Sterilization 101

[Lee-Bee]

I have a 5 small mesh bags (for laundry). I fill them with small plastic toys. Put them on the rocks in the dishwasher (making sure the toys inside are lying so they don't fill up with water). I add a small amount of dishwasher detergent and run it on a short cycle. The hot water and heat should be enough to kill most germs.

Once done I shake them over the sink to get rid of excess water and then air dry.

Larger plastic toys go in the dishwasher without the bags. I don't do this all that often. It will take the stickers off some toys.

In the daycares we used to run all the toys through the sterilizer that washed all the dishes. Fast and effective.

[AmandaKDT]

Bleach loses it's "bleachiness" after about a day exposed to light. Don't ask me why... but apparently it does. So in order to have that spay bottle of bleach, you're supposed to mix a new batch every day. I'm too lazy for that, personally. Or, I guess, if your bottle keeps it dark in there. Like to original jug does.

Yes, I have to refill my bottle every day or two. For some reason adding water affects it, even if you don't have it sitting out in sunlight. But it is definitely an expensive cleaner - A $2 jug of bleach can last me pretty much a whole year with it being diluted.

[5 Little Monkeys]

I have a 5 small mesh bags (for laundry). I fill them with small plastic toys. Put them on the rocks in the dishwasher (making sure the toys inside are lying so they don't fill up with water). I add a small amount of dishwasher detergent and run it on a short cycle. The hot water and heat should be enough to kill most germs.

Once done I shake them over the sink to get rid of excess water and then air dry.

Larger plastic toys go in the dishwasher without the bags. I don't do this all that often. It will take the stickers off some toys.

In the daycares we used to run all the toys through the sterilizer that washed all the dishes. Fast and effective.

We used to do that too (run toys through the sterilizer) and than were told it was unsanitary?? However, we still did it occasionally....shhh h!!! Lol

[kindertime]

We used to do that too (run toys through the sterilizer) and than were told it was unsanitary?? However, we still did it occasionally....shhh h!!! Lol

I don't claim to know what a sterilizer is, but assume it's like a dishwasher, so... if it sterilizes things... how could it be unsanitary? I honestly never considered used the dishwasher for toys. I run a very full load everyday as it is now but will give this a try.

[5 Little Monkeys]

Something about the cross contamination between toys and dishes if I remember right?? I never paid much attention then so can't remember for sure lol

If I had a dishwasher, I'd definitely use it for cleaning toys!!

Edited..The difference....A sterilizer only sterilizes, doesn't wash. When we had our restaurant we had the same one as the centres. Dishes needed to be washed before being put in the sterilizer.

[kindertime]

A sterilizer only sterilizes, doesn't wash. When we had our restaurant we had the same one as the centres. Dishes needed to be washed before being put in the sterilizer.

Okay, that makes sense now, if it uses just heat and maybe steam then it won't necessarily take away the gunk. And of course there'll be gunk. Achooo!

[Suzie_Homemaker]

So I only had my daughter and one DCB so we spent 1.5 hours this morning cleaning all the toys. I washed them in hot soapy water with some bleach added, rinsed and they are air drying in a huge pile in my bath tub.

1) How do you all dry these toys properly so they actually dry? They still all have water stuck in them/dripping everywhere.

2) How do you wash the toys you can't submerge? I just wiped them down with cloth dipped in the bleach solution then wiped with a clean wet cloth.

3) Do you do anything with the books?

I washed the barbies and dolls in my washing machine with the doll clothes etc.

I figured it can't hurt to do this, even if it is over kill it is probably good to do this at least once a year!

My little next door neighbor is leukemia sufferer. She come my house a lot. Her Mommy and my oldest son went school together. Family friends for long, long time.

So we must take extra care to keep her safe because she not able to have immunizations like her siblings. This is reason no children who not had immunization in my care. We need herd immunity for her.

Plus, our house not big house like some modern home. It old fisherman's cottage. We live her for long time, since we marry so have to be quite tidy when spaces are smaller.

My routine is lots of disinfectant and disinfectant wipes and also bleach. It is lot of chemical but green cleaners not have same qualities we depend on here.

I have two sink in kitchen. Once always have bleach water for wiping down hard surfaces. Counter, high chairs, toilet seat, little stool smaller children use to get up to toilet, all wiped every use. It just take a couple seconds but once part of routine. Can seem like lot when not part of routine.

Every day after children go homes, every single toy is sprayed with aerosol Lysol. Everything. In Summer we try and be outside a lot because it does mean less spraying.

Every Friday night, my husband help me tip all toys into the tubs. We have two full bath and a shower room so the tubs not used really. We fill hot water and bleach and it all soak over night. Then we empty water and sort toys. For dripping toys, we stand so hole which water drip from is down in tub. They drip, drip, over Saturday and Sunday and normally dried out fully by then. Some toys we have to squeeze so water squirt out hole. Then leave to air dry.

Toys with battery that can't be in water, we sit in front of TV on Friday night and between us we wipe good with Lysol wipes. - Not so much rock and roll lifestyle in this house!

Baby book which thick or plastic we would wipe too. The lovely story books we have, we tend to spray but we put them away when neighbor little girl here because we know not so clean as other items. We have a plastic box with lid and they go there. What really good is my husband have Kindle so some of favourite story books now on there and we can wipe that down good.

Washing machine good tool to use. We sometimes fill and add bleach to top loader, then put toys inside little net bags from Dollar store and then add to the barrel of bleach water. This is our go to if having guests and need access to tubs in bathrooms. Can do same thing with nets in top of dishwasher too.

We likely do lot more than many people but this little girl special to us so we take extra care to make sure this place she able to come.

[Suzie_Homemaker]

I use diluted rubbing alcohol. Bleach and other chemicals are toxic and leave residue that you have to rinse off. Alcohol kills all and then evaporates away.

This very interesting. I never considered this option.

[Lee-Bee]

Yes, the sterilizer is just a dishwaher looking machine that super steams everything. I suppose I can how a dishwasher isn't as good as a sterilizer. I don't run the toys with any dishes...just toys not sure if that would make a difference.

But, as far as I'm concerned if we lick the dishes that come out of the dishwasher then the toys are lick-able too! They come out clean but not sterilized.

Pretty sure bleaching toys in a bath doesn't result in completely sterilized toys either. There would be many points of contamination while taking them out and drying them. I just like to get the snot off the toys!

I don't believe we NEED to sterilize toys. The kids are in contact all day if they have something that contagious, odds are the kids are exposed before we have a chance to completely sterilize the toys.

But hey, I'm the parent that lets my kid eat food that fell on the floor, roll in mud and just get plain old filthy while exploring. We've never sterilized anything for her and she's only really been sick once.

[kindertime]

Okay, so I got interested in this and decided to Google disinfect, sanitize and sterilize 'cuz I didn't actually know the difference. While doing this I came across a PDF from the University of Waterloo. I didn't read the whole thing, it's 18 pages but I looked up alcohol and bleach. So according to this, alcohol is not so good for surfaces after all, not bad exactly, but not as effective as I thought. The bleach section (hypochlorites) was interesting too. It loses effectiveness after 30 days (not one) and organic material inactivates it. (Blood, feces, etc)

Oh, and it says about Lysol (Phenolic Disinfectants): "The use of phenolics in nurseries is questioned because of toxicity to infants."

So in case anyone is interested.

https://uwaterloo.ca/safety-office/s...infectants.pdf