Experts weigh in on showergate after Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher make a splash on bathing kids
Celebrity couples have waded into a new parenting debate -- whether or not to bathe children daily?
Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher made a splash when they admitted on Dax Shepard's podcast "Armchair Expert" that they don't give their kids a daily bath.
"We're like, 'Oof, something smells,'" Kunis said on the pod.
"Here's the thing: If you can see the dirt on 'em, clean 'em. Otherwise, there's no point," her husband added.
The comments drew a swift and varied reaction from fans, but Shepard and his wife Kristen Bell said they follow a similar protocol for their two daughters.
Then Drew Barrymore weighed in with her approach to bath time, which in her house means nightly baths during the week.
Other stars, including Jake Gyllenhaal, Jason Momoa and Cardi B, all shared their opinions, as well as Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who said he showers three times per day.
Kunis and Kutcher later poked fun at the debate with hashtag showergate on Instagram.
Pediatrician Dr. Edith Brancho-Sanchez explained to "Good Morning America" how often parents should plan to bathe their kids.
"For smaller kids, bathing, a couple of times a week is totally fine unless of course they've been outside, they got sweaty, went swimming in a pool or a lake. Or they got dirty playout outside in the dirt," she said. "Once kids reach puberty I do say we need to be bathing every day, and that is because kids start to have body odor."
But is that advice different for adults? Board Certified Dermatologist Dr. Whitney Bowe told "GMA" there's a healthy balance when it comes to our microbiome maintenance.
"While there's no hard-and-fast rule when it comes to how often someone should bathe, there are general rules of thumb when it comes to maintaining a healthy skin barrier and a healthy skin microbiome. In general, it's OK to bathe once a day, but the catch is you don't want to be using soap on every single square inch of your skin," she explained. "If you use too much soap all over your body, every single day can actually damage your skin barrier."
