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On Babies and Bathwater![]()
More seriously, you're obviously right to hide away the shampoos and stuff--in fact every household with small children needs a locked place in the bathroom for cosmetic chemicals as well as for medicines. Even if a child wouldn't put such substances in his mouth, an eyeful of deodorant from a spray bottle is not a nice thought. Then, given that you actually can't stop him drinking any bathwater (if all else failed, mine would suck the facecloth while I washed their faces), you might want to cut down the chemicals that go in it. Leave out the bath liquid. Use plain water with no soap (many people think that's better for young skin anyway). On hair-washing days, you could even wash in the bath as usual, but rinse it over the edge afterward, with him on your lap in a towel.
ON WEDNESDAY: Should a bright child go to kindergarten a year early? |
![]() INDEX TO PAST COLUMNSAugust 5, 1996 If almost every child I've ever known has drunk bathwater, the effects can't be that bad.
About Penelope Leach.
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