Even if you are not paranoid about the mess and germs around you, once you bring home your newborn, you’ll transform into the tidiest person you’ll ever be. You’ll always ask yourself, is the surface clean? Are their toys and other stuff sanitized?
Your kid’s hygiene and cleanliness of their surroundings are crucial in keeping them safe and healthy. So for new parents, there is no need to panic. In this blog post, we’ll share some tips for effective cleaning solutions you can use at home.
How Often Should Your Clean Baby’s Things?
If parents can stretch the hours of the day, surely they will delegate time to clean all the baby’s stuff around the house. But how frequent should you clean your kids’ belongings?
Newborns are messy. As a rule, when items are visibly dirty, you should clean them immediately. So you’ll often find yourself throwing clothes after clothes in the washer daily.
For Feeding Essentials
Items that babies put in their mouths, like teething toys, feeding items, bottles, and pacifiers, are high-frequency cleaning items. These items can incubate bacteria that can go directly into your baby’s mouth. As such, they should always be cleaned and sanitized daily and after use.
For Playing and Changing Items
For areas your kids frequently use, like play mats, changing pads, and cribs, you can clean them as often as possible. It can be hard to keep a routine of cleaning things, especially with a newborn around. Deep cleaning doesn’t have to be done every day. Just wipe the surfaces with warm soapy water or disinfecting wipes to keep them clean.
For Sleeping Covers
Meanwhile, you can change the bedding for your children as needed or at least every two weeks.
Best Ways To Clean Different Baby Essentials
It’s crucial to clean your child’s belongings, especially if they have poor immune system. Cleaning is the best way to prevent sickness caused by bacteria and filth. So here are some of the best tips for cleaning baby play mats and other baby essentials.
Infant Feeding Items
Cleaning your kid’s utensils, baby bottles, teething toys, and other feeding items is a part of healthy and safe feeding routine. You use many feeding items for your baby, and it can be frustrating when they pile up for cleaning.
You can put the feeding bottles into boiling water for cleaning. Meanwhile, you can place other feeding items inside the dishwasher to save you from all that scrubbing. Just make sure that your kid’s items are dishwasher safe, so you don’t damage them. Some feeding items have particular instructions for cleaning, so be sure to consider them, too.
Fabric Items
Fabric items such as bedding, mattress, and seat covers should be spot cleaned, though it’s a lot of work to clean them every time. In most cases, covers only get dirty in certain spots. If it’s not big, all you need to do is run the spot with soapy water and let them dry for cleaning. Most covers are machine safe, so you can throw them in for quick cleaning.
As for baby clothes, clean them like regular adult clothes after every use. Babies have sensitive skin, so use fragrance-free and baby-safe detergents to avoid skin irritation. You can always throw your kid’s clothes in the same pile as yours. But if the normal detergent doesn’t sit well with your kids, it is better to separate their clothes for laundry.
Surfaces
When your kids start to crawl and walk, they will reach out to every surface possible. So it’s imperative to maintain cleanliness. Surfaces are often simple to maintain. You can dilute the bleach solution in soap and water and wipe them to disinfect them.
Always remember to wipe them or let them air dry, so they don’t get slippery. For baby foam playmats, use a washcloth with soap and cold water. Warm water can ruin the foam and compromise its quality.
Baby Toys and Stuffed Animals
You can’t get away with baby toys and other plush toys if you have kids. You’ll have tons of them, and your kids will play and sleep with them for a long time. You can soak plastic toys in warm water and soap once every two weeks to keep them clean. Unless your kids use them in their mouth, we advise cleaning them every after use.
- Plush Toys. You can wash plush toys in the washing machine, but not frequently because it can ruin the baby’s toys. A pro tip for parents is to put plush toys in a laundry bag and put the machine in a gentle cycle. This will preserve your baby’s toys and guarantee to keep them dirt free.
- Bath Toys. Pay attention to bath toys as well. These toys are more likely to be consumed by your children. Don’t forget to dry them. Especially rubber toys with holes in the bottom. It can develop molds that can harm your kids when ingested.
3 Must-Have Items for Cleaning
Stock up on the right cleaning supplies if you want to take cleaning to the next level. Take note of this checklist, so you can add these to your cart next time you shop.
Mild Laundry Soap
You probably have loads of laundry soap in your house. But for your baby’s delicate skin, it’s best to use soaps that contain as few chemicals as possible, even if they don’t develop irritation. High chemical concentrations can also harm their respiratory system. As much as possible, get laundry soaps made with less fragrance and natural ingredients.
Switch to Eco-Friendly Bottle Cleaners
When cleaning your kid’s bottles, observing your soap’s ingredients is important. Regular dish soap may contain harmful ingredients. Switch to eco-friendly soaps designed to clean baby bottles and other feeding items.
Use Environment-Friendly Disinfectants
Disinfectants are must-haves when it comes to cleaning different surfaces like cribs, mattresses, play mats, car seats, and even toys. The key to purchasing cleaning materials for your kids is looking for organic ones. Little kids are still early in their developing stage. Even weak chemicals can impede their development and growth.
You can also explore DIY disinfectant solutions with ingredients you can easily find at home. For example, lemon mixed with vinegar is an all-natural disinfectant that can kill common viruses and bacteria to protect your kids.
Final Thoughts
You can turn into the most dirt-conscious person when you have children. It’s normal. Parents only do what’s best for their kids, so everything, even cleaning, should be flawless. We hope these tips help you with the unending task of cleaning after your kids.
In addition, if you are looking for high-quality baby essentials, don’t forget to browse Ashtonbee’s wide collection of baby items. We have feeding tools, sleeping accessories, high chairs, safety accessories, and many more. Shop with us today!
