To be surprised by standards of cleanliness?

[yesok]

I am a ftm, with very little experience of being around young children. Be kind!
My dd is now 1, and I always make sure her clothes are changed straight away if they get any food stains or general dirt on them. At mealtimes I peg a muslin on to high chair (like a huge bib) to ensure dropped bits of food are caught in that, a don't end up all over her. I haven't seen many others do the same.
High chairs in restaurants/pubs tend to be filthy. I have to wipe down but they really do need a deep clean.
I thought with babies & children it's important to keep germs at bay. But everywhere I go that is baby/child friendly, seem to be so grubby. Soft play centres. Baby change etc.
Do I need to chill out? Embrace the mess?

@cherrypavlova yes I wash my hands a lot, probably too much. I was one of the only ones not to get that sickness bug though which says a lot. I never used to wash dd's hands. I just wiped them. But since that bug I make a point to wash her hands with soap and water before every meal at least. I just wonder if they'll do the same when she starts going to nursery...

I was very similar OP but there is only so much you can do! When they get a bit bigger trying to keep them clean is like trying to put out a fire with a water pistol.

I was you!!! I actually carried round I tiny bottle of cif for cleaning baby change tables and high chairs and trolleys (it came in my bounty pack I thought that was what it was for ) by my second I had relaxed don't worry I think all first time parents are a little over the top with worry. If I hadn't toned it down I would have lost my sanity but it's fine if you don't too. I know lovely parents who still change there 5 year olds every time they have a spill and carry around several changes of clothes. Just do what works for you.

Probably because at one point people realise it’s a waste of time changing clothing every time they get a little dirty. It’s also a waste of washing and clothes to throw out slightly stained clothing.

I have a 1 year old and he is changed during the day only if it’s an explosive poo or he has got wet. Dirty clothes from food/crawling around/soft play are changed at the end of the day.

I do however always try and wipe and clean the highchairs when we leave somewhere.

Oh and stained clothes are kept for days we stay in, or if my children are ill.

I don't see anything wrong with the muslin thing - I used to do similar and mine certainly used those bibs with arms, then pelican bibs - why get food all over their clothes when you can prevent it? Also agree with giving restaurant high chairs a once over with a wipe - I wouldn't eat off an unwashed plate, so why should they?

I don't use antibacterial wipes or handwashes though. And hands are washed after the toilet, when they come in from the garden and before eating - that's just basic personal hygiene surely!

And as to whether I got them changed afterwards if they were filthy would entirely depend on how bad they were. My youngest is 4 and I have had to give her a full on bath and change of clothes when I pick her up from preschool as she is so filthy (they have a mud kitchen and once when I picked her up she was so grubby she was sat on her own little chair rather than on the carpet with the other children).

You're OTT. Cleanliness is important but so is building up immunity. Going overboard with cleanliness may cause allergies. A damp cloth would clean up most spills, surely? You'll also encourage your child to become an irritating cry-baby anytime they get a tiny speck of dirt on themselves as they'll treat it like a large-scale crisis - so relax.

The most important thing with regard to hygiene in the home is to ensure hands are washed properly before eating or handling food and after using the loo.

That is waaaaaaaaaay more important than daily washed floors and daily clean towels.

@Biancadelrioisback I've got all this to come...pass me the wine!!

I agree about restaurant high chairs - they wouldn't leave anything else dirty for the next customer so absolutely should be wiped down by staff (although I do clean our mess up before we leave with a wipe).

On the whole though, you definitely need to chill. My DC refused any kind of bibs after the age of 1 and always got filthy by the end of the day. My toddler DS generally wears 2 t shirts each day though and I wipe his face. They both have a bath every day.

@yesok I very much doubt it!

Sorry OP but if you bung an otherwise fresh item in the washing machine because it's got a stain on it, you are part of an environmental problem that is going to impact your dd's life far more than a few germs.

Nothing wrong with wanting to keep your child looking neat and tidy, but we are going to have to seriously rethink how we approach those things.

DSS manages a large wood and in the summer months the whole family goes and camps there for days at a time.

DGD learned to walk there and has spent loads of time grovelling on the woodland floor. There are no toilets, showers or anything, it's really roughing it.

She's almost 4 and has scarcely been ill since she was about a year old. She gets one cold a year, in the autumn, usually about 6 weeks after their last visit to the wood.

I reckon all that dirt and fresh air has done her no end of good. God knows how she'll cope when she's at school next spring and realises she's going to have to live in a house most of the summer.

Meh, kids are muck magnets and you can’t apply the same standards as you would for yourself.

I wouldn’t wear stained clothes or eat off dirty surfaces, but it’s fair to the say the average toddler just doesn’t share that same perspective. In fact your kid will probably start to consider them the height of unreasonable... DD was positively outraged for a good 25 minutes when I took her welly boot off her the other day after she pulled it off and started licking it. 🤮

We’re also going through a phase of being very particular about clothes and have gone to nursery in yesterday’s mucky top as it was the only acceptable item of clothing (and I wasn’t going to choose that as a hill to die on at 7am this morning...). 🤷‍♀️

@corythatwas de-railing a little but I’ve started washing clothes a LOT more since I started using cloth nappies (obviously with the sole intention of doing the best thing for the environment!) because I need to bulk out washes. It’s hard to know what the best thing to do is.

My 2 year old has a thing for licking public bins. My standards are now incredibly low 😂

@corythatwas don't be sorry - we should look after the environment more than we do, I saw a news report yesterday about the effect of washing clothes on the environment and it has shocked me into making changes.

@Bugsymalonemumof2 haha oh no!! My dd keeps gravitating towards pram wheels. Let's hope she doesn't start licking them.