Children's Museums Work To Stay Germ-Free

(NEWS CENTER) -- Children's museums are a place where kids -- and their parents -- are encouraged to touch anything and everything.  But as they do that, they could be spreading germs.

Staff at children's museums in the state are working to get rid of as many of those germs as they can.  "We're really making sure our surfaces get wiped down at the end of the day before the state of a new day," said Andrea Stark, the executive director at the Maine Discovery Museum in Bangor.

Stark says the museum has also added more hand sanitizers for patrons to use and there are kid-friendly posters in the bathrooms reminding them to wash their hands.

At the Children's Museum and Theatre of Maine in Portland, Lucy Bangor said in addition to having a cleaning crew come in each night, they put their hard props in the dishwasher every night and put their soft props, like stuffed animals, in the washing machine every night.

At both museums staff say there are also buckets where parents can place toys that have gone into mouths or been sneezed or coughed on.

Parents at the museum in Bangor say they appreciate the cleaning, but they also recognize there's only so much places like the museum can do.

"If we spend the whole winter locked in the house, we're all going to go crazy," said Amanda Sidell of Levant, as Soren, 2, played.  "So got to get him out and get him playing, and hopefully they don't catch anything."

Stark said she has seen attendance numbers drop, but she's not sure whether it's due to illness or the recession.  "We're seeing that not only here, but at other museums across the country," she said.  "It's of concern, certainly."

Staff at both museums ask that parents use common sense and if their kids are sick they not go to the museum.