Bar Soap

[AJPTaylor]

Genuine question as can't find the answer from a quick Google. Recently changed to bar soap ( well dd bought bars of soap and put them in the bathrooms). Can corona virus/other nasties remain on the soap and spread to the next user or does contact with the soap kill stuff?is it different depending on what kind of soap it is? (Ie whether it is carbolic vs unicorn glitter ?)

Sorry, referring to the recipe for liquid soap from solid soap.

But I've also learned on another thread that bathing your child once a week with a 'flannel wipe' in between is the norm here as well

Is the norm where? That's not normal anywhere I have been.

But the germs that sit on the squirter of liquid hand soap, that only gets touched by dirty hands

Yep. I’m a cleaner and wash them every week when I’m people’s homes. They get filthy.

Rinsing dishes, self explanatory, I would have thought? you rinse the dishes after you’ve washed them in the basin water. Because the basin water contains all the stuff you just washed off the dishes. So you rinse it off.

Hand washing should be done with warm water really.

Flannel washing your children once a week? No.

I use bars of soap and foam soap (my son likes it), currently have Lux cucumber and mint (I think, it's green). I rinse my dishes prior to washing to get the food off, then wash in hot soapy water and leave to dry, no extra rising and the washing up tub water is in fact very clean. My son doent shower every day and sometimes he does get flannel washed! 😁

Bowl not tub!

I use bars of soap after making the switch a while ago after reading threads on here about it.

I really don't like liquid soap and that's what is used in my (massive) work place. My work is a hot bed of germs

I feel really stupid now. I swapped to a bar of soap after handwash was making my hands really dry and cracked.
I can't believe I didn't realise dove wasn't actually soap.
Antibacterial hand wash doesn't actually say it contains soap either is this ok? I'm so confused! Have I not even been washing properly after nappy changes all this time! Does anybody know what I can get from Asda (if the shelves aren't empty!)

DoctorNicoleWatterson

It's people like you that make me love Mumsnet. I will be buying some of those soap holders, they are brilliant!

My Nan had those soap holders for her imperial leather in the 70s!

It is important everyone always teaches children how to wash your hands properly including warm water ideally (not cold), doing it for long enough, using soap, rinsing them, ideally washing up to a bit beyond your wrists and then drying them (at home on a nice good towel which you regularly wash).

Most people give their chidlren a shower or a bath regularly in the UK unless they have no facilities. I don't think we have a reputation for not washing children properly.

"Twopence to Cross the Mersey" (autobiography) is a very good book- I will always remember the author's problem as a little girl in not having soap to wash, something a lot of us now take for granted.

I was very impressed by dds friend who before we started baking washed her hands in a medical way as they do on ER right up the arms

Eastie77 same here, never saw this anywhere else apart from the UK, when my mum visits she goes on and on about how unhealthy that is because although the water evaporates of the dishes, there will still be residue (not visible to the naked eye) of washing up liquid left on the items and who wants to ingest that. Even if it was some yet to be invented biodegradable washing up liquid, it would takes ages for it to biodegrade or vanish somehow.

Never hear of anyone only bathing their kids once a week the cleaning with a flannel in between though.

Thanks @ChickenCluckWaddle - I'll look into the safety issues in more detail. It's pretty thick and gel like so I'm pretty sure there is enough soap but I'll test the pH to make sure - I think it needs to be 9 or higher but correct me if I'm wrong. I probably need to get some potassium hydroxide and try doing it properly...

The problem we have is that despite months of trying my son struggles with getting a lather on his hands; he hasn't mastered rubbing until enough soap comes off to make a lather. Liquid soap skips that problem and allows us to focus on the other challenge - getting his hands wet enough to lather without washing the soap away.

I thought everyone used bar soap! What’s the point of liquid soap? Much more expensive and a total waste of plastic. Plus think of all those germs on the bottle lol.

We also have a soap dish each and different soaps

All lined up on the sink ? That is truly the first time I have heard of that

The potassium hydroxide route with a good recipe might be better, @UnaOfStormhold - testing the pH of soap is difficult without proper lab equipment - you won't get an accurate reading from a litmus paper or similar, unfortunately. A lot of readings people claim are actually inaccurate because of this.

About your DS's lathering problem - if you're making the soap yourself, have you tried tweaking the recipe to make it very lathery indeed, to minimise the effort he needs to put in? There are a number of tricks you can use for this, such as making the lye with orange juice (freeze it into ice cubes first or the sugars will singe when it heats up. Mix it really thoroughly and strain if necessary because it can go into clumps at the bottom).
You could also add a small % castor oil and up the coconut oil slightly, though not too much. Make sure any olive oil is kept at a low %.

Unless your water is very hard, you should be able to make the soap so that he scarcely needs to rub it at all before it comes lathering up.

Chandler Bing : Because soap is soap. It's self cleaning. Joey Tribbiani : Alright, well next time you take a shower, think about the last thing that I wash and the first thing you wash.

For anyone still wanting to use a liquid soap dispenser, Castille soap from Amazon, it is pure liquid soap, no moisturisers or perfume.

Plus think of all those germs on the bottle

The very next thing you do is wash them off though!

I remember reading in a similar thread (just about soap not coronavirus) that a poster would fill liquid soap bottles with washing up liquid. Who would do that? Just gross.

I know some people complain that bar soap leaves a gungy mess in the soap dish but to my mind that's far less horrid than another plastic soap pump in the environment. I miss the days before marketing psy-ops figured a way to profit more by foisting us a product that is more plastic and 'aqua' (water) than it is actual soap. Those pumps dispense twice as much more soap than is necessary to do the job effectively too.
I believe that the reason many 'generic' cleaning products such as carbolic soap; washing soda; sodium bicarbonate are so hard to find is because supermarkets would much rather sell us lots of different brands and products even though a generic cleaner can effectively perform multiple roles. We don't need different bathroom and kitchen cleaning products; that's just clever marketing!