Serious fears of contaminating my child

[char4Participant]

Hi all, I really hope someone can help put my fears at bay. I’ve suffered with OCD for many years – tried CBT, various medications however since having my little boy my OCD has got progressively worse. My life is ruled by OCD.

My main fear is contaminating my child with cleaning products. This started as soon as he was born for example I couldn’t prepare a bottle on a surface that had been recently disinfected. This then escalated to not even being able to disinfect any surface even close to any of my babys things. He’s now 2 and it gets worse everyday. I cannot use any cleaning product if my son is in the same room as fears of it being on my hands and me touching him and contaminating him overrule me. I get mad at others who use cleaning products around him as I feel they’re putting him at harm. This causes alot of conflict between me and my family.

If I spray a surface with furniture polish I will then wash my hands incase my child comes near me. This resulting in my hands being washed multiple times a day and being dry and cracked.

Is anyone else suffering from these same thoughts. Would be nice to know I’m not alone.

Thank you for reading

[ArchiveParticipant]

Hi there and welcome.

I myself try to go along with the idea that, the minute amount of anything on our hands, would render such things within harmless parameters. We are bombarded with information on labels, that are more to protect the manufacturers, from any possibility of litigation of any kind, rather than giving us helpful instructions on how to get the most out of the product. In health care it is frightening, hygiene rules seem to contradict. Everything becomes unworkable. There is a new idea on the sidelines… The concept of contamination, where not everything is bad, in fact miniscule contact can actually help our immune systems to strengthen, and ultimately make us stronger. A bit like immunisations.

If we really knew what was in the air we breathe, all of the time, and always have done, well…

We need to allow ourselves to not be 100% perfect, and let our built in natural systems do the work, and our children will need be built up too, in their own time. But it’s not easy is it?

Wannabe

[ArchiveParticipant]

I used to struggle with this one myself… Food hygiene lectures in care work… I ended up believing that everything was lethal…

Thankfully, it isn’t.  It is large companies trying to make us buy more and more of their products…

Domestic products have to be okay to even be touched by untrained/unlicensed persons.  By law.

If we can get it in an ordinary shop, it is relatively safe anyway.

Thankfully, I  am now in recovery from full blown contamination Ocd.

It can be done!

Wannabe

[char4ParticipantParticipant]

I’m so happy to hear you’re in recovery. I really hope I can say that one day. I don’t want this to rub off on my son as he’s already beginning to want to wash his hands alot. Even disinfecting the kitchen surfaces and then picking up his Dummy to give to him I’d have to wash my hands in between. It’s ruling my life.

Other fears I struggle with is my little boy touching things such as bird poo, flowers and plants that could be poisonous, I wear gloves when fuelling my car as the thought of contaminating him with petrol fills me with dread.

Really hope there’s hope for me.

Thank you

Char4

[ArchiveParticipant]

Hi there,

I sometimes look at what we will have touched when we were little ourselves… Before computers we played outside a lot… People would never have cleaned up dog poo etc.

We were literally never clean… And as for household chemicals!  Toilets.   They were supposed to be dangerous whatever we did.

I worked in casework for a while. The manager freaked out with the amount of household bleach we were buying. We were bleaching toilets twice every shift, to give staff something to do (!). Six times every 24 hours! We were practically inhaling the stuff…

It is bringing things into perspective and proportion. Our natural defences are incredibly good. We are very protected from our world around us. We actually need a certain amount of grubbiness to keep our defences fighting and strong, it is part of nature. Our kids need to build their own defences, crawling on the floor before walking is amazingly important!

Looking back, it’s amazing what we come through, often without us even being aware. Amazing ????

Wannabe

[char4ParticipantParticipant]

Hi yes I do often think about when I was little and how dirty I used to get when playing outside and what I must have touched etc. My mum also says to me ” I never harmed anyone whilst you were growing up and I’ve always used household cleaners”. I suppose she has a point.

I’m really hoping this forum helps me to offload to people who understand and then I’ll hopefully start to feel better/manage my OCD better.

Thank you

Char4

[ArchiveParticipant]

Mmmmm…. I  never cease to be amazed at what we come through… Our natural resistance/defences to the wrold around us is truly amazing!  H.G Wells story, ‘War of the worlds’ is testament to that…

Wannabe

[Author]

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