Unfortunately, many people don't realize it. In Indonesia, many treatments of colonial heritage are simply copied from the Dutch habit of treating patients. Everything is accepted without a second thought. In fact, cheat could be true, could be wrong.
The easiest example is a matter of prohibition often to shower or take an evening bath. In a country like the Netherlands, the ban is understandable. There, the air is colder and drier. So, it's not easy to sweat. The skin becomes dry. Hence, in the winter, they only shower one to two times a week.
Too frequent bathing, especially to the elderly, is potentially inviting skin irritations and susceptible to cough and cold. When get cough and cold, Caucasians are forbidden to drink ice water, shouldn't take a bath, be a subject to the wind, and use the fan. Excessive cold will bring severer diseases.
Children and babies there need baby oil, creams, and lotions to keep their skin. However, once again, it's right in temperate countries. A misguided happens if the same way is applied also in tropical countries. In the tropics, in addition to the heat, the air is too humid. So, the body sweats easily. Because sweat that comes out contains oil, the skin will be moist and oily. To make the skin clean again, the only way is to bathe.
Moreover, unlike in the Netherlands, drinking ice water or bathing in the night in a tropical country like Indonesia won't cause a cold. Conversely, it even reduces the heat, thereby, reducing excessive sweating.
To infants who have brown fat, the impact of the misguided could be worse. If they rarely bathe, babies are so much easier to heat and sweat more. Their bodies become weak because of losing a lot of fluids so they're susceptible to coughs, colds, bronchitis, to pneumonia.
Another misguided example is the use of baby soap. In the tropics, moist and oily skin is a good medium for bacterial and fungal infections, especially when the channel of sweat glands is clogged. Hence grows prickly heat, acne, boils, Tinea versicolor, ringworm, and so on. However, the use of delicate soap on the baby is unnecessary.
Smooth soap contains oil more. As a result, the soap is hard-foaming. The skin is so hard to clean except soaped repeatedly. Thus, use ordinary soap. With plain soap, dirt has been pulverized anyway.
Bathing the baby, also, doesn't need to use a washcloth or sponge. In addition to rugged, washcloth and foam rubber can also be a nest of germs and fungi.
Also, don't contaminate the baby's clean skin with whatever oil, especially telon or eucalyptus oil, and so on. In addition to making babies overheating, the oils when used to excess are also going to make the skin scorched.
So, just leave to take care a baby of the colonial legacy not appropriate for our children.
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