Bath time… love it or hate it, chances are that your children will spend a significant amount of their early years splashing around and playing in the bathtub. While your focus as a parent will likely be placed on the need to achieve cleanliness; your child’s focus will be placed on one thing- their bath toys.
This was exactly the case in my household. Night after night my kiddos would splash, play, and laugh while enjoying their toys in the bathtub. Their absolute favorite toys being the kind that would spit out or collect water. Without fail, after each bath session, I would collect their (what seemed like hundreds of) bath toys and pack them up until they would be enjoyed once again the following night.
Discovering the Scary Truth
However, one night in the middle of drying off my child with one hand and collecting the toys with the other (multi-tasking parents of the world UNITE!)… I stumbled upon a very startling and scary truth about my child’s bath toys!
The yellow rubber ducky, wasn’t so yellow anymore. In fact, it had a darkened tint to it.
Fearful of what this likely meant, I quickly confiscated the mouth squirting/water collecting rubber ducky (along with all other squirting/water collecting toys), put the kids to bed, and started my detective work.
One quick (and painless ;)) cut to middle of the rubber ducky later and my biggest fear was confirmed. The rubber ducky was FULL of black mold!
Coming Up With a Solution
It horrified me to wonder how long these toys had been sharing black mold particles with my children’s bath water and I knew I needed to find a way to make these toys safe… and fast!
The way I saw it, I had two options with the obvious first step being throwing away all existing water squirting bath toys.
- Allow my children to enjoy all other bath toys (but never ones that squirt/collect water again).
- Find a way to make water squirting/water collecting bath toys safe.
I chose #2. Despite a large collection of non-squirting bath toys (think foam numbers, cups, etc.) my children LOVED these water squirting/water collecting figurines most.
And to be honest, choosing #2 was FAR easier than you may think.
How to Make the Bath Toys Safe
If your children also enjoy water squirting/water collecting bath toys but you too are horrified by the idea of black mold, simply follow these super easy steps to make their bath toys safe once more!
- Grab your water squirting/water collecting bath toys (I’d recommend pitching the old ones to be extra safe).
- Grab a hot glue gun or super glue.
- Place a small dab of glue at the opening of the toy’s mouth (or wherever the hole may be).
- Let dry.
- Allow your kiddos to enjoy their bath toys WITHOUT the risk for black mold!
 
It truly is that simple.
Not only do I continue to be shocked about just how well this has prevented water from seeping inside the toys, but I am amazed by just how well this went over. My children never once asked why their bath toys no longer were shooting out water (as it turns out, they love them far more for the figurine purpose than for the water squirting ability). WIN-WIN!
Happy gluing!
Oh what a great post. Great info! I do hope you’ll come back to the Fabulous Party and link.
I am sorry I did not get the link up on Sunday. But the party has started now over:
http://ourholidayjourney.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-better-late-than-never-fabulous.html
Come and party with us!
Hi Lindsay,
I discovered the same problem when my son was very young. I solved it by using a bleach/water solution (1 part bleach to 10 parts water). I squeezed the solution into the inside of the toy and let it soak for a few hours. Then I rinsed it repeatedly with warm soapy water to clear out the bleach.
To prevent this from being a problem again in the future, I regularly cleaned the bath toys (say once a month or so).
He still got to squirt the water through the toy (which he loved doing).
I also bought some bath/water toys that were open at the bottom, so they could dry properly after use.
Sealing the holes is a good idea, as well. My only concern is the glue gun glue may fall off after a bit because it’s not usually water resistant. Silicone (clear).
Great ideas, Deb! Love that! I was a bit hesitant about the same, but actually the hot glue has held on all of them!!
That’s a great idea and I need to do that to ours. I’ve had to bin loads of ducks because they were full of mould! I always try and squeeze all the water out when I empty the bath but theu still tend to get a bit manky!! #thatfridaylinky
Yes!! Hopefully it will work for you!!
I wish I had read this a couple of years ago, when I discovered that our squirty bath toys were vomiting out black mouldy limescale stuff (mouldy skanky hard London water). I took the decision to dump the squirty toys. And replaced them with bath crayons which appeased the kids. And helped my then-Reception boy practice writing. #thatfridaylinky
Ick, it is so gross, isn’t it!? On the other hand, I do LOVE bath crayons ;)!
We were reminded of mildew when after a bath one night, one of the toys spit out some black gunk. For us, they’re cheap enough that we just pitch them every few months. But you could also try a dilute bleach bath every couple of weeks or so.
So very true! Thanks!
My husband and I were just talking about this the other night. I realize companies could care less and make stuff cheap so they have to be replaced more, but why don’t people make better bath toys so you don’t have to worry about stuff like this!?
So very true, Alicia!!
I have thrown out so many bath toys for this reason! Now they play with cups and cars. A great tip though! #ThatFridayLinky
Thank you! Yes, cups for the win!
Yes! We’ve had so many nasty toys in our tub that I’ve pretty much just banned squirters. There are plenty of other fun options for tub time. Thanks for sharing a way to make gifted squirters safe and thanks so much for sharing at the #happynowlinkup!
Genius! Anytime someone gave us bath toys I told my kids they only had a couple times to use them before they got gross and we had to throw them away. Thanks for sharing in our To Grandma’s House We Go DIY, Crafts, Recipes and more link party! Hope to see you next week.
Thank you, Sheri!! Yes, we were often the same until finding this solution. Now this lengthens their lifespan a bit we find ;).
Kids can learn in so many ways.These are great tips!Very inspiring! Thank you!