How Dangerous Is It for My Kid to Drink Bathwater?

I know that drinking bathwater is generally discouraged by the American Academy of Pediatrics (and just regular old common sense!), but in a world of picking my battles with a 3-year-old, how bad is it really? Is there any evidence that it could make my child legitimately sick, or just the basic knowledge that it’s kind of gross?

—Picking my battles

Obviously the bathwater that comes directly out of the bath tap is no different from any other tap water. So there are really four additions to the bath that we might worry about. Let’s review.

1. Soap. Honestly, your kid doesn’t need a lot of soap on them anyway, but in small doses it’s okay to eat soap. It doesn’t taste good, but it isn’t toxic.

2. Mold. I wrote all about bath mold a couple of years ago, including sacrificing one of my son’s bath toys to show how mold grows on the inside of a rubber duck. Mold is gross! But if your child is generally healthy, eating a small amount of mold isn’t a big deal.

3. Pee. Drinking a small amount of urine is fine. Actually, drinking your own urine has been promoted historically as a cure for a variety of different illnesses. It isn’t! Please do not drink your urine on purpose, but in small, diluted amounts it isn’t dangerous.

4. Poop. If your child poops in the tub, take them out. But you might still worry that a partial wiping has left poop on them, and that gets into the water and so on. Eating a lot of poop can make you quite sick, but in small amounts it isn’t toxic. Poison control centers tend to indicate that you should call if a child eats more than a mouthful of feces. The circumstances that would lead to this through bathwater seem remote.

Bottom line: It probably isn’t preferred hydration, but the dangers of bathwater drinking are minimal. It’s gross, but it isn’t the hill I would die on.