It is not surprising – and already proven – that most parents wash their car seats just a few times a year. With parents allowing their kids to eat while strapped in, it is also not surprising that you find food remnants crammed in the tiny crevices of their seats.

Car seats are breeding grounds of bacteria as the food remnants and can you imagine the potentially dangerous bacteria lurking in the car seats?

What to do: It is not enough to only give the car seat exterior a wipe-down or vacuum the fabrics. Food remnants, miniature toys and hair clips often slip through the gaps into the interior and for a thorough clean, it’s best to dismantle the seat and clean the parts individually. If this seems too overwhelming or time-consuming, you can get a specialist cleaning service such as PramWash to do it for you. 

Besides car seats, baby prams are also storing grounds for food remnants, stains and spills, therefore encouraging the rapid growth of bacteria and creating an unhealthy environment for newborns and toddlers.

What to do: To combat spills or vomit, it’s wise to keep a pack of antibacterial cleansing wipes on hand, such as Dettol Anti Bacterial Wet Wipes that you can whip out in a jiffy. Quickly clean as much as you can before you are able to attend to it properly at home.

Same thing, if you do not have the expertise to dismantle and then reassemble the baby stroller after cleaning, you can always engage the services of a cleaning service that specialises in baby equipment.

Any parent knows how ridiculously messy it can get when they allow their child to feed himself while he is seated in his high chair. More often than not, you will find more food in their high chair than in their belly when you pull them out.

You may wipe down the tray and seat but often we don’t clean the straps at all. Overtime, they will become stained and greasy and you may be exposing your kid to dangerous bacteria.

A study of restaurant high chairs (which are not deep-cleaned regularly) found that the dirty children’s seats harboured more germs than a public toilet seat!

What to do: Wipe down the high chair tray and seat after each meal and do a deeper clean of the whole chair (including straps) at least once a month.

Think back to the time you needed to turn on the sink because you had to wash your hands? That is the reason why coliform bacteria are found on bathroom faucet handles.

If you do not have a touchless faucet in your bathroom, then the faucet handles in your home may be some of the germiest places your child is getting in contact with.

What to do: Simply apply some dish soap on the faucet, use a clean piece of cloth damped with warm water and rub it gently everywhere on the faucet and around the handles. Now, use a dry cloth to clean off the soap.

Backpacks travel to places – school buses, toilet cubicles, classrooms – and get tossed on the floors before they wind up home again when your kid comes back from school.

Unless you are diligently washing your child’s backpack frequently, it is likely that these germs have built up over time. For hygiene and precaution, avoid placing backpacks on kitchen tables or other surfaces where you eat.

What to do: Add a small amount (1-2 tbsps) of gentle detergent as the washer fills with water. Wash the backpack in cold or lukewarm water, using the washer’s delicate or gentle cycle.

A lot goes into cooking a meal and chances are, when you are cooking up a storm in the kitchen, it can get messy. 

You could be preparing that raw chicken or unwashed produce and realised that you left something in the fridge and proceed to open the fridge by its handle and take whatever you need out – with hands that have touched the same raw chicken that could have bacteria on it. 

Your kid could be lurking near or sneaking into the fridge for sweets and chocolates, like he always does.

Besides the fridge’s handles, microwave buttons can also collect germs from unwashed hands, when they are not cleaned often enough.

What to do: Cleaning buttons, knobs and handles can be as simple as wiping them down with a sanitising solution. If they have a bit more grime, you may need to use soap and water to cut through the grease and grime.

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Many of your pet’s favourite objects are also cesspools of germs.

If your kid loves playing fetch with the dog, he is highly susceptible to all the germs that can collect on the dog’s toys, as well as his food and water bowls. Pet food bowls are also nasty sources of germs and are not washed often as we would like.

All household members should wash their hands after playing with pets and handling their toys, especially before meals or food preparation.

What to do: Use a separate cloth or sponge that is only used for your dog’s bowls. Rinse the bowls clean with dish soap and water. You may also be able to find pet-friendly cleaning solutions at the pet store that are specifically designed to clean dog toys.

You take your smartphone with you everywhere you go, day and night. You pick up your smartphone numerous times throughout the day. It is a breeding ground for germs and a cesspool of bacteria. Same goes for tablets. 

And often you pass the mobile phone or tablet to your kid to keep them entertained. This exposes them to petri dishes of bacteria.  

What to do: When cleaning your electronic device, do not use straight alcohol as that can damage the display and other ports. The safest bet is to use disinfectant wipes that contain 70 per cent isopropyl alcohol to clean your phone screen. 

In the past, we were instructed to not use disinfectant wipes on our phone screens, but now Apple says it is OK to use Clorox Disinfecting Wipes and others with similar concentrations such as Cloversoft Organic Antibacterial Wipes. Samsung has not commented on whether it is safe to use disinfectant wipes on its phones.

Our kids’ sporting mats, bags and equipment often get into contact with sweat, saliva and grease after a workout or game. They may also be tossed on the floors of dirty locker rooms and gyms. 

Sweaty gym clothes that are forgotten in gym bags also become breeding grounds for both mould and fungus. They can also harbour the virus that causes cold and flu bugs.

What to do: Make sure to wash and dry them in the sun often, especially sports gear that are prone to contact with grease, sweat and saliva. 

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Lunch boxes can be bacteria breeding grounds too, when they are not washed properly. Thanks to improper food storage techniques and lack of cleaning, cloth lunch bags can have unattended food stains and hard plastic lunch boxes can harbour nasty bacteria like E. coli and salmonella.  

What to do: To clean a lunch box, wash using a sponge and warm, soapy water and let it air dry. To deodorise a smelly lunch bag or box, leave baking soda in it overnight, then dump it out and wipe clean in the morning.

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Text: Sheila Chiang