26, There is Mold In Your Child’s Bath Toys

3/12/2021

Is bath time one of the magical words in your family? What bath toys do your children have, squeaky rubber ducks? Have you ever cleaned those toys? I’m sure you rinse and sanitize those toys every time you use them, but what about the inside? Today we are going to talk about what is inside your bath toys.

If you have rubber bath toys designed to squirt water, I highly recommend you throw them away. A mom named Eden Strong shared on Facebook how her toddler’s eye became infected after he squired himself in the face with the water inside a rubber ducky tub toy. In a short period of time, her son went from having an irritated eye to needing IV antibiotics and a CT scan to determine if his vision was damaged.

What a tough lesson! Through her son's experience, the situation was also noted in a study published in the Journal , Biofilms, and Microbiomes back in 2018. Researchers found “potentially pathogenic bacteria” in four out of five bath toys examined. In the study, Swiss and American researchers looked at the biofilm communities inside 19 bath toys, collected from random households, as well as six toys used in controlled, clean, or dirty water conditions. They found that all of the examined bath toys, had dense and slimy biofilm stick on their inner surfaces. What's more, 56% of the real-use toys and all of the dirty-water toys had fungi build up. Although the researchers noted that exposure to bacteria and fungi, may have some benefits, the strong existence of grime in bath toys is still concerning. They noted that squeezing water unexpectedly with chunks of biofilm, onto their faces may result in eye and ear wounds, or even gastro-intestinal tract infections.

No matter how often you change the rubber toy or sanitize them, you can’t avoid it building up mold. The design of the squeezable toys with a water hole means you always have a bit of water remaining in the toy, which gives enough humidity for bacteria and fungi to grow. In fact, the mold can grow in any toy with an air hole, like the world-famous, Sophie the Giraffe teether, which is made of 100% Natural Rubber and food paint. Lovable and amusing, she makes a happy sound when her body is squeezed. Made in France and BPA Free. However, this product has a critical defect, it has an air hole. It is designed to be flexible, soft that babies can squeeze and chew. But this small hole also becomes the entrance for the children's saliva, water, and air to get inside the teether. The humid environment, combined with the rubber material, allows bacteria to grow freely, and mold to spread throughout the inside of the teether. While children are biting the teether, they are feeding themselves bacteria. It may hurt their immune, respiratory, and digestive systems and cause all kinds of problems.

Rubber toy + air hole +liquid = mold bomb

How to solve this problem? There is one simple solution. Close the hole or choose toys that don’t have that air hole or something you can open up completely and be able to sanitize. And don’t forget to throw away those rubber toys with an air hole!

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