There is really no point in sterilizing toys and rattles. The rule of thumb is to keep the house's general hygiene up, and you will be doing just fine. Even by sterilizing, the child drops them on the floor, and within 10 minutes, the bacteria returns, and you are in the same boat. Common sense does apply though. If an adult is sick and wipes off a dropped rattle to hand off to the child for play, he might be adding more germs to the mix.

Actually, the hand sanitizers out today, the ones that evaporate into thin air without water, are pretty good to keep on hand. We are finding they are just as good or even better than antibacterial soaps.

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