How do you clean soft toys for new baby?

[Zana]

Hi,

I had picked up some soft toys (Lamaze Max the Money and other similar stuff) at the FAO shwartz closing sale. They were pretty much all over the floor and God knows how people handled them (but they were a bargain!). Anyway I am getting stuff ready for the baby and was wondering how to clean them. Most of them say that they should only be cloth wiped for cleaning. Is this sufficient? Is the washing machine completely out of the question? Whats the best thing to do before giving to the baby?

Thanks!

Zana

[August Mom]

I sucessfully machine washed most Lamaze toys like that and then let them air dry. I think Max has a contraption inside to make the squeaking noise so that may make machine washing taboo. After the initial period, I just surface wiped unless there was spit-up on the toy, it had been dropped outside or on the floor of a public restroom, etc. My mom also bought a toy sanitizer that I used at the beginning for soft toys.