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Munchkinis  a large household name, you’ve seen their products in big stores for years.  They produce a vast array children’s products, ranging from toys to baby slings.  I was very excited to have products from Munchkin as they are a leading accessory company for baby and toddler items.

For review, I received Muddy Pigs and Sea Squirts.

muddy-pigs7The Muddy Pigs are two small soft plastic pigs with an equally small washcloth. The pigs have “dirt spots” on them that are heat sensitive, so your child can “wash” off the spots while they are in the bath. The intention is to teach children better hygiene and motivate them to wash themselves. And to have fun in the bath, of course.

These brightly coloured bath toys are sure to get the attention of any child. Had the idea been to lick the fake dirt spots off the Muddy Pigs, my 7 month old daughter would have earned herself a gold star. To be fair, the packaging did recommend 9 months and older. So, the Muddy Pigs were passed on to my friend’s 3 year old, whose recent main bath time activity is to wash the sides of the tub while enjoying a soak. I might mention here that he has recently come off of a bath strike that forced his mother to bath him one tiny body section at a time over a period of a week, so this new bath time project sounded like the perfect toy to keep him interested. It worked! The toy was a hit with one main exception: the paint easily came off with a little normal three year old abuse. So, I would fully recommend that you keep these toys away from mouths of any age.

The Muddy Pigs are perfect for wee hands and seem to do exactly what they are intended to – to get the child interested in bathing. So far, by using the Muddy Pigs, my friend’s son will allow her to engage him long enough to wash the real dirt spots off without much of a fuss.

Muddy Pigs were voted as the 2009 Preferred Choice Award by Creative Child Magazine

squirter-crab_lgThe Sea Squirts are five little sea animals (a pelican, a crab, a sea turtle, a dolphin and an octopus) that fill with water by suction and then the children can squeeze the water out to squirt whatever comes in their path.

I mentioned that bath time can be a little bit of a challenge for my friend and her three year old, Thomas. Like the Muddy Pigs, these little sea creatures take the attention away from the actual bathing and puts the emphasis on the fun part of the bath. Thomas, like any young child, especially hated to have his hair soaped and rinsed, fearing that the soap would get in his eyes. The Sea Squirts were a great solution to this problem and he now looks forward to having the soap squirted from his hair. One word of caution here: in a fit of excitement and discovery, your child WILL get the idea to squirt you and they WILL think it is hysterical.

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These toys have some maintenance. We noticed that they had a tendency to collect water, leaving the water inside stagnant, slimy and rank. The solution was to take a small bowl of water and vinegar and wash the toys by playing in this gentle cleaning solution. The cleaning job was a bit of a project, but it engaged the three year old while we washed out the Sea Squirts. We are now careful to fully squirt out any remaining water at the end of bath time. And if we don’t get it all, we get to have a game of washing them out.

I contacted the company to ask about their plastics and whether they contained phthalates or lead in the paint they use. Here is most of their response:

The Munchkin 5 Sea Squirts and Muddy Pigs are made of a Phthalate-free Polyvinyl Chloride which is also BPA free. As well, the surface elements, including paint, used on the products fall within the acceptable standards as currently defined by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) International

You can find out how to purchase these toys at http://www.munchkin.com/or by visiting Wal-Mart.

Buy it: To purchase, visit Munchkin online

Giveaway: Munchkin would like to offer lucky My Wee View reader a package of Muddy Pigs

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Giveaway ends October 9th @ 11:59 pm PST. Open to US and Canada

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