A nauseating video of a bath toy squirting out mold has emerged, in a sobering reminder that the plastic items need to be kept dry.
The clip, posted on YouTube, shows a pirate-shaped toy, which appears to be made out of plastic, with black chunks of mold coming out of the pirate’s mouth when the item is squeezed.
A concerned father shared the video in a bid to alert other parents as to how easily mold can form, and how they can prevent it from building up inside their children’s toys.
Yikes: A nauseating video of a bath toy squirting out mold into a sink has emerged, in a sobering reminder that the plastic items need to be kept dry
The clip begins with a clear view of the pirate-shaped toy, which is hollow and has a hole where the pirate’s mouth would be.
After pointing the toy towards the sink, the father then squeezes it, causing water and bits of mold to come out of the toy.
Bits of mold can clearly be seen at the bottom of the sink when the video ends.
While mold certainly doesn’t look appetizing, it usually isn’t harmful to health, as long as it is present in normal quantities.
‘There are thousands of mold spores in the air that we breathe every day. So, in a lot of ways, molds are just a part of our everyday environment and our system handles it quite nicely,’ Dr. Paul Williams, of Northwest Asthma and Allergy Center, told Babble previously.
Even if children do swallow some mold while playing with their bath toys, they should be fine.
Warning: A concerned father shared the video in a bid to alert other parents as to how easily mold can form, and how they can prevent it from building up inside their children’s toys
Demo: The clip, posted on YouTube, shows a pirate-shaped toy, which appears to be made out of plastic, with black chunks of mold coming out of the pirate’s mouth
Evidence: Bits of mold can clearly be seen at the bottom of the sink when the video ends
‘The likelihood of a child getting sick from this is close to zero,’ Dr. Lyuba Konopasek, an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at NewYork-Presbyterian / Weil Cornell Medical Center, told the website.
But parents might not be comfortable with the idea of their child playing with moldy bath toys, and as such, the father urged others parents to throw out any toy that doesn’t fully dry within approximately an hour.
‘All of this mold came out of this toy AFTER some had already squirted out in the bath, again onto a bath towel, and then what you see here,’ he wrote next to his video.
‘If I cut it open I’m sure I would find more. There is no way for these squeeze toys to dry completely so they sit, with water in them, in dark moist places—and it is mold paradise.
‘If you have any now, throw them out. If your kids insist on using them, throw them out after the first bath. They are cheap and there are better bath toys out there.’