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Comment by war1025 | Hacker News Reader

We have three young kids, and I've gotten a lot of funny looks over the past couple years when I tell people that if one of them pooped in their diaper, we washed their nether regions with soap and water.

It absolutely baffles me that the same people who freak out about the possibility of there being germs on their kid's pacifier will wipe up poop with a wet wipe and send the kid on their way.

Even as an adult, I don't get how people think of toilet paper as having any "cleaning" power. It just seems wildly unsanitary if you bother to think about it, which is why I suppose most people choose not to.

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I always liked the argument, if your belly button was your butthole, would you wipe it with TP and call it good?

Good thing it isnt? What a stupid argument. People have gotten by just fine without making their asses wet and patting them dry everytime they shit for a while now. How do you know the water doesn't just spread shit everywhere and you don't clean it up properly?

This comment is really unbecoming of me. I honestly was just kinda peeved at the entire conversation and should have passed by without leaving a negative thought.

Sorry but I think that's a silly argument.

Use the right cleanliness tool for the job. For a sidewalk, powerwash it. For a cast-iron pan, you wipe it out and maybe use oil and salt.

That's not to say that a bidet isn't the right tool - but the justification needs to show why it is the right tool, not just point at other body parts and say "the right tool for my hands is soap and water, therefore the right tool everywhere is soap and water."

He didn't say his hands though, he said his belly button. The two are pretty similar in their location and use in day to day life. If someone got poop on their belly button, I would bet money that they'd feel pretty disgusting until they were able to get home and take a shower.

Relating to my comment above, we let our kids wander around the house naked from time to time. I feel perfectly comfortable letting them sit on the furniture because I know they aren't spreading poop everywhere.

But then again, people let their pets inside, and they put even less effort into post-bathroom cleanup than humans do...

> But then again, people let their pets inside, and they put even less effort into post-bathroom cleanup than humans do...

Do you own pets? Most don't need post-bathroom cleanup. They have different anatomy, imagine that.

EDIT: They also don't poop in unnatural positions.

You've clearly never heard of cats and the amount of time they spend cleaning their butts...

Skin is the same everywhere, it seems disingenuous to claim that one skin area needs different care from another without more evidence. Similarly cast-iron pans seems to be an internet thing, soap and/or powerwashing would presumably work just fine.

The only exception I can think of to soap and water for cleaning is delicate fabrics or sensitive optics, but there the issue is the liquid used rather than the general process.

That's not quite true, anal region is slightly more sensitive. There are improved cleaning agents that are less irritating, but are still not commonly used. (Some old bidets have too strong water jet. It's unpleasant.)

It's not as sensitive as mouth though. We don't use soap with grit and fluoride anymore to clean teeth and mouth nowadays.

Should I be putting salt on my cast iron? I have so much to learn.

You can do whatever you want with cast iron. Just don't leave standing water in it. The whole point of a cast iron pan is that it can take whatever abuse you throw at it.

Yes, you're probably better off not washing it out every time you use it, but if you make chili or something like that, you're going to want to wash it out at the end.

Just after you wash it, put it on the stove to dry it off, then rub some oil into it.

I think TP alone does a fine enough job but you need to go the extra step to wet it after your initial wipes. I'm lucky enough to have long arms and a sink well within reach from the toilet. I think I'd be easier to can people off just using dry paper than expecting them to lather up with soap every time.

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