Parenting Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for parents, grandparents, nannies and others with a parenting role. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
We bathe our 6 month old in our bathtub. We fill the tub 1/3 of the way and we sit in there with her to bathe her. The bath water gets a little bit soapy as the bath gets underway. We put some bath toys for her in the tub as we bathe her. She likes to grab them and suck/bite on them.
Is this safe? The bath water has dirt and other things (potentially unseen poop and urine) that we wash off of her.
I had a similar concern when I started giving my baby stackable cups in the bath, and he would drink cup after cup of water for fun :)
Babycenter claims that this is normal and nothing to worry about.
Altmann recommends discouraging this behavior, but says you don't need to be too concerned about it.
What to Expect makes a similar claim - although they tell you that if your baby poops in the water you should take him/her out immediately and clean the tub.
It may disgust you somewhat, but it won't really harm your baby. Dirt, soap, urine, etc. is very diluted by the amount of water in the tub. And the little bit of water that your baby can swallow while chewing/sucking on a wet toy is not much to worry about.
(One suggestion I've seen for the cups - give your baby cups with holes in them, or funnel-like toys, so that it's hard for them to actually drink from it.)
Baby products (toys, soaps) are made to be safe, as long as you don't actually drink directly from the soap bottle. Make sure to clean/disinfect the bath toys regularly to avoid mildew.
