parents do that! Here I can wash it for you!

If I have kids that I know have been sick or my babies stuff, I wash. But, I am in the a little bit of germs are fine camp. I will admit that I do have a Clorox wipe addiction and I do wipe down back here with those on a fairly regular basis.
Wooden toys that may not be great in water I wipe down.

[hwichlaz]

In mesh bags on the top drawer of the dishwasher.

larger toys get wiped down with sanitizer/bleach spray.