If you make people use Purell before touching your baby...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are plenty of situations where we would skip cleaning up if we had to put down the baby, run to the bathroom, and wash up. It's a heck of a lot easier to squirt on some gel in those situations or when we are on the go and nowhere near a bathroom. These gels are way better than skipping it altogether.

Let's think about this for a sec. I really can't think of a time when I'd be at home and suddenly need to purell my hands. I'm figuring that after using the toilet, messing around with food, cleaning the litter box, digging in the garden, or having just changed the baby I will have properly washed my hands. NOT just to kill germs, but also to remove gunk off my hands (which purell doesn't do - it doesn't clean stuff). In all other cases, I'm thinking the baby is already being exposed to anything that would end up on my hands.

I'll be the first to admit that my house isn't exactly sterile. Most of us would be better served to be more concerned about what's in the carpets.

The first part of your statement is mostly true. In situations where dirt and not just germs are involved, alcohol gels don't do the whole job. That is important to know, and some people seem to not get that. However, many people don't wash their hands if they don't see visible dirt on their hands. I see parents do diaper changes all the time, and it appears to me that they only wash up if they think they came into contact with poop. But the fact that they didn't get poop on their hands does not mean they don't have germs on their hands, and a quick squirt of hand gel makes a big difference.

Well that's just gross all around. I see people in public bathrooms that use the purell instead of washing up - nasty.

Your second statement about the baby already being exposed to everything else is wrong, however. Your hand washing addresses several sources of bacterial contamination, (and really only the ones where you get physical dirt on your hands btw). But you mentioned no situations you wash up to prevent the spread of viruses. Since most viruses infect people by moving from the hand to the mouth, hand gels can do a heck of a lot to interrupt this important method of transmission.

Yeah, guess I'm just not that worried about it. I still maintain that if it's on my hands, it's in my house, it's on my husband, the coffee table, the arm rest on the chair, the door knobs, all kinds of places that baby can touch. I'm not about to run around with bacteria wipes every day, so not going to stress about purelling my hands.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I use Purell (or the equivalent) most often outside of the house -- after I've wiped off a grocery cart, pumped gas, gotten off the Metro, ridden on an escalator, touched money, etc.

Sorry, but this sounds crazy obsessive to me. I don't do a single bit of this and I haven't been sick in more than 6 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:alcohol doesn't kill the germs.

it PARALYZES them JUST FOR A WHILE!!!!
that's why they rub a little bit in the site of the injection.

NOTHING WORKS BETTER THAN SOAP AND WATER... LOOOOOOTS OF WATER!

There are two general types of rubbing alcohol, one made primarily from ethyl alcohol (ethanol) and the other from isopropyl alcohol. Both kill bacteria but are less effective on viruses. As it evaporates, it sucks out the insides of bacteria and viruses and kills them. However, they won't be dead until all the alcohol has evaporated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I use Purell (or the equivalent) most often outside of the house -- after I've wiped off a grocery cart, pumped gas, gotten off the Metro, ridden on an escalator, touched money, etc.

Sorry, but this sounds crazy obsessive to me. I don't do a single bit of this and I haven't been sick in more than 6 years.

It sounds a little over the top, but while her immune system might be very strong like yours, she is likely bringing home at least some viruses/bacteria that may infect her kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I use Purell (or the equivalent) most often outside of the house -- after I've wiped off a grocery cart, pumped gas, gotten off the Metro, ridden on an escalator, touched money, etc.

Sorry, but this sounds crazy obsessive to me. I don't do a single bit of this and I haven't been sick in more than 6 years.

It sounds a little over the top, but while her immune system might be very strong like yours, she is likely bringing home at least some viruses/bacteria that may infect her kids.

PP here, that wasn't clear. I meant if she didn't clean her hands before touching kids, etc., even if she never gets sick, the kids might.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a nurse and if you, mom, ask me to do purell before touching your baby

I'LL LAUGH AT YOU!

And if you try to touch my micro-preemie baby, I'll punch you.

And I'll high-five the smart momma.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, but this sounds crazy obsessive to me. I don't do a single bit of this and I haven't been sick in more than 6 years.

I'm the PP who uses Purell after a grocery cart or pumping gas or riding the Metro. I am FAR from a germophobe. We have two dogs, I don't freak out when my daughter picks stuff up off the floor, I don't suggest to people that they have to wash hands or use Purell before they touch the baby... but I DO have a baby now so I am more careful, and there are a gazillion pocket-size hand sanitizers out there so I keep one in my purse. It takes two seconds to squirt some on your hands. Can't hurt, might help -- not obsessive.

I think it's more obsessive to worry about how dangerous Purell is, frankly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I think it's more obsessive to worry about how dangerous Purell is, frankly.

Have you ever looked up from a diaper change to see your toddler smearing the diaper cream all over their face or been in the bathroom to take a pee, and have them get something off the bathroom vanity like hand cream that they proceed to eat? I don't like purell in the house because if one of my toddlers picked it up, the next thing they would do is undo the cap and squeeze it out, then into the mouth it goes. I cannot imagine having that stuff in my purse or on the changing table. No thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I think it's more obsessive to worry about how dangerous Purell is, frankly.

Have you ever looked up from a diaper change to see your toddler smearing the diaper cream all over their face or been in the bathroom to take a pee, and have them get something off the bathroom vanity like hand cream that they proceed to eat? I don't like purell in the house because if one of my toddlers picked it up, the next thing they would do is undo the cap and squeeze it out, then into the mouth it goes. I cannot imagine having that stuff in my purse or on the changing table. No thanks.

You keep other things out of reach, too, right? Just keep the Purell out of reach.

[Anonymous]

So you're fine with your kid rolling around in germs, mouthing shopping cart handles and touching door knobs but the thought of them getting some purrell in their mouth scares you? Ok.

[Anonymous]

i don't do any of this stuff....my toddler is in daycare, surrounded by snot-nosed kids all day long. what's the point? none of us are ever sick. i bet our mothers didn't run around with purell either.

[Anonymous]

Have you ever looked up from a diaper change to see your toddler smearing the diaper cream all over their face or been in the bathroom to take a pee, and have them get something off the bathroom vanity like hand cream that they proceed to eat? I don't like purell in the house because if one of my toddlers picked it up, the next thing they would do is undo the cap and squeeze it out, then into the mouth it goes. I cannot imagine having that stuff in my purse or on the changing table. No thanks.

Goodness gracious, by that logic, shouldn't you stop using your diaper cream that they're smearing all over their faces, or get rid of the hand cream? I don't think Desitin is really great for the kids to eat, either.

This message board is so strange, but it does make me laugh. I'm obsessive for using Purell after touching a grocery cart, an escalator, the Metro, a gas pump -- things that are guaranteed to have been touched by hundreds of people before me, and something that costs about a dollar and takes two seconds to do -- but it's just good sense to keep Purell out of your house on the off-chance that your DC somehow manages to drink it? To each her own!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Have you ever looked up from a diaper change to see your toddler smearing the diaper cream all over their face or been in the bathroom to take a pee, and have them get something off the bathroom vanity like hand cream that they proceed to eat? I don't like purell in the house because if one of my toddlers picked it up, the next thing they would do is undo the cap and squeeze it out, then into the mouth it goes. I cannot imagine having that stuff in my purse or on the changing table. No thanks.

Goodness gracious, by that logic, shouldn't you stop using your diaper cream that they're smearing all over their faces, or get rid of the hand cream? I don't think Desitin is really great for the kids to eat, either.

This message board is so strange, but it does make me laugh. I'm obsessive for using Purell after touching a grocery cart, an escalator, the Metro, a gas pump -- things that are guaranteed to have been touched by hundreds of people before me, and something that costs about a dollar and takes two seconds to do -- but it's just good sense to keep Purell out of your house on the off-chance that your DC somehow manages to drink it? To each her own!

I don't think you understand the difference. It is not very dangerous for a child to ingest a little bit of hand cream, but it is dangerous for them to ingest Purell. This isn't strange, it is a fact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Have you ever looked up from a diaper change to see your toddler smearing the diaper cream all over their face or been in the bathroom to take a pee, and have them get something off the bathroom vanity like hand cream that they proceed to eat? I don't like purell in the house because if one of my toddlers picked it up, the next thing they would do is undo the cap and squeeze it out, then into the mouth it goes. I cannot imagine having that stuff in my purse or on the changing table. No thanks.

Goodness gracious, by that logic, shouldn't you stop using your diaper cream that they're smearing all over their faces, or get rid of the hand cream? I don't think Desitin is really great for the kids to eat, either.

This message board is so strange, but it does make me laugh. I'm obsessive for using Purell after touching a grocery cart, an escalator, the Metro, a gas pump -- things that are guaranteed to have been touched by hundreds of people before me, and something that costs about a dollar and takes two seconds to do -- but it's just good sense to keep Purell out of your house on the off-chance that your DC somehow manages to drink it? To each her own!

I don't think you understand the difference. It is not very dangerous for a child to ingest a little bit of hand cream, but it is dangerous for them to ingest Purell. This isn't strange, it is a fact.

Zinc oxide in diaper cream is highly toxic to ingest.

[Anonymous]

I don't think you understand the difference. It is not very dangerous for a child to ingest a little bit of hand cream, but it is dangerous for them to ingest Purell. This isn't strange, it is a fact.

I don't leave it in her crib for her to play with. We have a lot of things in our house that I don't want our daughter to ingest, but that doesn't mean I don't use them. It just means I keep them out of her reach.