Who can be looked after from soft toys. Caring for children's toys: rare, but accurate

Memories of childhood are inextricably linked with our favorite toys that remain with us for many years. Shabby, smeared, they stand on the shelves and give a magical feeling of carefree and happiness. Therefore, it is not surprising that many parents “inundate” their children with all sorts of new products, turning the house into a warehouse of toys that require careful care.

Particular attention should be paid to toys played with by children under 3 years of age. Exploring the world with the help of their mouths, babies collect all the microbes that live on rattles, cubes, cars or dolls. To avoid this, you need to follow simple rules.

• All toys after the store are subject to mandatory water procedures. If everything is clear with regard to simple plastic and rubber toys (wash with soap and dry well), then with musical and similar devices things are different. In this case, every home should have hydrogen peroxide, alcohol tincture or chamomile, which is famous for its antibacterial properties. By wiping gifts for the baby with one of the proposed solutions, parents will protect him from harmful microorganisms.

• Another option for a safe means of caring for toys is soda, the solution of which is an excellent disinfectant. To prepare it, you need to dissolve 4 tablespoons of soda in a liter of water. Soak a cloth in this solution and wipe the toys.

• Toys should be thoroughly washed once every two weeks.

• Running around and washing every toy that ends up on the floor is unrealistic. It is better to arrange a common bath for the child’s “grimy” friends, bringing them all together during the day. For this purpose, an empty bag will be suitable, which will contain all toys that require hygiene procedures. This bag should be kept at a distance from the baby.

• Outdoor toys must be stored separately. The ideal option is outside the apartment, so that the child is less tempted to play with them at home.

Caring for plastic and rubber toys

This type of toy is probably the easiest to care for. Baby soap and warm water are the main helpers in keeping rubber bunnies and plastic cubes clean. If the child is less than a year old, then an additional procedure is scalding with boiling water, which will remove all germs for sure.

After water activities, toys must be thoroughly dried with a clean cotton towel. It leaves less lint on children's products.

Caring for soft and textile toys

Fluffy and unusually soft... many people know that such toys are unsafe for small children, but they can’t resist buying them. Decorating a nursery with a teddy bear is easy, but taking careful care of it is more difficult.

• First of all, soft toys should be washed frequently in a machine on a delicate cycle, after placing them in a special bag. In its absence, ordinary nylon tights are suitable, helping to avoid dishevelment. You can also hand wash using baby soap or shampoo.

• If frequent washing gets boring, then it is better to periodically subject the hares and bears to cold therapy by placing them in the freezer overnight. Not all microbes are able to withstand such a procedure, so there is no need to be especially afraid of a child’s close friendship with furry friends.

• Another option for keeping soft toys clean is ordinary soda. Just sprinkle it on plush animals, leave for 15 minutes and then shake and vacuum, and your favorite “fluffies” become safe for children.

• For children with allergies, the best way to clean soft toys is dry cleaning.

Caring for wooden toys

Warm soapy water is used again. The main thing to remember is that wooden toys cannot be kept in water for a long time - they get wet there and lose their appearance. The entire washing procedure should take place very quickly, followed by mandatory drying.

Bath toys

Toys bring joy to children and help them develop. Along with them comes an understanding of friendship, because often the first friend becomes a gifted teddy bear or a hare, to whom all secrets are entrusted. To ensure that toy buddies bring only joy to your child, you should take care of caring for the toys.

Toys accumulate dust very quickly. Doctors advise cleaning soft toys once a week. To ensure that cleaning does not damage the toy, you should choose the optimal cleaning method.

BEFORE CLEANING you must:

Remove visible dirt. You can use a Velcro brush, adhesive tape, or a stiff piece of adhesive tape.
- Braid or tie with an elastic band threaded hair, manes and other parts that easily get tangled.
- Check the fastening of parts, remove clothing, remove battery-powered mechanisms.

AFTER CLEANING you should:

Check again the fastening of small parts and parts of toys.
- Comb the toy and dry thoroughly. It is better to comb toys both wet and dry with a brush with thick bristles.

Methods and methods for cleaning toys
1. Wet cleaning

Washing in a washing machine
If the toy says it is machine washable, run it on a delicate cycle. Toys should only be washed with baby powder at a temperature of no more than 30-40°C. You can add a little baby fabric conditioner.

We should not forget that all toys should be washed only in a laundry bag or tied in a pillowcase. It is recommended to turn off the spin cycle or set the spin cycle to the lowest possible speed. To prevent the toys from fading and the colors to remain bright and saturated, you can add citric acid to the washing powder.

Manual cleaning
This method is used when the toy is very large, has glued parts or padding made of heterogeneous material.
You will need a clean sponge or piece of soft cloth and baby shampoo.
After dissolving the shampoo in sufficiently warm water, beat the solution until soap bubbles form. While soaking a sponge in this water, carefully clean the soft toy, being careful not to let it absorb too much liquid. Rinse the sponge as often as possible to actually remove dirt and not just smear it all over the toy.

Wet cleaning of knitted and knitted toys becomes more difficult. Wool can shrink when in contact with water and therefore become deformed when dry.

How to dry toys:

Hanging in a well-ventilated area.
- Drying on a warm, but not hot (up to 40°) radiator.

2. Dry cleaning

This method is more convenient for cleaning several toys at a time. You will need a large plastic bag, a soft brush and starch or baking soda (about half a cup for 2-3 medium-sized toys).
Place 2-3 toys in a bag and add baking soda or starch. After closing the bag tightly, shake it quite vigorously for about a minute. After this, take out the toys and brush them with a soft brush to remove starch or soda along with dirt.

3. Dry cleaning

There are two types of dry cleaning: dry and wet. When dry cleaning, special chemical solvents are used to remove dirt: most often perchlorethylene (ethylene chloride), less often hydrocarbons, gasoline, monofluorotrichloromethane or trifluorotrichloromethane. It has been proven that items dry cleaned with a solvent continue to emit harmful fumes for up to 3 months.
“Wet” cleaning is a water treatment. In this case, dirt is removed with special detergents without solvents. To completely remove detergents, items are thoroughly rinsed.

If the toy fell in the clinic, was in contact with an infectious patient and there was a need for thorough deep cleaning, use the following methods.

4. Steam cleaning

First, you should remove dust and dirt from the toy with a sticky roller, which is usually used for cleaning clothes.
Place the toy over a pan of boiling water or a kettle (in an electric kettle, you can open the lid so it doesn’t turn off), spray all parts of the toy with steam.

5. Exposure to low temperatures

It's not just dust that accumulates in soft toys. Dust mites and many pathogenic bacteria die at temperatures below – 10° C.
By placing the toy in a plastic bag and leaving it in the freezer overnight, you will not only kill the unpleasant inhabitants of the toy, but also refresh its appearance.

If the toy does not fit in the freezer, then only winter can help. Hang the bag with the toy out the window when it’s very cold outside

A child hugging a teddy bear, cat or other animal is a very familiar, correct and cozy picture. However, if at the same time the toy looks “brand new” (and a label dangles below that did not manage to get under the scissors), then the plush gift was probably in children’s hands quite recently. A shabby and slightly wrinkled look is an indispensable companion of the “most” among the entire toy battalion of a child. However, in addition to the loss of beauty, a soft pet over time simply collects dust, dirt, and even receives uninvited “guests” in the form of microbes and tiny dust mites.

If, at the mention of the latest insects, you frantically remember how many plush toys are now lying around in your child’s room without being cleaned for a long time, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with the various ways to remove dirt from soft children’s pets. Some of the methods are suitable for that group of hares that keep watch on the back of the sofa, while others are suitable for a beloved animal that does not leave children’s hands and requires special attention and respect.

Before washing

When a child comes to you asking you to remove the tags and tags from a new toy, don’t rush to throw all that traditional framing in the trash. If you purchased an incomprehensible big-eyed animal of unknown nationality, the attached pieces of paper may well indicate what kind of animal the Chinese designers worked so hard on or how they christened this species unknown to official science.

WE TRAIN A CHILD TO CARE FOR A PET

The composition of the product is also indicated there. Although the most harmful materials are still unlikely to be admitted, it is good to know what exactly is being sent into the hands of the child. Well, the most important and significant thing you need to remember from these cardboard pieces of paper is whether the toy can be washed in a machine. You can safely put the rest out of your head.

The thing is that cleaning in a washing machine is the easiest and least labor-intensive method for parents. However, not all plush toys can be sent to the machine. In fact, a fairly small proportion of all soft toys produced can withstand such washing without losing shape, color or overall neat appearance. Particularly vulnerable are those that have a lot of glued elements, “drawn” plastic eyes (they will definitely get scratched!) and other loosely sewn little things. And those that are like Winnie the Pooh - with sawdust inside or inserts made of other materials.

One more thing: if your child’s favorite toy is a colorful one that, when pressed on the leg, sings a song about friendship, then before washing you will have to take scissors, make an incision along the seam and carefully remove the sound element. By the way, this is a good reason to change the batteries if the toy no longer “sings,” or to remove the “music box” altogether if your nerves can no longer stand these annoying sounds.

Washing machine

Can this durable-looking plush friend be washed in the washing machine according to the instructions? Still, sending him to wash along with his duty shirts and pants would be a bad decision. Toys should be washed on the most delicate cycle with a minimum number of spin speeds (or better yet, without it at all). Recommended temperature is 30−40 degrees. At the same time, dust mites are completely destroyed only at 50-60 degrees, but we will tell you below how you can still deal with them.

It is very advisable to place a soft companion in a laundry bag, or its alternative - a nylon stocking, this will partly protect the fur from matting. Don’t be lazy to turn on the extra rinse function, if your washing machine has one - this will help completely wash the powder out of the fur.

Be sure to tell your child that even though his plush cat is spinning in the drum now, a living Murzik cannot be washed like that.

Handwash

Does the toy label say that it is not machine washable? It’s even better, because the opportunity to arrange a bubble bath in a basin for your favorite bear is also a good excuse for an interesting children’s game, which will become an act of caring for your pet. It may be plush, but still in need of cleanliness.

In addition to a basin or sink with warm water, you will need a sponge (or cloth) and detergent to give your toy a cleansing bath. Feel free to choose the latter from the household assortment: baby soap or powder, regular shampoo or laundry soap are good (after it, it is better to additionally rinse the toy with a “delicious” shampoo - it is unlikely that the child will be happy with the smell of a nondescript alkaline classic). The main thing is not to choose products with chlorine and bleaches.

Drying

Stock up on clothespins - the correct way to dry “buns” washed in any way is in a suspended state. By the way, from the balcony and even from under the ceiling of the bathroom there is an excellent view - do not forget to remind your child that in the few hours that he will spend without his pet, the latter will see a lot of interesting things. The only toys that should not be dried like this are knitted ones. When stretched, the threads will shrink, so the hare knitted by your grandmother will be properly dried in a horizontal position, for example, on a laid out towel. But there is no point in putting your plush companions on a hot radiator - the fur may become matted, and the animal itself may become askew.

Dry cleaning

A simple and angry option that not everyone knows. To carry out such an execution, you will need a not too dirty toy (serious stains cannot be dealt with without water, but general dustiness can be dealt with quite well), a plastic bag of a suitable size and half a glass of soda.

The toy along with sodium bicarbonate should be shaken in a tied bag for about three minutes. We are not sure that it is worthwhile for a child to be present; the spectacle may not be very life-affirming for a soft pet. But after removing the pet from the bag, you need to clean off the remaining soda with a dry brush and hand it to the child with the words “here, he survived everything.” A good finishing touch and “reward” for the persistent hero would be a drop of perfume to fight off the not-so-pleasant smell of the cleaning product.

Dry cleaning

The most radical, reliable and at the same time financially expensive option is to clean your plush companion. It is usually chosen when there are very hopeless and terrible stains on the toy, which could not be removed at home.

We should also mention aqua-cleaning - an expensive pleasure using environmentally friendly, delicate technology. All dirt from the toy is removed exclusively by natural methods, the animal is not deformed and does not lose color. By the way, this is the most effective and safe method of cleaning things for allergy sufferers.

Washing a toy is also a good reason for an additional “general inspection.” Check all the seams, pull the ears, tug on the buttons and bows. Everything that comes apart and dangles needs to be hemmed and strengthened. The more intact and beautiful the toy is, the longer it will bring joy to your child.

Interesting

Your child is surrounded by an incredible variety of things that, at first glance, do not need care. Often these items include toys.

Usually a fairly large number of them accumulate in a room, and it is very important to take care of them so that they not only delight the baby with their beauty, but also do not serve as accumulators of dust and harmful microbes.

How to care for wooden toys?

Wooden toys should be carefully wiped with a damp soft cloth., which must first be moistened in a soap solution. Regular baby soap or even laundry soap will do.

If you are confident in the durability of the toy’s paint, you can soak a cloth in a weak solution of vinegar. This will be an additional disinfectant. There is no need to use bleaches or caustic agents as they can change the appearance of the wooden toy.

Do not immerse wooden toys in water for a long time: this may lead to irreversible deformation of the product and the toy will have to be thrown away. Dry the toy thoroughly after cleaning.

Photo source: avivas.ru

How to care for interactive toys?

• Soft interactive toys Can be washed using a regular washing machine using powder or gel for washing colored laundry. However, this manipulation can only be carried out if it is possible to obtain electronic mechanisms and batteries.
• Those toys that cannot be washed can be neutralized from germs by freezing in a freezer or drying in the sun. Exposure to cold or heat should not be prolonged so that the mechanism is not damaged.
• Plastic or rubberized interactive toys can be wiped with a damp cloth, and then be sure to wipe dry.

Photo source: kakotvet.com

Caring for Outdoor Toys

This type of toys requires special daily care, because like nothing else they are subject to constant contamination, especially in the spring and summer.

• Outdoor toys should be washed daily, with a large number of detergents and disinfectants.
• Outdoor toys should be stored separately from your baby's other toys; it is best if there is a box or bag in the hallway for storing them.
• Periodically inspect these toys and throw away broken rakes and shovels, as well as those items that cannot be washed.

Photo source: avivas.ru

How to care for soft toys?

• Stuffed toys can be vacuumed, no matter how surprising it may be. Vacuum the toy with a detergent or regular vacuum cleaner using various attachments. If the toy is especially beloved and the child often plays with it, this procedure should be repeated as often as possible, at least once a week, so that the dust does not have time to settle.
• Toys can be washed by hand. In a basin or bathtub, whip up foam from baby soap, shampoo, dishwashing detergent, and then wipe the toy’s fur with a brush or sponge. You need to rinse the sponge or brush as often as possible so as not to smear, but to wash away the dirt. Dry the toy on the radiator, and then carefully comb the fur.
• There is a dry cleaning method. Place the toy in a plastic bag and pour 2 tablespoons of soda or starch into it. Now tie the bag and shake as intensely as possible. Rub and press the toy through the bag. After this, vacuum the toy.

Photo source: babyzzz.ru

• Soft toys can be washed in the washing machine on a delicate cycle. This is convenient because you can wash several small toys at once. The temperature should not exceed 30 degrees, and the washing time should be 30-40 minutes.
  Be sure to run the rinse cycle several times. This will help flush out the detergent. To prevent toys from becoming wrinkled, it is better not to wring them out after washing, but instead hang them on a clothes dryer. Wait until the water drains in this position, and then send the toys to dry on the battery.
• If your child has allergies and their favorite soft toy is too dirty, you can take it to the dry cleaner. There it is possible to remove germs and dust under the influence of steam.
• In winter, arrange preventive maintenance for your child’s soft toys. At a temperature of minus 15 degrees, harmful dust mites will be destroyed in a few hours.

Photo source: obigrushke.ru

How to care for plastic and rubber toys?

All plastic toys can be washed in warm water and baby soap.

If the baby is not yet one year old, and he often puts toys in his mouth, then it is necessary to scald the toys washed in soapy water with boiling water. After water procedures, be sure to dry the toys with a towel.

Photo source: krokha.ru

How to care for bath toys?

It seems that nothing could be simpler, because these toys seem to be bathed with the child almost every day. But no!

Undry toys become covered with a soapy film, which quickly becomes moldy.. And this is a direct threat to the baby’s health.

Therefore, after each bathing your baby, rinse the toys under running water and dry them thoroughly. For this purpose, there are special nets for storing toys in the bathroom.

Photo source: decorwind.ru

General rules for storing toys of all types:

1. Toys should be stored in specially designated places. These can be cabinets, wicker baskets, boxes, nets, drawers, etc. Children should also be involved in cleaning up small toys and placing dolls on shelves. This will turn cleaning into an exciting game. and later the child himself will be happy to clean his room, turning it into a fun game.
2. Periodically inspect all toys. Throw away broken toys if they cannot be repaired.. At the same time, check your craft supplies to ensure their suitability. There is no need to store dried paints and broken pencils.
3. Do not store toys that are inappropriate for the child’s age, It is better to give what he has grown out of to his younger brothers and sisters, and remove what he has not yet grown into from accessible places so that the child does not lose interest in the toy without even starting to play with it.

Photo source: queen-time.ru

Rules for caring for toys:

1. Be sure to wash your new toy in soapy water or baby detergent.
2. Plastic and rubber toys should be washed with soap and water at least once a week.
3. If you have a quartz lamp, place the toys on the couch when you quartz the room. This is ideal for caring for all types of toys.
4. Between general washing of toys, they can be wiped with damp wipes.
5. Wash woolen knitted toys in cool soapy water.
6. Teethers must be rinsed with boiling water or sterilized before use.
7. You don’t have to wash each toy separately; you can have a bag for storing dirty toys and “bathe” them as the bag fills up.

Photo source: www.pravda.ru

As you can see, caring for toys is not at all difficult, but you should not leave this matter to chance, because his health partly depends on what your child plays with.

Is it customary in your family to do general cleaning for toys?