At the seaside, children can’t wait to jump into the water. But here comes the stop from worried mom and dad: you can’t swim, you’ve eaten ! But is it really so? Do I have to wait 3 hours before being able to take a bath after having lunch?
As we have already told you in a previous article , taking a bath after eating is not as dangerous as you think. It is in fact an all-Italian cliché and very widespread on the beach, swimming pool and in our lakes but without any scientific basis as well as denied by the concrete experience of people living in the rest of the world.
Many believe that taking a bath after eating can be dangerous as water, especially if cold, could interrupt digestion, thus causing congestion . According to experts this is a mistaken belief, so much so that in other countries this custom of waiting for the end of digestion before taking a bath does not exist at all and there is an increase in cases of congestion (or worse still drowning) due to different habits.
As Riccardo Ristori, first aid doctor and scientific director of the Salvamento Academy stated :
“In fact, there is no scientific study that correlates the digestive phase with the risk of drowning. Our body, if it is in a healthy condition, is perfectly able to stay in water and at the same time to carry out and complete the physiological digestive process. The most frequent causes of drowning are other: in the child, the lack of surveillance while in the adult the inability to get out of a current area and the onset of a pathology (stroke, heart attack, convulsion) that occurs randomly in water “.
Basically, therefore, we and our children can safely bathe even after eating if we feel good and our body does not send us signs of discomfort. In that case, obviously, it is better not to dive but not even to stay in the sun.
However, good advice for those who love to take long baths are:
- Eat a light lunch
- Avoid alcohol
- Gradually immerse yourself in the waterif it is very cold or you are particularly hot
- Get out of the water if you feel chills, your lips turn purple, or your skin is very wrinkled
- Always supervise children
Basically, to know if we can take a bath or not, we must listen to the advice of our body. The signals it sends us in this sense can be important and we should not pay attention just before entering the water but always.
On bathing in the sea, you may also be interested in:
- Taking a bath after eating is not dangerous, but beware of temperature changes and binges
- Why do fingers wrinkle in water?
- How to get rid of water from your ears
In conclusion: let’s relax a little more on the beach and let the children free to splash around whenever they want !
