Bath time is such a cute and fun time, filled with splashing, laughter, getting clean, and of course lots of cute baby bath toys.

If you use cute little squeeze toys in the bath, your kids might not be getting clean from the bath – in fact, they might be covered in bacteria and fecal matter as a result of those cute little toys.

How cute is this toy!

Now, check it out when I cut it open, YUCK!

Here’s a closer look.

Check out this study in nature.com: Ugly ducklings—the dark side of plastic materials in contact with potable water

I think that Bruce Lee in Forbes sums up the results better than I can:

The results were duck, duck, gross. The inside of every toy had a dense biofilm, which is not a movie about biology but a slimy layer of bacteria. While in many cases this bioflim was dark-colored as a result of concurrent mold growth, a number of the biofilms were clear and transparent. There was lots of bacteria and fungi, as many as 75 million cells per square centimeter. Many different types of bacteria and fungi were present. Some of them were potentially harmful to humans. Possible disease-causing bacteria included Pseudomonas aeruginosa, E. coli, and various species of Listeria, Enterococci. Klebsiella, Chlamydia, and Clostridia. Possible disease causing fungi included Phialophora and Cryptococcus.

Gross right!!

So, what can you do??? I see it three ways:

One: Who cares? You probably grew up with these toys, and you turned out fine.

Personally, I can’t see going this route after looking into that pink elephant bath toy above.

Two: Clean out your toys once a week, and after they are used try to get all the water out of them, and leave them to dry in a dry space.

This seems like too much work for me, and I can’t see getting the inside dry enough to not form mould.

Three: Throw out all your squishing bath toys, and clean your other ones regularly.

This is what we are doing.