The non-toxic bath toys cheat sheet

What this sheet covers

This is the buying version of our bath toy research. It is for the parent standing in front of a shelf of rubber ducks, or a browser tab of them, deciding what goes in the tub. The research itself lives in our bath toy explainer, and we have tried not to repeat it here.

The rule that decides most of it: choose toys that drain and dry

A small 2018 study from Eawag, ETH Zurich and the University of Illinois cut open 25 bath toys: 19 used ones from real households and six new identical ones used for 11 weeks, half in clean water and half in bathwater. Every toy had a biofilm on its inside surface, including the ones that were only ever filled with clean water. The authors argue that four things influenced it: carbon leaching from the flexible plastic, tap-water quality, nutrients from soap and body fluids, and bacteria from dirt and the user. They did not compare shapes, and they did not test a solid or open toy. They close with a quip that the easiest prevention would be to close the hole.

So the rule on this sheet is ours, not theirs. A hollow toy with a small hole is hard to rinse through and hard to dry, so water and residue can sit in a cavity you cannot see. A toy you can see through and get dry has less place for that to happen. Nothing here has been measured, which is why we call it common sense and not a finding.

That gives three kinds of toy worth buying: solid toys, open toys like cups, boats and scoops, and anything with a wide opening or drain holes you can rinse through. A sealed toy with no hole at all is a fourth design the study did not test; some of our picks are that, and we mark them with a caveat.

Materials: what to ask about

PVC. Rigid until it is plasticized, historically with phthalates, which is how a hollow squeaky toy gets soft. U.S. law has capped eight phthalates in children's toys since 2018, so a toy sold here has to clear that bar, but the rule is about what the plastic contains and says nothing about the shape. Our phthalates and PVC page covers the rule, and our TPR explainer covers why TPR and silicone, which are made without PVC's phthalate plasticizers, are easier materials to trust on the chemical question; the 2018 study did not compare materials. A maker that states "PVC-free" has given you something to check; silence is not a claim, so ask. None of the picks here names a test report, so every one is the maker's word.

Recycled plastic and polypropylene. The Green Toys and mushie picks are rigid plastic, and both makers state no PVC or phthalates. mushie names polypropylene; Green Toys says only "recycled plastic" on the pages we read. The cups are open by our reading of a stacking-cup set; the Green Toys tugboat is the one whose hull the page does not describe.

Natural rubber. It is soft without PVC, but it is latex. A latex allergy rules it out, and the listings we read do not mention it, so we say it here.

Silicone. Soft and plasticizer-free, which is why it is a sensible material for a squishy bath toy; check the maker's care instructions before putting it in the dishwasher. We do not have a silicone pick: the sets we found were from brands with nothing we could read.

Wood. A wooden toy whose maker names the wood and the finish sidesteps the plastic question, but wood and wet bathwater do not mix well, so dry it between baths and watch the finish.

Cleaning and drying

• Rinse with clean water after every bath, not the bath water itself.
• Squeeze out what you can and air-dry somewhere with airflow, not in a closed mesh bag while still wet.
• Wash with soap by hand now and then, or run dishwasher-safe toys through a cycle. Green Toys says its tugboat and cups are dishwasher safe; mushie says warm water, mild soap and air dry.
• Do not let toys sit in a bucket or a closed bag between baths.

When to throw one out

• A hollow toy that releases cloudy, discolored or foul-smelling liquid when you squeeze it over the sink. Retire it rather than keep cleaning it. That is our rule, not a tested threshold.
• Any toy where you can see slime or dark spots that do not wash off. That is our rule of thumb, not something the study measured.
• A wooden toy with a split or peeling finish.

You do not need to throw every bath toy in the house away. The study found a biofilm in every toy it opened, which says something about how bath toys get used, not that your household did something wrong.

Where to go next

• Mold and bacteria inside squeeze bath toys: the 2018 study and what to do about the toys you have.
• What is TPR, and is it safe?: soft parts and the PVC question.
• Phthalates and PVC: what the plasticizer rules do and do not cover.
• Toys hub: how we evaluate play materials generally.
• The toys and art supplies cheat sheet: play dough, crayons and baby toys.