Baby car seats can be dirtier than toilet seats
To keep children clean, parents often pay close attention to cleaning tables, chairs, and floors to prevent bacteria, but often forget about an item that children often come into contact with: car seats. Recently, a shocking study: car seats for children can be dirtier than toilet seats.
An investigation by the UK consumer rights organisation Which? has found that child car seat buckles, seat belts and head restraints contain faeces and bacteria that cause intestinal diseases.
Scientists took a sample of car seat wipes and tested them for common superbugs such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), E. coli, Staphylococcus and C. difficile and compared them with toilet wipes from households.
The results showed that there were up to 30 different types of bacteria on the child car seat, compared to 16 different types of bacteria on the toilet seat. The researchers also found high levels of Enterobacteriaceae and Enterococci bacteria found on the car seat, which can be “opportunistic pathogens” that can cause serious health problems such as sepsis in people with weakened immune systems, especially young children.
Research conducted by the University of Birmingham (UK) also showed similar results. Scientists discovered an average of 100 types of potentially dangerous bacteria in every square centimeter of car seats, while only half that number - 50 types of bacteria - were found in toilets.
So how do you ensure that your child car seat is always clean and safe? Here are some tips to keep in mind:
- Read the instructions carefully to identify removable chair parts.
- Record video or take photos of the disassembly process.
- Clean the seat thoroughly, paying attention to the seat belt.
- Wash the seat covers according to the instructions. Note, some covers are machine washable, others are hand wash only.
- Finally, make sure you reinstall the seat correctly!
However, car seats are not the only items that can be dirtier than toilets. According to many scientific studies, smartphones are a large bacteria nest with 10 times more bacteria than toilets; toothbrushes can contain more than 100 million different types of bacteria, dishwashing sponges are 200,000 times dirtier than toilets, and many other common items... are information that will really shock you.
