Maybe A Sunflower. Or not.

AUTISM RESPONSE: Rubber ducks and other rubber bath toys can accumulate mold on the inside because of small holes underneath where moisture becomes trapped. The mold often goes unnoticed because it's not visible from the outside.

Squeeze all the water out of the toy at the end of bath time. My parents would make us kids do this ourselves to instill "clean up time" and "taking care of your shit," and then they would do an extra, just-in-case squeeze with grownup dexterity on anything they though we might not be able to squeeze effectively. If needed, give the toy a good whack up-and-down to encourage water from the extremities to move toward the hole.

If a toy can be disassembled, do that at the end of every bath.

Any cloth or foam toys should be hung up to dry so that air can circulate around all sides.

Large toys (like a water-safe baby doll) should be oriented with the hole facing down to let water drip out.

Try to have the toys live somewhere well-ventilated in-between baths (mesh bag, open basket with holes, etc.).

Check toys every so often for mold. Give them a good sniff and hold them up to a bright light. If they smell weird or have any dark patches that can't be accounted for by the toy's inherent design, they are probably moldy and should be thrown away.

Beware of prime suspects: Toys with odd or angular shapes, large toys with too-small holes or just 1 hole, toys with rubber or plastic that is so stiff an adult cannot easily squeeze it.

Give your kids cups, bowls, colanders/sieves, and ladles in the bath. This doesn't really stop mold, but it lets them practice drinking and fine motor skills without too much mess, uses stuff you already have, and may distract them from slurping out of the tub toys. Yes, it's fine if they drink a little tub water.

I know people will say their kid will be heartbroken if they have to toss a beloved-but-moldy toy. Bearing in mind that I'm not a child development expert, I would say it can be an opportunity to explore the concepts of change, loss, coping with undesirable situations, and caring for the health, safety, and cleanliness of ourselves and those around us in a low-stakes way. I absolutely remember a few tub toys having to go, and while I was sad, I was not traumatized by it in the least.

Try framing it as "[Toy] is moldy and icky inside. It is not the kind of icky we can clean. If we keep using [toy], it can make us sick, so the best choice we can make is to say goodbye to [toy.]" Maybe give them a day to say goodbye/grieve, thank the toy for all the good times, etc., before it goes in the trash (preferably in a bin the kids can't access).

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Progress.

"I took out flour from the bottom cupboard, a mixing bowl from the top cupboard, and eggs from the fridge" gives us something to picture, but it'd be more effective to say "I started baking the birthday cake, hoping it'd be ready before my sister showed up for her party." Even if the latter is 'telling,' it gives the reader more useful context.

That word DOES NOT MEAN you’re making it up. It doesn’t mean you’re imagining the symptom. What it means is that the symptom ISN’T DIRECTLY CAUSED BY ANY OF THE THINGS THAT WOULD NORMALLY CAUSE IT.

I fought to get a PCOS diagnosis for 2 and a half years. For the ENTIRE time I was fighting, I was dealing with 3 cysts that were not going away by themselves and eventually required surgery to remove. At one point close to the end of the battle, I suddenly went blind. I was visiting my parents and was standing on the veranda looking out over the tree we had planted in memory of my dog and suddenly I got one of the shooting pains that I was quite frankly used to at that point and my vision started to go dark. It was like the sun was setting while being completely hidden behind storm clouds but it was 2pm in the middle of Summer on a clear day. Within about 30 seconds I couldn’t see ANYTHING. I was 27 years old and I was screaming for my mother.

My mum raced me to her doctor (he was a 15 minute drive away as opposed to 45 minutes to the nearest hospital) and he quickly worked out that there was nothing wrong with my eyes and what had happened was totally unrelated to them. Then he said it was psychosomatic and I freaked out, yelling that I was NOT making this up and I definitely wasn’t imagining it. Very quickly he calmed me down and said he believed me and I had misunderstood. He explained that whatever was going on with my abdominal pains (he suggested PCOS which I hadn’t even heard of at that point) had been ignored for so long that my body was starting to do things other than the normal pain response to try to draw my attention to the problem. My sight going was my body basically jumping around in front of me going “HEY ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME HELLLOOOOOOO??????”

He gave me some prescription strength painkillers and my sight started to come back as soon as they started to kick in. About 45 minutes after it started I could see well enough to walk around without help and within a day and a half I was back to normal. On top of that I finally had a scan booked to figure out what the hell was causing all the pain.

A pledge of $5 to $10 per mile is usually considered very generous.