As you watch your little darlings press the buttons on a toy and chew on the corner at the same time, you realize that you need to find out how to clean baby electronic toys. But how do you remove the offending germs without poisoning your baby? It’s a quandary because you want the child to enjoy playing with their toys, but you also want them to be safe and hygienic.
Toys play a vital role in a toddler’s life and help them to grow and develop. Electronic toys stimulate the senses and help build coordination skills, but when your child starts to eat the toys, you can’t help but panic. How do you clean baby electronic toys without killing them?
How to Clean Baby Electronic Toys
We can’t help it, can we? Our babies have enough toys to open their own store, yet we can’t resist those little electronic flashing thingamajigs that make our children smile and giggle. Yet, electronic toys remain notoriously difficult to clean.
While you may throw a plush toy without batteries into the washing machine to sanitize and clean it, the same can’t be said for anything with batteries in it. You may use a diluted mixture of half a cup of bleach to a gallon of water to start the process. Cotton balls and cotton buds prove useful to get into all those difficult-to-reach areas.
You may finish the job by wiping over the toy with disinfectant wipes to kill any remaining bacteria. Wipe over the toy with a damp cloth and leave it to dry before you give it back to your baby.
How often should you clean the toys?
Anything that goes into your baby’s mouth remains a concern, whether it is a plush toy or a battery-operated toy. Consequently, clean the toys weekly. However, if you know the toy receives frequent baby kisses, it is wise to wash it every couple of days.
Plus, you may often find a toy dropped on the floor, and you don’t know what germs or nasty things lurk on the ground. Anything found on the floor needs cleaning before you give it back to your baby. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.
What can I use to clean electronic toys safely?
When you need to understand how to clean baby electronic toys, you may wonder what is safe to use. While distilled vinegar constitutes an excellent household cleaner, it doesn’t sufficiently remove germs from toys.
It may seem harsh to use bleach on something that may well end up in your baby’s mouth. However, if you dilute half a cup of bleach to a gallon of water, the solution retains its germ-killing power.
Child-safe disinfectant wipes make the perfect choice for wiping over the toy once you have dried the weak bleach solution. Choose a variety suitable for all-purpose cleaning and baby toys.
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Some useful tools to help clean the toys and get into those hard-to-reach areas include cotton buds and cotton balls. The areas around buttons need particular attention, and cotton buds may help you efficiently sanitize the toy.
You may also find clean dishwasher cloths and microfiber cloths useful to complete the job.
How to Clean Baby Electronic Toys: FAQs
Electronic toys may fall into two categories, including hard plastic toys and plush toys. Plastic toys may have plugs or batteries, while plush toys tend to operate using batteries. When you need to learn how to clean baby electronic toys, you need to understand how to clean both toy types.
How to clean baby electronic toys
Plastic electronic toys tend to run on batteries or plug-in power sources. Before you start the cleaning process, remove any batteries or leads and ensure the toy remains switched off.
You cannot immerse the toy in soapy water because the water may short circuit the toy. And when you plug in the batteries or the power lead, you or your baby may receive a shock. While we want to learn how to clean baby electronic toys, we don’t want to electrocute them!
Use the weak solution of bleach and water to clean the hard surfaces of the toy. Use a clean dishwashing cloth to remove the bulk of the dirt before following up with cotton wool buds and cotton wool balls to get into all the problematic areas.
Once complete, dry the toy using a clean microfiber cloth.
The finishing touch
To eliminate any remaining micro-organisms and eliminate any bleach traces, wipe over the toy using child-safe disinfectant wipes. We use the wipes to kill anything that may have escaped the weak bleach solution and to make the toy safe for your baby to chew on.
When you wipe over the toy with the wipes, ensure the surface looks wet. Allow the toy to dry naturally. The action of the damp disinfectant from the wipe kills anything lurking around, and it needs to remain wet for a few minutes for effective treatment. By allowing the damp surface to dry naturally, you will enable the disinfectant to do its job.
How to clean electronic plush toys
You may wonder how to clean electronic plush toys because you can’t toss them in the washing machine. Most plush toys operate via batteries, and if you immerse them in water, you may destroy the electronic circuitry inside.
Start by removing the batteries. Test an area of the toy for color-fastness by using a drop of water. When you blot the area with a clean cloth, the cloth must remain clean without any color bleed. If it remains clean, you can progress with vigor. However, if the color bleeds, you may only spot clean the plush toy.
Dip a clean cloth in warm soapy water and wring it out before working over the entire toy. If it fails the color-fast test, carefully spot clean the offending areas. You don’t want to soak the plush toy, so ensure you always wring out the cleaning cloth to remove excess water.
You may use a hairdryer to dry the plush toy once you complete the initial clean. Alternatively, you may leave the toy to air dry naturally.
Fluff up
While the plush toy may seem clean, it conceals many micro-organisms and bacteria that you cannot remove with bleach or wet wipes. Consequently, using a garment steamer to steam the toy may kill the vast majority of germs. Go over the item slowly but don’t soak the toy with steam. The steaming action restores the fluffiness of the toy.
Use the hairdryer to dry the toy before going over the toy one final time using your vacuum upholstery attachment. The action helps remove any debris and dust mites.
How to clean battery acid in electronic toys
When you remove the batteries from the toys, you may see corrosive damage inside the battery housing. Over time, batteries leak acid, which eats away at the electronic connections to leave behind a brownish, gloopy stain. The resultant damage may cause the toy to break down and be harmful to your baby if ingested.
The solution contained within the batteries may prove harmful to your skin, so wear a pair of rubber gloves when you clean the battery housing unit.
Use a small screwdriver to remove the signs of corrosion from the battery terminals. However, proceed with great caution so that you don’t damage the connections.
Use a clean cloth to wipe away as much of the remaining corrosion as possible. Dip the cloth in white vinegar and gently rub it over the terminals. It may fizz, but that is a normal reaction. Cotton buds may help if the space proves small.
Ensure you use as little of the vinegar as possible. You don’t want any solution to leak into the back of the housing and into the toy.
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Finishing touch
Use a clean cloth or clean cotton buds to wipe any remaining residue away and dry the battery compartment’s interior.
Don’t use any heat to dry the interior, or you may damage the connections and circuity. Instead, allow the interior to air dry naturally.
Finally, discard the old batteries because the corrosion may continue if you use them. Place new batteries into the toy and test it before you give it back to your baby.
How to Clean Baby Electronic Toys Explained
During our discussion, we learned how to clean baby electronic toys safely. And with a few simple steps, it’s not as daunting a task as you may think.
Spot cleaning plush toys with batteries using a mild soapy solution cleans any offending stains. By using a garment steamer on the toy, you may kill any lurking bacteria and dust mites. Using vinegar and a cotton bud to clean away the battery acrid inside the housing unit helps prolong the toy’s life and ensure its safety.