Your Baby and Toddler

On Babies and Bathwater

Question I'm concerned about my 12-month-old's habit of drinking bathwater and tasting soap and shampoos. I have now started hiding the shampoos, deodorants, soaps, etc., so that he cannot find them; however, this does not solve my problem of him drinking bathwater filled with soap and shampoo residue. He drinks it from his rinsing cup (which is, by the way, how he learned to drink from a cup) and when I take that away from him, he puts his mouth to the water and sips it. I am worried that this water may be dangerous for him. Does it pose possible health risks?


Answer This problem is so familiar that I have to conclude that it isn't a problem! If almost every child I've ever known has drunk bathwater, the effects can't be that bad.

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?

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August 5, 1996
If almost every child I've ever known has drunk bathwater, the effects can't be that bad.

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