I've seen suggestions for using bubble bath as a substitute for hand soap, but it isn't antibacterial is it?
By Lorraine from Bristol, CT
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After having been in the field of nursing for over 15 years I have become irritated with people constantly believing the advertising world. First of all, "all soap" is antibacterial or surgeons would not use it to scrub up with. However the so called antibacterial soaps are much harsher and actually have been linked to compromising our immune systems by way of allowing the various kinds of bacteria to become immune to antibiotic treatment. Just use regular soap on a consistent basis and you'll be much safer.
Love u
Yes your absolutely right. I learned that first semester of biology in college. Normal soap does the job, and antibacterial soap as advertised may not be as helpful. Nice to hear from a nurse.
Constant use of antibacterial soaps should be avoided as they kill off the usual strains of household bacteria and may contribute to the rise of super bacteria.
Washing your hands with ANY soap and water will kill germs. Go ahead and use body wash or even shampoo as a liquid hand soap. Works just fine.
I agree with OliveOyl. I avoid antibacterial soaps. In normal household situations, antibacterial soaps just aren't necessary. The surfactant qualities of the soap along with vigorous scrubbing will wash away the dirt and germs.
Most of those "antibacterial" soaps aren't really antibacterial anyway. And even if they are, most germs are already immune to them. Plain soap works best. It simply washes the germs down the drain, you need no antibacterial additives. Any soap will work, bubble bath, hand soap, shower gel, liquid soap, or even liquid laundry detergent. I use watered-down Dawn Hand Renewal in my liquid hand soap dispenser. I like it because it doesn't dry out my hands, but shower gel or bubble bath will work equally well. But to get these thicker soaps through your liquid soap dispenser you'll need to thin them down with a little water.
* The main thing to remember when washing your hands is to wash them long enough to sing the alphabet song. Shorter than that and you won't wash off all the germs. Also, clean under your nails, too and avoid touching your face, and cough into your elbow, not into your hand. Wash your hands often and you will be sick far less. I always wash my hands first thing when I enter my home after shopping or going anywhere. Also, when I go grocery shopping or to a store with those disinfecting cloths, when I leave the store I bring one of the clothes out and wipe down my steering wheel and my door handle in my car, etc. with it.
There is recently a new worry about antibacterial soaps and antibacterial hand sanitizer ingredients causing internal disease so just stick with good old fashioned soaps, good old fashioned bubble bath, good old fashioned shampoo, etc and it doesn't really matter whether you're using soap, bubble bath, or shampoo interchanged because clean is clean with or without all the big business making money off of antibacterial hype schemes.
A rule of thumb is to simply sing either the song 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' or 'Now I know My ABC's' while washing what you're washing because that will be long enough to ditch the bacteria.
Oh and we mustn't forget good ole " baa baa black sheep" lol. No but seriously i wonder if watered downd soaps are just as good, because i shop at the local dollar store and some ,if not many, soaps are very thin like... almost as if watered down too much, but not well off ( i hate the term lower class or poor) people like me some times have to make things stretch, so i sometimes have to water down already cheap soap. Which is why i got a few bottles of hand foaming soap and kept the foaming bottles cause it works great with watered down soap.
Personally, I do breathing exercises while I wash my hands to strengthen my lungs (gotta exercise those lungs to combat Covid!). 4 counts in thru the nose, expand the bottom of the lungs below the ribs and hum when exhaling thru the nose. Hum any song - if you do 3-4 breaths in you have scrubbed long enough. Experts say it's not the soap that will kill the virus but the vigorous scrubbing so make sure you scrub like you are trying to pulverize the virus. Also, you have to rinse very well as the virus adheres to soap and needs to be rinsed off completely. Our city ran out of all the essentials and can't get much stock nowadays so I've used all my hand soaps, body washes, shampoo and have one bottle of bubble bath left.
My goodness: I want to thank you all so much for your responses.
Yoder178: I didn't anything about this. Yes, I've believed advertising and to think of all the antibacterial soaps that I bought when there wasn't any need of doing so.
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