What You Didn’t Know about Bath Time Squirt Toys

Bath squirt toys are so cute! And there’s so many of them in all shapes and sizes! I was excited to register for some when my first son was in production. I never even dreamed that there was a dark underbelly (or more like dark “inside belly” 😂😂…I’m intentionally hyping and “punning” this up 😂. Read on your see what I mean!)  to these delightful toys until a lady from my church congregation commented on them at my baby shower.

“You know, those get moldy and mildew-y on the inside over time, right? You can put some hot glue in the holes right now if you don’t want that to happen.”

Ummmm, say WHAT?!

No! I didn’t know that happened! Gross!

As I have come to find out (since I didn’t plug the holes with hot glue *facepalm*), over time, you can start to see a different color inside the toys when you hold them up to the light. And when you squirt them, black, slimy flakes come out! Blah. What happens is that the not so clean post-bath water sits in the toys until the next bath, building up the nasties, layer upon layer, every bath. (And I even live in a dry climate! I can only imagine how fast and how gnarly this would be in a humid place).

Most of my bath squirt toys have slowly found their way to the trash. (That process spend up a thousand percent when I noticed my two-year-old sucking the water out of them!! Yikes!) And they haven’t been replaced with similar squirt toys. I just can’t bring myself to get more, despite the options I know are out there for mitigating this problem.

However, if you love these toys enough to look for solutions, look no further! I’ve got you covered!

• As mentioned above, simply plug the holes. Hot glue is one reliable method. Pro: It allows for the toys to continue to be used in the tub. Con: It does cut down on the fun squirt feature.
• Periodically soak the toys in a bleach solution to stop the buildup of mold before it happens. Suck the bleach solution up into the toy and let it sit there for several minutes. This requires frequency and diligence to beat the muck! And it’s not always successful. (See your individual bleach bottle for the proper water to bleach ratio).
• Diligently squirt the water out of each toy at the end of each bath to lessen the amount of time the dirty water can sit in the toys and grow mold.
• Purchase squirt bath toys that are purposely made to come apart to be cleaned. My mom bought us some and they are so much better! Beware though, they aren’t perfect. They do open up to be accessible for cleaning but there are still crevices that are hard to reach and can still start growing gunk!

My current path forward is to use NON-squirt toys in the bathtub. I just can’t bring myself to do it… Whatever you choose to do, I hope you have success with it and no matter what, you now can’t say you didn’t know. 😉

What are your favorite bath toys? Let me know below!

Happy Tub Time my friends!

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Non-Squirt Bath Toys