How To Make Slime That's Safe For Kids (without Borax Or Glue)

Inside: How to make slime that’s kid-safe — No glue, no borax, and no toxic chemicals! Everything you need to know to make edible slime. Over the past year and a half I’ve gotten a reputation as a “slime blogger” — and I’m totally ok with that! Slime may have started as a trend, but it looks like it’s here to stay! And why not - slime is easy to make and provides hours of fun, sensory play. We love it in our house and I love to show others how to make slime, especially slime recipes that are kid-safe, taste-safe, and worry-free!

Many of the traditional slime recipes that you’ll find on the internet are glue-based and use borax or contact lens solution as an activator. The result is super-stretchy, long-lasting slime - awesome stuff! BUT - if you have young kids, you might worry about exposure to the chemicals used in these glue & borax slimes. When we first started making slime, my youngest daughter was two years old and still in the stage where she wanted to put everything in her mouth. And of course she didn’t want to miss out on any activities that her older sister did, like making slime!

So those glue slimes were out of the question. Instead, we started making slime with simple kitchen ingredients. That way I didn’t have to worry about the girls touching or tasting any harsh substances. Our first edible slime recipe turned out so fantastic, that I shared on my blog last year. That first recipe, Edible Silly Putty, was our most-visited post of all in 2017! This kid-safe slime recipe changes colors when you mix it, and you only need 3 simple ingredients! You might also like this Edible Pudding Slime recipe, which has been shared hundreds of thousands of times on Facebook and Pinterest. We love this variety because it’s soft like play dough, but stretches like slime!

Oh, and it smells amazing! For our edible slime recipes, we almost always use corn starch as our base. When mixed with a liquid, like water, cornstarch becomes what is known as a “non-Newtonian fluid.” In super-simple terms, a non-Newtonian fluid exhibits properties of both a liquid and a solid. In fact, the substance formed by mixing cornstarch and water is known as Oobleck, one of the most classic slime recipes of all time. It’s actually the first type of slime that I made as a kid! We love to make slime using cornstarch because of it’s morphing physical properties, and also because it is safe to touch and taste.