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Filed Under PVC Free, Toy Safety

I’ve been watching this weeks series of “expose” reports concerning Hidden Filth on the Today Show this week. Today they discussed the filth lurking in children’s bath toys. My purpose for reporting it is two fold. First, I knew bath toys could harbor mold which is why I try to air dry the kids toys each night. However I was nicely ignorant to just how gross they could possibly be. A group of mothers surrendered their kids bath toys to the Today Show for testing and what they found was frightening. Fecal matter (alarming levels), staph and e. coli bacteria in just about every single toy. The worst offenders were bath squirties or toys with holes that allow water to get trapped inside. If you watch the report, the scientist splits open a toy shark to reveal a hot bed of black bacteria and mold.

How does it get there?

The bath water you bathed the child in has become a “bacteria soup” they called it which the toys marinate in. Additionally, since the tub is usually situated near the toilet, flushing can spread germs, bacterial and fecal matter as far as 20 feet. (I don’t even want to think about what that’s doing to toothbrushes).

What do I do?

Air dry bath toys after each use, preferably somewhere away from the family toilet. A closet would be a good spot.
Periodically run them through the dishwasher or hand wash them with soap and clean water (not bath water)
Avoid toys with holes in them (like bath squirties) and if you do have bath squirties beware that they can be gross inside. In the past I have held them up to a light to see if anything was growing in there but when in doubt, chuck them or recycle.

About Bath Squirties and Bath Toys

During the report, they showed kids in the tub gnawing on bath squirties and toys that were all clearly made of PVC which is a really toxic type of plastic. It pained me! To me that’s worse than some exposure to e. coli. The reporter also replaced the confiscated bath toys with a big PVC duckie. PVC can and often contains Phthalates (which softens the plastic to make it squishy), and chlorine.. not to mention the incredible strain on the environment it causes to create it. You know that “shower curtain smell”? That’s you inhaling the off gassing plastic and phthalates.

Instead of choosing toxic PVC bath squirties and ducks, I recommend the Boon Bath Toys that are just as good, if not way cooler and more fun:

Boon Odd Ducks – They come in 4 shapes and fun colors, are PVC Free and have no holes where water can get trapped inside (I like Squish.. he’s cute, but we also have Bob and Slim who make a regular appearance in our tub)

Boon Scrubble Interchangeable Bath Toy Scrub Set – These squirties all come apart and you can run them through the dishwasher… they’re PVC free and my kids love them. Boon also makes a ring toss called Boon Splat Floating Ring Toy and a Water Bugs Floating Toys set that are good fun. We have all of those too, haha!

There are other PVC free bath toys but many have holes in them, making cleaning tough to do, or are made from a badly off-gassing foam (think foam letters) so I really prefer the Boon Toys over many others (so do my kids). If you have any PVC free bath toys you love that are not Boon, please let me know about them in the comments!

Note: Boon did not pay me to say this… I purchased all my Boon bath toys from The Soft Landing and genuinely like them!

Posted by: SafeMama Kathy on March 3, 2010

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Comments

17 Responses to “Hidden Filth & PVC in Bath Toys”

Diana on March 3rd, 2010 4:55 pm

We’ve used three stainless steel bowls as bath toys for her entire three years of bathing, and she hasn’t gotten tired of them yet. They are boats, they pour, and they stack. And they go in the dishwasher.
Amy on March 3rd, 2010 6:53 pm

I was horrified too! There go my “safe” squirty toys.

I was under the impression that most foam toys are EVA foam, which gets an ok from Healthy Child Healthy World. Are foam bath toys different?

http://healthychild.org/blog/comments/you_ask_we_answer_is_ethylene_vinyl_acetate_eva_safe_for_babies/

And I’m confused on the duck…it was Munchkin and healthystuff.org has a high chlorine/PVC readings on similar products, but good guide says there’s no PVC in that specific product. What’s going on here?
gerti on March 3rd, 2010 8:06 pm

We use empty bubble bath bottles. My son loves them and by the time they start to get nasty the next one´s empty and replaces the one before.
My favorite sentence in your post is “To me that’s worse than some exposure to e. coli.” though. There will always be germs and bacteria around your child. You can´t completely avoid them or you´d be constantly wiping off everything which I think is ridiculous, too. I stopped using those squirty toys as well but we should not have to worry about germs flushing your toilet may spread. This is just another of those scare tactics. Just keep your bathroom clean as always and I am sure we´ll all be fine.
Thanks for the tip with the dishwasher though. I have never thought about putting bath toys in there.
Kathy on March 3rd, 2010 8:29 pm

Thanks Gerti! I agree with you completely… we can’t and shouldn’t avoid all germs and bacteria. Exposure is good for us. But excessive exposure from a fecal contaminated bath toy is a bit much (They found excessive amounts of fecal bacteria inside those bath squirties). A tip about the toilet flushing… I once read that flushing with the lid closed reduces the spread of toilet bacteria although does not eliminate it. I don’t think it’s a scare tactic so much as just a fact of life. But I don’t think people realize where all that bacteria actually comes from.

We’re not all going to expire from flushing the toilet though haha… we’ll all be fine!
Victoria on March 3rd, 2010 10:14 pm

I’m a fan of Boon too! We have BOB the Odd Duck, the Bath Scrubbles, & Splat.
Kate on March 4th, 2010 6:50 pm

We use BPA free water bottles in the tub, to pour and play with…the Container Store has them in a rainbow of colors…
Leona on March 4th, 2010 7:37 pm

Thank you for the information! I am going through the tub toys now with a garbage bag…
missy @ it's almost naptime on March 5th, 2010 2:54 pm

Good grief.

And let’s not even get started on the fact that kids frequently DRINK THE BATH WATER…
A on March 5th, 2010 3:51 pm

We do too use BPA-free containers in the tub. My son loves to play with those. I use different colors each time. But I’d like to try the Boon one some time, they are a bit pricey.
Mena on March 6th, 2010 4:26 am

Are the Alex Bath Toys safe to use? How do you find this information? These are what we have and my kids love them. Thank you!
Kathy on March 6th, 2010 1:38 pm

According to Amazon they are phthalate free foam pieces – but if you are truly concerned I would contact the company directly and ask whether they are PVC and phthalate free. 1-800-666-ALEX
Donna At Newborn cloth diapers on March 7th, 2010 8:03 am

Okay that’s nasty I try and clean my baby’s toys but I have never even thought that the bath toys may be dirty, It just never clicked bath and dirty together, I think I’ll try the stainless steel soap dishes like that other poster said.
Mena on March 9th, 2010 4:42 am

Thanks for the response. I will contact the company tomorrow! Also, don’t forget to check (if you have one) the bath faucet cover. My rubber one had some nasty black moldy small spots on the bottom of it! I cut out the entire bottom area and the other part is sitting in bleach water right now.
neva| manilamommy on March 9th, 2010 6:47 am

thanks so much for this! my son plays with his shampoo bottle but we still keep toys in our bathroom. i think they all need to spend a whole day out in the sun tomorrow then!
Elenita on March 9th, 2010 4:09 pm

The Original Rubber Duck (made by Rich Frog in Spain) is an all-natural rubber duck with no harmful ingredients. The Soft Landing, as well as many other places, including Amazon sell it. It does have a hole in the bottom, but it is nice to know it is not PVC, etc. They even have an XL size.
Kathy on March 9th, 2010 4:37 pm

Thanks Elenita! Yes the Original Rubber Duck and a few other PVC free bath toys are available at The Soft Landing (love!) but I was trying to list out toys that didn’t have a hole in the bottom such as the Boon Ducks.
Midwestern Housewife on March 11th, 2010 5:24 pm

I was going to tell you about a tub toy the kids love, that we got at Babies R Us…and then realized it was a Boon toy!

LOL.

Our kids love the water bugs and net!