Stop Touching Stranger’s Newborn Babies in These Three Places

It never fails. You take your baby out for a stroll around the block and 12 people stop you to fiddle with your baby. It’s like they don’t even remember how terrifying it is to be a new parent with a new baby that has just about zero immunity to this world they just arrived in. Maybe, with all of your help, we can get this message out there so baby’s can be safe and new parents can rest easy on their fresh air collecting adventures around the neighborhood.

Stop Touching Stranger’s Newborn Babies in These Three Places

While your first urge may be to grab a baby by any given choice of favorite body parts, doing so can present quite a few problems. Aside from actually making the baby sick, you’ll also likely boost the new parent’s anxiety level for a few moments to a few days. But if you must get your hands on baby (and even when you’re allowed) try to avoid these three spots on baby’s body.

1. Face – Just say no to squeezing those adorable cheeks, here’s why. Baby’s are new to some of the bacteria on the planet and they also can have very, very sensitive skin. That gentle finger you brush across baby’s face so you can get a feel of that baby soft skin, might leave baby with a nasty rash for days. We won’t even talk about how close you are to the baby’s mouth with that dirty thing, but we shouldn’t have to, because you should never touch anywhere near a baby’s mouth with your meat hooks! Stop it! What are you thinking?
2. Hands – As compelling as it may be to grab one of those flailing hands and give it a little personable ‘how do you do’ shake, don’t. Just don’t. Babies live the first year of their lives with their hands in their mouths, or their hands holding items that are being shoved into their mouths. This is also another good reason to avoid touching those cheeks like we mentioned. Though babies do love getting those little hands shoved in their mouths, they’re not always entirely great about it and more often than not punch themselves in the face a little bit when trying to get them in their mouths quickly. Don’t let your creepy cooties be there waiting.
3. Hair – I know this one is going to devastate some of those folks who can’t seem to stop themselves from scrubbing every tiny person they see on the head, but this is another no-no when it comes to getting your hands on other people’s babies. During the average day a shirt or onesie or other clothing rakes itself over baby’s head onto baby’s face. Basically you don’t touch the hair for the same reason you don’t put your hands on baby’s face or hands.

So please, share. Maybe we can spread the word about this newborn baby etiquette so that strangers with good intentions will understand that good intentions do not come with natural immunity to whatever illnesses they could be carrying around unknowingly.