Kitchen Sink Baths Might Not Be The Best Way To Clean Your Baby
It’s adorable, it’s convenient, but TikTok’s own Dr. Beachgem offers advice on why you should avoid them.
As the mom of older children, I have already entered the stage of parenthood where I get to find out that the things I did when my children were little are no longer safe or recommended. Like using Rock n’ Plays, certain swaddling techniques, and now, it would appear, sink baths. You know, when you plop your tiny baby in the kitchen sink because they’re so itty bitty and it’s easier (and also more adorable) than filling a tub? Well, it turns out that might not be the best idea either according to our favorite TikTok pediatrician “Dr. Beachgem.”
The good doctor recounts a story of a three-week-old newborn coming into the ER with a fever. Because newborns have “no immune system,” it’s standard to work up a whole panel of tests to discover or rule out serious bacterial infections. She preemptively put him on fluids and antibiotics, but quickly got the results of the little one’s labs from the microbiology department: he was infected by salmonella.
“I give parents an update and I start asking some questions,” she recalls. “Any reptiles at home? No. Any farm animal exposure or petting zoos? No. Where does the baby take a bath? In the kitchen sink.”
And that might just be the problem. You see if you’re preparing raw foods — such as meat, poultry, eggs, unpasteurized dairy products — in the same area you’re bathing an infant, even if you clean the area with bleach (as the baby’s family had done) there’s still a risk of “cross contamination”... in this case with your baby.
“Even though the parents did their best to clean the sink before the baby got a bath, this is likely the exposure for the salmonella,” the doctor concludes.
But that’s not the only reason she suggests avoiding sink baths in favor of infant tubs specifically designed with that purpose in mind.
“Sink can be very slippery,” she explains. “They also have faucets and levers that babies can hit themselves on, or slip in the water and hit themselves. And I’ve seen babies that have turned the water on and it was hot water and then they got burnt.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) doesn’t necessarily frown upon sink baths on the whole, but shares Dr. Beachgem’s concerns about temperature, slipping, and opportunities for the baby to get hurt by faucets. So overall, it’s just not your best option if you have options.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go apologize to my children once again for inadvertently risking their well-being when they were infants...
