seriously, dont touch my baby

[Nadine216]

I found this little analogy I heard once very amusing....and quite true!
If your 1st child drops their dummy, it gets sterilised and boiled before being put back in thier mouths
2nd child will get a rinse under the tap
3rd child will get a wipe on the shirt
4th child will get a clean from the dog!!!

SOOO TRUE!!!

But hun, if you don't like ppl touching her, just say so. That might seem rude to some ppl, but other will understand. And she's YOURS. If you really don't want her touched, throw a blanket over the pram just as you enter the store. That way ppl won't be AS inclined to look and touch.

Or you can say: "Please don't touch her ... she has *insert scary illness here"

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

I always wanted people to touch more than they did - if DS got ill, I'd make the antibodies and DS would have a stronger immune system. Although I would draw the line at sucking toes.

Now I'm feeling bad for stroking socked feet on a 7mo baby I saw yesterday and was adoring!

Then again, I am a really shockingly lapse mother. DS's dummy got a wipe, a quick suck from me and back in. And now he sucks on the ear of his bunny, which I really don't wash often enough. Ah well, he's a big boy now and can live with it.

[Nadine216]

I like the saying : What does not kill them, only makes them stronger.

You can't keep them away from germs. Just breathing the air allows germs into their systems.

I totally get that you don't want strangers to touch your baby, I don't too. But it's not about getting sick, it's about possesiveness. Don't touch my baby, because it's MINE. I'm SOOO guilty of this!!

Oh yeah, wanted to add ... with a baby as cute as yours .... no wonder ppl want to touch her. She's a sweetie pie

[2CheekyMonkeys]

thanks nadine! :-) she is pretty cute!

i agree with you demongrrl, but she is only 2 months and the extent of things she touches (by her own accord) aat home are limited to our family, herself, her cot, whatever i put her on during tummy time. so i just dont want to be exposing such a young child to potential viruses etc. in a few months when she is doing the mouthing thing i guess i wont be so worried.. well... i guess i would still feel a bit wierd about strangers touching her. i dunno, when i think about her mouthing dirty things off the floor it doesnt freak me out as much as a stranger touching her... maybe it is a bit of the possessivness thing you were talking about Nadine.

oh and the sucking on the toe thing.. who would do that? YUCK!

oh, and she is my second baby!

[Nadine216]

one of the mums at my mums group had no shoes on and was letting my boy suck on her toes!!!

Now thats new I'll probably let ds chew my own toes ... after a shower, or even dd's toes after a bath. But sucking some lady's toes in public might get a boy arrested later in life

[Just Me]

I don't like people touching my baby either - mainly because I don't think there is any benefit in it for my baby, it is for the self gratification of the person doing the touching only. I had a baby capsule for DS that sat in the top of my pram and when he was asleep I could close the pram hood and the capsule hood. I had a few people do laps of the pram trying to figure out where the baby is . . . it was really quite comical to watch them.

As far as germs go - I am not concerned too much about that. DH is hilarious with dummies and food. If my kids drop stuff on the ground (assuming we are not in a shopping centre of somewhere really gross) he puts it off to the side until he is sure that anyone who would have seen it fall isn't around and then gives it back to whichever child dropped it. It makes me laugh. My kids will have great immune systems

[~Saram~]

This is why I always took my bubies out in slings when they were tiny.

Yep i'm all for building healthy immune systems, dirt, didn't do the sterilising dummies etc but I think there is a difference between healthy germ exposure and random strangers at shopping centres esp in cold and flu season

[BekZ]

I tend to get a little over protective with strangers approaching/touching my kids too.

I especially can't stand my MIL picking my babies after she has had a smoke, and I haaateee my little nieces putting their grubby hands on my newborns dummy and repeatedly putting in my newborns mouth, whilst my SIL looks on and laughs. grr

[littleberlin]

I find this really confronting, too. A few weeks ago I was at my chiropractor, and without a word the chiropractic assistant came up to me, placed her hand on my daughter's head, and kissed her! It happened so quickly I didn't know what to do. I know that people go crazy for babies, but still...that's my baby! I always try to explain to my daughter what is going on, and what I am about to do before I do it, so for a stranger to wordlessly plant a kiss on her without asking me or my baby...it's about respect, I think. I know I'd feel strange if someone I didn't know came up to me and planted a kiss on my face! I suppose sometimes babies are just considered public property - and as Townsvillegirl mentioned, it's about the self-gratification of others, too.