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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:

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: