Wet wipes may put your baby at risk of allergies

WET wipes may be causing babies to develop potentially fatal allergies, a study suggests.

They contain a soap that weakens the skin’s defences, allowing allergens to seep in and cause allergic reactions in babies, researchers said.

Allergies to peanuts and eggs have shot up in recent years, as has eczema. Children’s hospital admissions due to food allergies are up 700 per cent since 1990, according to the Food Standards Agency. Now scientists believe that a common soap present in wet wipes, sodium lauryl sulphate, can disrupt the skin’s protective fatty barrier.

The problem occurs when the soap is not washed off – for example, when a baby is cleaned with wet wipes.

It means potential allergens can get beneath the skin’s defences. In those with genetic mutations that make their skin’s barrier weaker than normal, their immune system could react in a way that causes life-long allergies.

Allergens can be present in household dust or come from contact with people, the US researchers said.

Lead author Professor Joan Cook-Mills, of Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, advised parents: ‘Limit use of infant wipes that leave soap on the skin. Rinse soap off with water like we used to do years ago.’ The research was carried out on newborn mice with the same skin-related genetic mutations that occur in humans.

When their skin was exposed to peanuts, this alone induced no allergic response. It was only when sodium lauryl sulphate was present that the severe immune reaction was triggered.

The researchers, whose findings were published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, now plan to investigate how allergies can be prevented.