In parent focus groups, books are generally thought of as clean, but just about any toy you put out will be looked upon as a germ carrier, even slides and those wire and sliding bead toys. Don't skimp on the waiting room, though. Your patients will often spend as much, or more time there than with you. Here is an idea. Devote one corner of the office to a play area, and make a theme. The obvious theme is to build a little doctor's exam room. Tell your medical supplier to order you ten $9 stethoscopes, ten reflex hammers, and an xray view box. The total for all those supplies is about $300. You will have to cut the stethoscopes off to a length of 6 inches. Epoxy the ear tips and bells on. It is interesting that parents don't seem view the doctors instruments as dirty toys. Have a carpenter build a little exam table just like the ones in your exam rooms. Behind it make little holders for the "tools of the trade". Get copies of real xrays (with the names cut off) and put them next to the view box on the wall. Don't be shy, put out xrays of broken bones, and skulls, they love that stuff. Put an unnecessarily detailed anatomy poster on the wall next to it. Put a mirror on the wall above the exam table so the kids can watch themselves. Put an eye exam chart, a height measuring stick, an inexpensive scale, and a growth chart on the wall. Get that at a school supply store. The benefits of this are that the children are less afraid when they get into the real exam room. Frequently when we have a child who won't get on the scales in the back, we can just ask Mom what they weighed in the exam room! Almost every person in the waiting room has had their reflexes checked. Put a sign over it that says "Dr. Godbole is in". Call the newspaper Tell them to come take pictures of it and write an article Build it, they will come.