Taste-safe slime

As soon as I saw this idea on BlogMeMom I knew we had to try it. Stretchy slime that's completely taste-safe?! Brilliant! 

And in the name of research we made a couple of batches... I don't know if it's just me but every American blog measures things in "cups". To start with I thought they literally meant a cup. After *extensive* research I've now discovered that:

 1 cup = approx 250ml

This may well revolutionise a number of activities/recipes in the future! Lol

So what do you need?

Psyllium Husk

Water

Food colouring

You can read the original instructions HERE

Tips:

• Holland&Barrett sell a product called "Colon care". Mmmmm nice! Anyway that was the best PH I found as it wasn't coloured, was already powdered and is very pure
• I got more vibrant colours when I added the food colouring to the dry powder and whisked them together before adding the water
• some colours still looked quite dull compared to others despite this (not looking at anyone in particular... blue and green...)
• microwave for 3 minutes, then open door, shut and do 30 more seconds. Repeat until the total "Cook" time is 5 minutes. We have an 800W microwaves and this strategy worked perfectly without any "bubbling over". But if your microwave is stronger (or bowl is smaller!) then you might need to adjust the times - never leave the bowl unsupervised in the microwave unless you want slime everywhere!!

Each colour behaved slightly differently - the green was more stretchy whereas the red was a bit more ooze-y

Batch One

1 heaped tablespoon of PH

Food colouring

200ml water 

The yellowy/green one was the most stretchy

  

Animal play

The ducks soon moved in

Testing the stretch of the red one

Examining the transparency on the lightbox

 

Ooooo slimy

Surveying his finished set-up

Play taken outside

Each animal was carefully given some baking soda "food"

Followed by a vinegar "drink"

Next we added shaving foam "snow" and did some fine motor practice with tweezers

Fizzing snow

Batch Two

1 heaped tablespoon of PH

Food colouring

250ml water 

Making imprints

Streeeeeetchy

The ducks came out again :)

Verdict?

D seemed to like both batches the same (and was sooo excited when I said we were going to make more slime!). Batch 1 was much more stretchy longitudinally:

Batch 1 was super stretchy

But Batch 2 made cool squelchy noises (which D thought were hilarious) when he put his ducks into it. And it let us make better imprints :) 

Love his proud face at the good handprint he left behind :)

Both batches were nicest to play with on the day they were made as that's when they were at their most stretchy and pliable. Batch 2 was perfectly fine to play with over the next 3 days, when it accidentally got dropped on the floor and covered in fluff. Batch 1 never made it past the vinegar drenching...

Batch 1 by the end of the afternoon....

I love how activities like this are so fun but also educational. We talked about the different colours. D used the word "squishy" a lot. He quickly learnt that the harder he pressed in, the better the imprint when he let go. He realised that the more he stretched it, the longer it got and the more see-through it became. There were so many learning opportunities, all without even trying.

Talking about the colours

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So there you go, edible slime (although I wouldn't personally advise eating chunks of it for obvious reasons!!). Safe enough for a baby to play with:

Blurry pic - it's hard to keep up with her now she's crawling!

Squishing on the lightbox

Have you made any slime? What did you use and how did it turn out?

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Disclaimer: as with any activity involving your baby, use your own judgement and common sense. I always closely supervise any sensory play and always inspect items for wear/tear carefully before each playing session. Always make sure you are confident with the safety of whatever your baby is playing with.