“I’m a big fan of waiting for the stink.”
Kristen Bell Says Smell Lets Her Know When It’s Time to Bathe Her Kids
A week after Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher revealed they only bathe their kids once they see visible dirt on them, Kristen Bell is opening up about how she knows it’s time for a bath: when her kids start to smell a bit. And she’s got both a scheduling reason and a scientific reason to back her up on that.
She and her husband, Dax Shepard, recently appeared on The View to talk about how they handle kid dirt. “We bathed our children every single night prior to bed as their routine, then somehow they just started going to sleep on their own without their routine and we had to start saying [to each other] like, ‘Hey, when was the last time you bathed them?’” said Shepard, per BuzzFeed.
“I’m a big fan of waiting for the stink,” agreed Bell, explaining that she and Shepard don’t let their kids go around stinking up the place. “Once you catch a whiff, that’s biology’s way of letting you know you need to clean it up. There’s a red flag.” The Frozen star has thought it through from a health perspective too. “Honestly, it’s just bacteria; once you get bacteria, you gotta be like, ‘Get in the tub or the shower,’” she said before backing up her Bad Moms costar: “I don’t hate what [Kunis and Kutcher] are doing. I wait for the stink.”
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As with Kunis and Kutcher’s method, the Shepard-Bell way of doing things might actually be better for young skin, especially with newborns and babies. Kelly M. Cordoro, M.D., a professor of dermatology and pediatrics, recently spoke to The New York Times about this subject. “Overbathing an infant may dry out the skin, making it itchy and rashy,” she said, per BuzzFeed. “It can be very irritating and unnecessary, as it can wash away the top layer of protective skin cells, natural oils, and normal healthy bacteria, leaving the skin dry, itchy and vulnerable to irritation and possibly skin infections.”
Sounds like Kristen Bell is keeping an eye (and a nose) on her kids’ health, which is the most important thing a parent can do!
This story originally appeared on: Glamour - Author:Condé Nast
