For the scene in which miniaturized Nick Szalinski drops into a bowl of Cheerios cereal, a tank was filled with 16,000 gallons of a milk-like substance made from chlorinated water, food thickener, and pigment. The Cheerios were made from tractor inner tubes, twelve feet in diameter, coated in foam.
Chevy Chase and John Candy both turned down the role of Wayne Szalinski. Candy did however suggest Rick Moranis for the role. This also had happened when Moranis was offered Ghostbusters (1984).
In an early version of the script, there were five kids, one of which died during the sprinkler sequence.
Sets and props took more than nine months to build. A May/June 1989 Disney Channel Magazine article reported that twelve houses, complete with front and backyards, were built in addition to a ten-foot-tall oatmeal cookie made from polyurethane foam and real cream filling, forty-foot-tall urethane foam blades of grass, and a giant mechanical ant that required a dozen puppeteers to operate. The ant was constructed using latex foam core and horse hair, and recreated for stop-motion sequences in which the children rode atop the insect.
The Society for the Preservation of English Language and Literature (SPELL) awarded "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" with its 1989 Dunce Cap Award, citing the title's grammatical error of using the word "shrunk" instead of "shrank." An unnamed Disney executive responded that the incorrect usage was on purpose and directly referenced a line of dialogue.