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Why you should never kiss a baby

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2024-11-26 18:30:05

Primrose Freestone does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

There is a cognitive bias called “the curse of knowledge” (sometimes also called “the curse of expertise”). It happens when you incorrectly assume that everyone knows as much as you do on a given topic. As a clinical microbiologist, I assumed everyone knew that it was a terrible idea to kiss a newborn baby anywhere on its head.

Dr Karan Raj, an NHS surgeon, recently made a TikTok warning people of the dangers of kissing a baby and judging by the thousands of comments, this was news to many on the social media platform.

Late last year, a UK charity called The Lullaby Trust published the result of a survey which revealed that 54% of new and expectant parents would “let friends and family kiss their newborn baby, unaware of the risk of serious infection”.