Bath/illness correlation

[onemanwentto]

Does how often you bath your children influence how often they are poorly.
I bath my kids nightly, as the thought of everything they’ve touched or other kids hands they’ve held and how much other children have coughed and sneezed on them makes me cringe!
Touch wood they are very very rarely poorly, especially with stomach bugs. They have maybe 1 stomach bug every 2 years.
I’ve got friends who’s kids have a stomach bug every 8ish weeks and they are bathed 3 times a week.
I’m tempted to start dropping the occasional bath, but concerned about the increase in germs and bugs.

Eldest showers every day. Youngest has eczema so can't bathe daily.

If you're worried about germs then ensure hands are properly washed.

I do wash their hands regularly but I think it’s more than their hands that need washing.
Last week youngest jumped in puddles and got a face full of puddle water, walked along side the car, touched the filthy wheel arches and then ran his hands through his hair, had another child sneeze and cough in his face etc.

You sound very anxious about germs. Mine are rarely unwell. There are lots of factors. I don't believe that they need to bathe daily to be well. A lot does depend on the age and what they're doing that day though.

I think you've probably just been fortunate. DD had bad eczema and wasn't bathed more than 2-3 times a week and she wasn't the most virtuous hand washer when younger and she's never had a tummy bug or had much illness apart from chicken pox and a couple of virus related things in 14 years. Hardly ever missed school in 10 years (prob 10 days in total). I think we were just lucky, just like you so drop a bath or two to make life easier.

Mine get washed 2-3x a week. We are really poor at hand washing. They play in filth. We have an outdoor cat. They seem fine. Youngest gets a bit of eczema. Normal coughs and colds through the winter. Diarrhoea etc v rarely, probably once for the 2 year old, 2x for the 5 year old and 3 or 4 for the 8 year old.

I’m not massively anxious about germs, just hate sickness bugs with a passion. Not so much if the kids get ill, but I HATE being sick. I don’t suppose anyone particularly likes it though!
Maybe on non nursery days when they’ve just been at home I’ll just do hands and face wash.
Although my toddler in nappies has been getting a really sweaty bum in this hot weather so maybe a bath is a good idea.
And doodles with no socks are giving them all cheesy feet.
Plus sticky sun cream!!!

I aim to bathe mine every other day but occasionally it’s every 3 days. In this warm weather I was then more often as they are playing outside more in sand etc so are always filthy. Touch wood they are v rarely unwell with sickness or common colds

Yeah, I don't think it's really related, but you have my sympathies - huge fear of sick here too :(

My two (6 and 8) have a bath most nights but occasionally miss one. They probably average one sickness bug every couple of years these days (more often when younger) and the usual colds etc.

Much though my instinct is to scrub them clean all the time this is counter productive health wise in the long run. Everyday exposure to dirt and germs is what builds a healthy immune system.

I bath my son 5 out 7 nights a week and he's always sick. Not particularly with sickness bug maybe once a year. However sickness bugs are passed through the fecal oral route so someone gets the bug on their hands from a surface, like anything a counter top, door handle, phone, remote control etc and then puts their fingers in their mouth to eat or whatever and it gets into their system so that could happen literally any time of the day and you could still bathe them that evening but how many times have they already put their mouths in their hands that day? There is no correlation.

Mine almost never had stomach upsets and we didn’t bath them every night.

Bathed every night. Ill the normal amount for 4 and 2 year olds... both have had a couple of sickness bugs, a fair number of colds, both have had chicken pox... same as my friends’ children of the same age.

So general consensus is that there’s no correlation.
I even wash their hair nightly as I figure they touch their hair repeatedly after touching germ infested things so their hair must hold onto germs quite a lot!
I think I’m overthinking this! I’ve just worked in many preschools and know how disgusting toddlers can be, putting hands down toilets and digging around in mud where cats had pooed (despite us cleaning it up every day!) and touching nappy bins etc!
Maybe I’ll relax a bit with the baths in future!

No correlation.
My dc bathe about 2-3 times a week at primary school age and rarely get sickness bugs. Dd1 is almost never ill, and dd2 rarely ill with anything contagious and ds only usually ill with ear infections-to which washing hair is definitely not helpful at times.