car

I heard somewhere recently that your kid’s car seat has more germs on it than a public toilet. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.  Not something a clean freak likes to hear.

I have to be honest with you; the thought sent me into a mild state of panic. OK who am I kidding, it got my throat all closed up and I started obsessively thinking about how it could possibly be true!

And then I began to think of all the crap my kids eat back there. The packet of dried fruit I shove in front of them before swimming, the Bovril on toast they eat on the way to school, the banana after a soccer match, the ham cracker on the way to granny’s house. Oh and lets not forget the sticky lollipop I shoved in their mouth on the long car trip last weekend. You know, anything to get them to shut up.

Add to that the saliva, sweat and excessive heat in summer and you are in for a pretty sticky, germ infested treat. Especially, when all the crap accumulates and just sits there for weeks with no escape.

It made me think that infant car seats can be just as bad, if not worse. Although there may not be food growing legs in the back, newborns are known for their explosive poops and projectile vomit – Swallow hard, don’t let it come up again.

And now I’m all for the miracles of wet wipes (seriously they are life savers right?) but how much of THAT stuff can you really get off with a burp cloth and a few sheets of J&Js wipes??

This is what an article on the Daily Mail had to say:

Children’s car seats have twice as many dangerous germs as the average toilet, a new study has revealed.

Scientists at the University of Birmingham took swabs from safety seats and discovered an average of 100 potentially dangerous bacteria and fungi lurking in each square centimeter.

In comparison a toilet was found to contain around half that number – with just 50 germs in the same area.

The bugs included bacteria that can lead to nasty illnesses, including E. coli and Salmonella.

germ 1

While we all know children need to be exposed to bacteria to strengthen their immunities etc, there are some dangerous bugs we need to be protecting them from. And we just want to be decently clean people right? Well I sure as hell do.

So it’s no surprise I’m going to be making some changes around here and getting those old car seats out later for a good old scrub!

Here are some REALLY HELPFUL TIPS for keeping your car seats clean and eliminating the excessive breeding of bad bacteria!

Hi I’m Leigh! Did you enjoy reading this post? I really hope so and would love you to stick around a little longer! Please feel free to browse my blog for other articles or to keep up with all the latest news and to be the first to hear about some great competitions, come and find me me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can also email me directly at leeloobaggins@hotmail.com or simply subscribe below and never worry about missing out!