Malaysian Beer Baby Bath

This tweet by OMGFacts caused quite a commotion with Malaysian tweeters this evening:

Malaysians protect their babies from disease by bathing them in beer.

It left us at Unscientific Malaysia scratching our heads, and quite furious for this gross inaccurate fact about Malaysians.

A few tweets and clarifications later, we found out that it is not really a rare occurrence among some Malaysians, although not as common as the tweet made it to be.

Anyway, we have Niki Cheong blogging about this weird practice among the Chinese community, and we’re reposting it here with his permission (original post here). Leave your thoughts in the comments:

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So, it’s just after working hours and Twitter is abuzz (well, ish) in reaction to this tweet by @omgfacts:

@omgfacts claim to be “The OFFICIAL fact source of twitter. Posting pointless but amazing facts since Sept 27th, 2009.” Of course, the rarely, if ever, credit their source.

Needless to say, lots of people had things to say about this. The reaction ranged between:

1. Huh? (as in “Really?”)

2. No way! Prove it!

3. Why wasn’t I bathed in beer? *slurp*

4. What a waste of beer.

I’m with number 4. *heh heh*  That said, I responded to some people who were up in arms about it stating that I have heard stories of babies bathed in alcohol.

Here are two incidences (note that I have no scientific proof, and it is probably from belief and culture):

1. My mum’s older brother was a pre-mature baby. Mum was told by her parents that he tiny like a kitten, so they couldn’t actually bath him. What Ah Tai, my great grandmother, did was wipe him with a towel dipped in brandy. I’m assuming it was to protect him from germs (like how alcohol is used to kill germs in wounds etc).

2. Dad’s older sister died a few days after she was born. Apparently, she was a blue baby – born with congenital heart problems – and therefore, they used to wrap her in a towel wet with brandy. Alcohol is associated with keeping the body warm, so dad assumes that is the reason.

Why I use words like “assume” and “was told” is because of course, both were not born when it happened. This means that the story was passed down so some accuracy of facts cannot be 100% lah.

But brandy and beer are two very different things (in case some of you who are not alcoholics, don’t know). That said, @andygts did tweet a reply that he was bathed in Guinness Stout as a baby.

This lead me to Google (naturally). So while I couldn’t find much information on babies being bathed in beer, I did find some references to Guinness Stout – not all in Malaysia, a couple were in Singapore.

• Someone in a Women’s site’s forum mentioned that a nanny suggested her baby be bathed in Guinness Stout if he/she has jaundice. I found a few references to this.
• An new aunt discovered a can of Guinness Stout in the bathroom. She makes a reference to Cleopatra and milk (the Egyptian queen was known to take milk baths – maybe stout didn’t exist then. Heh heh)
• A mum-to-be has 10 cans of Guinness Stout on her list of things to buy in anticipation of the baby’s arrival.
• A nurse tells a mum-to-be that bathing a baby in Guinness Stout is good for the baby’s skin and complexion.

This blogpost even has a picture of the baby being baths in Guinness Stout!

Blogger Reiko confirmed via a tweet that she baths her babies in Guinness as well. @akukelabu also said that babies are bathed in “beer/brandy/alcohol”.

It is important to note here, that in many of the cases, it’s not like they put the baby in a bathtub, crack open a can and pour it over the child. Most of the time, the drinks are mixed with water.

So perhaps there is some truth to the original tweet. But I guess a tweet like that is bound to get a reaction with the use of the word “Malaysians”, as it is generalising.

I tried to look for the one paediatrician that I know to comment on this but he’s in the US and probably asleep now. I’ll update this when I get to chat to him. So yeah, while many people are doing it, I’m not saying if it’s the right or wrong thing to do as I have no expertise in this area. As with most other things to do with your health (and in this case, your child’s), I’d suggest you run it by a doctor (and not just the nurse, or nanny!).

Anyone has similar stories to share? Or have a medical explanation both in favour or against it?

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Niki Cheong is a full-time journalist, part-time actor and social media advocate. He is also known as The Bangsar Boy, and blogs at nikicheong.com.