Throwing the baby out with the bath water...

OK, not the baby! (Not today anyway) Just everything else that goes into the bath in this house.

Firstly, you must understand that bath time here is A BIG DEAL. As soon as (if not before) dinner is done shouts of "BWATH TIME" ring out from the high chairs. Miss S jumps from her chair and races down the hall... If the bath isn't pre run and is there in all its bubbly glory then I am in trouble. "BWATH NOT WWEEADY!!!" Cue me to shovel as much food into Miss E and go and run the bath as quickly as possible. Miss E is mid air crawling before she hits the ground and takes off at breakneck speed (often face planting) to get to the bathroom and get a bubbling.
So it begins. Miss S throws each and every bath toy we own in the bath one by one and the next half hour is a screaming,splashing, laughing, taste of heaven to my two water babies. Generally each of them have a toy hanging from their mouths as they playfully drown each other and pretend to be "mermaid princesses".

Here lies my dilemma... I have become enlightened to the truth about plastic and have begun to reduce the chemical load in my children by creating a safer (and yes, less colourful) life. SO mummy has THROWN OUT ALL THE BATH TOYS.

Here is the serious stuff behind my drastic life altering decision. Many bath toys are made with phthalates, a class of chemicals that are used to plasticize toys. Although there is apparently no acute threat by phthalates, they have been linked to cancer, hormone disruption, kidney and liver damage and asthma. Bisphenol-A, another hormone-disrupting chemical, is also found in plastic toys. As we all would be familiar with in baby bottles. Here is Australia we are one of the last countries to phase out the sale of baby bottles that still contain BPA. Because these chemicals remain freely mobile in plastic, phthalates are ingestible and leachable so as my darling daughters are having a gnaw on the cute little water squeezy crab, they are ingesting these mean little chemicals.This has led some experts to recommend using no vinyl at all in the bath. So BYE BYE bad toys.


HELLO ... ummm hello.... boring bath with no toys??? UH OH. Mummy is now running around in a panic with nothing for these bath obsessed kids to play with...I am so worried about the look in Miss S's face when she runs into the bathroom after dinner to find... nothing. It would break my heart. So TA DAAAA (see pic). The only things I could find in the house that were suitable to put in the bath. Yes, they were dissapointed, but who doesnt like to cook in the bath? "Look honey! THIS wooden block can be a carrot and THIS one can be a potato and then we can put them in the bowl and stir it... " She looks at me like i am some sort of alien.. so last resort..... I overload on the bubbles and the screams and shouts and laughs returned much to my relief.

Now on my list.... some FUN, COLOUR FULL and EXCITING toys that are safe and not silently killing my children. These gorgeous BOON toys have made the list. And Im pretty sure the "cooking" set is here to stay as well. Happy safe bathing my girls. xox (dont hate me when your older)