Cleaning for Babies and Small Children

Whether you have an infant, toddler or preschooler at home, it’s important to understand cleaning priorities and practices as kids crawl, toddle and run. Focus cleaning efforts on key places for health and wellbeing and stay ahead of cleaning safety precautions.

Cleaning for Health

Parents with infants do, on average, a load of laundry a day. Parents with toddlers know anything within reach will be put in their mouths eventually. And as children get older, there are different things to focus on keeping clean, like toys and tablets. Pay attention to key cleaning moments (link) to help keep kids healthy, no matter their age.

Toy Cleaning

You want to make sure toys stay safe and sanitary for babies, toddlers and older kids. Here’s how:

• Wood or Plastic: These toys can be cleaned with soap and water. Sanitize them with a disinfectant wipe, making sure to follow the label directions for the contact time. Then rinse them with water and let them air dry.
• Plush: Most plush toys can be washed in the washing machine. Check the tag for instructions and use a gentle cycle. To dry them, you can use a hair dryer. Spot clean them between washes as needed.
• Electronics: These toys need to be surface cleaned with a cloth dampened by warm water and a little bit of soap. Then wipe them with a clean, damp cloth and let them air dry.

Remember to check the toys regularly for signs of damage and discard them if they are no longer safe.

Laundry

Babies come with an increase in loads of laundry and it may mean a change in your laundry habits. Regular detergent should be fine, but if needed there are also detergents formulated for sensitive skin or laundry soap designed specifically for babies.

And then as children grow, they get into all sorts of situations where stains can occur. To get out those common baby stains, you may want to use an enzymatic stain remover and let it sit before washing. The sooner you pretreat/soak the stain the better chance you have to having the stain fully removed. A quick and easy reference on how to treat and remove stains can be found on ACI's Stain Removal Chart.

Garment bags can also be useful for laundering small baby and child laundry items and keeping them together.

Safety Precautions

When using cleaning products, be sure to take precautions. Try to time deep cleaning for when children are not around.

• Never let children handle cleaning products
• Always store cleaning products up and out of sight and reach of children
• Always store cleaning products in their original container
• Always keep product containers securely closed

Did you know that the Poison Prevention Centers offer free, private, confidential medical advice 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? You can reach your local poison center by calling 1-800-222-1222. ACI suggests that you program this number into your home and cell phones in case of emergency.

Kid Friendly Chores

Getting kids involved in cleaning, safely, helps give them a sense of responsibility. Chores should never involve young children handling cleaning products. But there are plenty of other ways to help! Safe and feasible tasks will depend on the age of the child. Learn more.