Said It Here

How to clean the bottom of a toddler high chair tray

Black and pink gunk consistently builds up deep inside the crevices underneath the tray. Standard straw cleaning brushes are useless for reaching all the way up into these spaces because their wiry tips get in the way.

Overview
People affected2 accounts across 1 forum
Workarounds found11 items attempted
Community agreement3 total upvotes

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

11 items+ Contribute

Found another way around this?

Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.

  1. 1
    Using a steam cleaner to blast the tight crevices
    Did this help you?
  2. 2
    Soaking the tray in a bathtub and scrubbing the nooks with tiny reusable straw brushes or baby bottle brushes
    Did this help you?
  3. 3
    Putting the tray on the top rack of the dishwasher with the heated dry cycle turned off
    Did this help you?
  4. 4
    Hosing the tray off outside or taking it to a DIY carwash to spray it down
    Did this help you?
  5. 5
    Spraying the underside with Dawn Powerwash, letting it sit, and blasting it with a shower or sink sprayer
    Did this help you?
  6. 6
    Hand washing daily with hypochlorous acid spray and doing a deeper dishwasher clean weekly
    Did this help you?
  7. 7
    Folding kitchen paper and wriggling it around inside after soaking
    Did this help you?
  8. 8
    Using Dawn Powerwash followed by a Q-tip
    Did this help you?
  9. 9
    Using a baby bottle nipple brush because the bristles go all the way around
    Did this help you?
  10. 10
    Soaking in soapy water or bleach
    Did this help you?
  11. 11
    Putting it in the dishwasher
    Did this help you?
Tried another approach not listed above?+ Share your workaround ↑

In their words

Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.

r/CleaningTips2 people · October 2026

“Like alllll the way up in there. Straw cleaning brushes are useless because they have wiry tips.”source ↗

coconutsandmangos · r/CleaningTips · 5 upvotes

“How can we clean the bottom of our toddlers high chair tray? Consistent black and pink gunk build up”source ↗

Good_Assumption_4113 · r/CleaningTips · 1 upvotes

Where this came up

r/CleaningTipsappliancesbaby gearcleaninghygienekitchenparenting

People with this problem also raised