Fluffy, Squishy (Secret Ingredient) Slime
I first developed this amazing recipe for fluffy, squishy slime over three months ago, but to be honest, I was a bit nervous to share it.
It has a… non-conventional secret ingredient. But this is such an amazing sensory activity for kids that I simply had to share with you my secret recipe for what is possibly our favourite slime recipe yet.
Squishy Fluffy Slime Recipe
Seriously, if there is one sensory activity for kids that you try from my blog, I hope you try this one.
Beyond just stretching, squishing, pulling, and manipulating the slime, you can add cookie cutters, or alphabet beads, or small containers to extend your slime play. My kids will play with slime without any extra tools for over an hour if I let them, but if you have a sensory seeker like I do, you might need to encourage breaks in your sensory play so that they don’t get overwhelmed and make poor decisions… like putting slime in their hair… or dropping it on the floor…
If that does happen, vinegar will quickly and easily dissolve the slime from any fibers (in clothing, carpet, etc) or hair.
BONUS: Super shiny, soft hair… or carpet.
This recipe makes a giant batch of stretchy, fluffy slime so we took it outdoors for easy clean up.
If playing outdoors is not an option for you, you may want to make a smaller batch or play with this in a bath tub, on a vinyl tablecloth or in a paddling pool. Whatever you do, try not to play with this directly over carpet or you’re going to spend the whole time cringing as the kids gleefully shake their hands and drop tiny pieces of slime all over it.
(The slime isn’t quite as messy as some of these pictures make it look – we used our hands to mix the glue in the pictures where my daughter is wearing the black dress, so it was a bit messier. The pictures in the Minions shirt show a bit better that it is a cohesive, not-so-messy slime as I mixed it first before giving it to her.)
Prepare yourself for them to get a bit carried away and take measures to ensure that you’re not going to be upset or bothered by it. Just repeat to yourself, “Sensory play grows their brains. Sensory play stimulates their neural pathways.” And maybe have a calming cup of coffee or tea ready.
Slime can require a bit of experimentation and patience, especially if you’re still new to it. If you run into any slime fails, check out this troubleshooting post to help fix your slime.
Oh, and one last thing before we get to the recipe, I had to tell you that it’s finally here! I wrote The (Ultimate) Slime Book oozing with over 50 pages of stretchable, squishy sensory fun – including a year of seasonal slimes, edible slimes and unique ways to play with slime.
You can also purchase The Slime Book on Amazon.
Materials for the Fluffiest, Squishiest Slime:
- Water
- Liquid starch
- White glue
And, the secret ingredient? Diapers. Well, diaper crystals to be exact.
Oh, okay, and I’ve also discovered that Gelli Baff can be used in place of the diaper crystals, but we’re in that stage where we always have extra diapers on hand! I just made a video showing how to make this recipe with pink gelli baff, but it looks and acts the exact same way as our original diaper crystal slime. Watch it and then don’t forget to scroll down to grab your free printable recipe with exact measurements.
I know this might sound gross to some, but as someone who uses water beads and used disposable diapers, I don’t personally have an issue with these polyacrylate crystals. You could easily substitute crushed water beads for the diaper crystals if you’d prefer – but it won’t be quite the same.
To get the crystals out, simply cut the tops of the diaper off and shake the crystals out into a container. Pick out any bits of fluff and then add up to five cups of water to hydrate the crystals.
UPDATE: if you have access to Gelli Baff, we have found this to be a perfect substitute!!
I had the kids help me with every step of the slime-making process. This is a great sensory activity for kids to slow down and notice the differences between each stage of the slime’s progress. Even just the starting point of hydrated crystals is squishy, cool, and slippery, and can be played with for a decent period of time (or be a sensory activity all on it’s own).
Then, we added two cups of the glue and used our hands to stir it into the hydrated water crystals. Already, the mixture started feeling sticky and stretchy.
(This is also a good time for me to mention that we did this activity outside so that I could just hose everything off when we were done and not worry if the kids got a bit too messy with their play. You can of course use a spoon or spatula to mix the glue in to reduce the messiness of this activity.)
We added the liquid starch one half cup at a time. The more you work the liquid starch into the slime, the stretchier and more consistent it becomes – but you’ll want to keep adjusting the level of liquid starch until the mixture stops feeling sticky. (Check out Fun at Home with Kids’ awesome tutorial for troubleshooting slime.)
If you make this slime on your own and then present it to the kids, you won’t have to worry about the sticky bits of glue that you see on Ella’s hands – that’s more of a result from her hand stirring the actual glue.
The final slime mixture should not stick to your hands, and will just be squishy, stretchy, cool-to-the-touch fun!
Pin this Easy Fluffy Slime for the next time you need a unique sensory activity for the kids:
Grab your free printable recipe for our squishy, fluffy (not-so-secret-ingredient) slime:
Want to Save This Recipe?
Enter your email & I'll send it to your inbox. Plus, get great new recipes from me every week!
By submitting this form, you consent to receive emails from Sugar, Spice and Glitter.
Fluffy, Squishy (Secret Ingredient) Slime
A super squishy, stretchy and fluffy slime made with a unique ingredient - polyacrylate crystals found in diaper linings or gelli baff!
Materials
- 5 cups water
- 2-3 cups liquid starch (approximate)
- 3-3 1/2 cups white glue (approximate)
- 4 diapers (their crystals)
Tools
- Large container
- Spoon or spatula
Instructions
- To get the crystals out, simply cut the tops of the diaper off and shake the crystals out into a container.
- Pick out any bits of fluff and then add up to five cups of water to hydrate the crystals.
- Add two cups of the glue and stir it into the hydrated water crystals. Already, the mixture should start to feel sticky and stretchy.
- Add the liquid starch one half cup at a time. The more you work the liquid starch into the slime, the stretchier and more consistent it becomes - but you'll want to keep adjusting the level of liquid starch until the mixture stops feeling sticky.
Notes
UPDATE: if you have access to Gelli Baff, we have found this to be a perfect substitute for the diaper crystals.
Recommended Products
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
What do you think? Would you try “diaper slime” with your kids? Or is that just too far of a stretch for you?
(I know, I crack me up, too!)
And for more fun sensory play ideas, check out some of our other slime recipes:
This looks like such fun!!!!
This looks like so much icky fun!
Thanks for Sharing,
Haley
http://haleysvintage.com
This looks like a great activity. Since I used the water beads for sensory activity in my class, I do not have any problem using the diaper beads.
My question is… Where did you get the liquid starch?
I could not find it anywhere.
Thank you
Sorry, I thought I had replied!
In the States, liquid starch is in the laundry detergent area, but where I live (Canada) I’ve never been able to find it, so if I run out of my supply from cross-border shopping, I use borax activated in warm water.
They have some at Walmart
yep
The stuff inside the diaper I used is different than the one you used. It’s just fluffy but did absorb water. Will it still work?What brand was your diaper?
There’s fluffy stuff, but in between the fluffy layer and the outer layer of the diaper, that’s where the little crystal beads are. I think I’ve used Pampers or Huggies? Plus a discount brand. It’s almost the texture of sand.
Have you ever tried saving what you made for a later time to play with it? If so, how? My toddler loves it but always wants to save for tomorrow but I never know if I can? Because I’ve tried with other gak and slime recipes and it never works. This one is by far her favorite but don’t really like the idea of using up so many diapers for a really fun sensory activity that keeps her engaged!
Yes! I just posted a slime experiment on Tuesday called “Frozen Snow Slime” (Frozen Arctic Slime) and what we did was FREEZE the slime and it preserved it perfectly! I haven’t tried it with diaper slime, but I’ll add that to our list of things to try soon 🙂
(Before, I would sometimes save it in a tupperware container, but it was always a bit stickier and runnier the next day. We’ve also put it in strong ziplock bags and squished it that way.)
PS – So excited to hear that this is her favourite – that makes it totally worth sharing 😀
make your slime in a container with an airtight lid and make sure to close the lid it will keep the slime the same as the day you made it for weeks
I tried it and quartered the recipe but it totally seized up, not stretchy. A) what did I do wrong and b) what size diapers did you use?
Too much starch – size of diaper shouldn’t matter, but I think we used 2 or 3s?
Hahaha. I scrolled down and saw the secret ingredient and laughed out loud. It’s 5 in the morning and I’ve been up since before 4:30, so maybe that’s why. I just wasn’t expecting diapers. This is awesome. Thank you for sharing!
Just made this yesterday and it was awesome!!! Thank you so much for sharing!
LOL I’m so glad you came back and tried it! It’s definitely one of our favourites!!! I just made an awesome “mud bin” for the kids this weekend with some other surprising ingredients, lol, I think you’d love it.
May I ask what type of diapers you used? I tried using my daughter’s and I couldn’t get the cotton part separate from any crystals. Help!!! LOL
Really it has too much fun while doing this squishy at home, really nice to see this post. thanks for this secret and also for sharing with us…
Thank you! I’m glad you liked it 🙂
Love the help you did for the kids that is nice for you to do that
This looks awesome!! I think you could also use “instant snow crystals” you can buy it on amazon for 14.00$ for 4 gallons. It is basically the same stuff that is put in a diaper. it is also super fun i use it in my preschoolers sensory table all the time. Thanks for sharing!
I am keeping my eyes on the store shelves waiting for those to appear so I can try swapping them in this recipe and will report back when I do!
Slime is not just for children – anymore! I am 62 and can’t wait to try the different recipes!
Thank you!!
Frizzy Lizzy
LOVE THAT!!! <3 We have a ton of slime recipes on our site, so definitely let me know which ones are your favorite!
Hello. I see that you don’t update your site too often. I know that writing posts is boring
and time consuming. But did you know that there is a
tool that allows you to create new articles using
existing content (from article directories or other websites from your niche)?
And it does it very well. The new posts are unique and
pass the copyscape test. You should try miftolo’s tools
If you are going for finest contents like me, only go to
see this web site everyday for the reason that it presents
feature contents, thanks
We absolutely love your blog and find most of your post’s
to be just what I’m looking for. Does one offer guest writers to
write content for you personally? I wouldn’t
mind writing a post or elaborating on a few of the subjects you write related
to here. Again, awesome weblog!
Excellent blog! Do you have any tips and hints for aspiring writers?
I’m hoping to start my own website soon but I’m a
little lost on everything. Would you propose starting with a free platform like WordPress or go for a paid option? There are so many options out there that I’m totally confused ..
Any suggestions? Appreciate it!
We absolutely love your blog and find the majority of your post’s
to be what precisely I’m looking for. Do you offer guest writers to write content available for you?
I wouldn’t mind producing a post or elaborating on most of the subjects you write with regards
to here. Again, awesome blog!
Very clear website, thank you for this post.
I do trust all the ideas you have introduced in your post.
They’re really convincing and will certainly work.
Nonetheless, the posts are very short for novices. May just
you please lengthen them a bit from next time? Thanks for the post.
I believe this is one of the most vital information for me.
And i’m happy reading your article. However want to statement on few general things, The
website taste is wonderful, the articles is
actually great : D. Just right activity, cheers
Candid Photography has rising in recognition and demand.
We would like to thank you yet again for the beautiful ideas
you gave Janet when preparing her own post-graduate
research as well as, most importantly, pertaining to providing every one of the ideas in one blog post.
Provided that we had been aware of your web page a year ago, we would have been kept
from the pointless measures we were participating in. Thank you very much.
A motivating discussion is definitely worth comment.
I do think that you need to write more on this
subject matter, it might not be a taboo matter
but generally folks don’t speak about these topics.
To the next! All the best!!
I made the diaper slime with my science class and it did not turn out. I could not find the liquid starch so I made some with cornstarch and water. Could this have been the problem? My mixture was runny and never molded together to become stretchy. When I tried making it with my second class, I added the ingredients a small bit at a time to see if that would help, but it still didn’t turn out. My classes and I were so disappointed. I wish I knew what we were doing wrong.
hii very good article thanks for sharing keep doing the good work.
If you’re in the UK you can buy the glue from Office Stationery’s website. You can save some money using a code from https://www.moneysavingvouchercodes.co.uk/voucher-codes/office-stationery/