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Fatwa CenterWashing impurity from toddler
Question
Assalaamu alaykum. I want to ask how I should give a bath to my one-year-old baby when he has passed stool or urine and put his hand in it and then touched his other body parts as well. I used to wash his hands first, but then while washing his private parts, he would again touch his body where he touched earlier with his dirty hands. Also, when take off his clothes, he touches me as he cannot yet stand independently. So I start washing my arms and hands and meanwhile he touches his face and head and so on. So when I wash him, I keep on washing him for a long time. Can I ignore it if he touches his testis before I could wash his urine and then he touches the shower? I wash him and his hands, but then he again touches that shower, so can I ignore that, or shoud I again wash his hands as he touched the dirty shower? What are the concessions for small babies and mothers? Thank you.
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
The matter is much simpler than that. If your child touches the shower with his hand or touches some parts of his body, then this does not necessarily mean that they are impure (najis) unless you are certain that he touched impurity with his hands.
So you should wash your child normally, starting by removing the impurity from him and then washing the parts of his body that were stained with impurity.
It does not harm if he touches you with his hands, touches his body and then you, or touches the shower and then touches you, and so forth, as long as you do not know with certainty that his hands are impure.
Perhaps you suffer some sort of waswasah (obsessive whisperings) in this regards, so you must avoid these whisperings and not pay any attention to them and act normally and not rule that something has become impure except with absolute certainty.
Some scholars are of the view that a small amount of impurity is totally pardoned, so you may act according to this concession if you are affected with waswasah.
Allaah knows best.
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