Too much washing can hurt your immune system, writes
Lauren Knight
WHENmy oldest son was just an infant, we, like so many other new parents, struggled to get him to sleep for long stretches of time at night. We tried everything, including incorporating a nightly bath as part of the “soothing routine” that so many parenting experts recommend.
And while he seemed to enjoy the routine, his skin did not.
He developed rough, itchy patches on his back and legs – a mild eczema that we treated with lotion after each bath. At the time, I did not put two and two together, that the constant bathing could be causing the irritation.
But as the years wore on and our demands grew (namely adding two more little boys to the mix), the nightly bath routine didn’t always pan out.
Sometimes we ran out of time, other times we were just too exhausted.
Then a funny thing happened. During the times our children went for three (or more, I admit) days without a bath, I noticed that our oldest boy’s skin seemed healthier and less irritated.
I was also pleasantly surprised to find none of our kids smelled or looked dirty.
Mind you, it’s much easier to get away with fewer baths during winter when there is less muddy outdoor play.
But I began to wonder, is a daily bath really necessary for little kids?
Moreover, do the negative effects of constant cleanliness outweigh the positives? How clean is too clean? According to Rob Dunn, professor of biology and author of
the medical community has worked relentlessly (and well-meaningly) to remove as many microbes from our bodies as possible, and the overuse of antibiotics, antiseptics and pesticides today has the potential to do our bodies more harm than good.
Gut bacteria
Dunn says that overly clean living can be bad for our immune systems, which need certain microbes and gut bacteria to function properly and ward off the more dangerous pathogens.
As a society, we have developed germophobia for a reason. From the 1600s to the 1800s, puerperal fever took the lives of many women giving birth, all caused by attending doctors with unwashed hands.
With the development of hygienic practices during surgery and childbirth, the occurrence of such infections has all but disappeared.
Clearly we need cleanliness to prevent infection and death, especially in hospitals and surgical theatres.
But should we be applying the same rules to our healthy children in day-today life? The answer is no, of course not.
Obviously there’s quite a jump between daily bath time and the overuse of antibiotics, but I believe both are governed by a societal drive for cleanliness.
We have become accustomed to antibacterial wipes and gels; parents carry around mini bottles of hand sanitisers