Pediatrician mom weighs in on the debate: Should your kids change clothes after school?

With the school year back in full swing and cold and flu season looming (or even beginning for some unlucky households), we’re all interested in more tips for how to keep our families safe from bugs, germs, and viruses that proliferate in schools and hitch a ride home with students. After seeing a few doctors share one tip—changing clothes after school as soon as they get home at the end of the day—Dr. Gabriella Dauer, a mom and pediatrician, who posts on TikTok as @oncallpeds, decided to do some research to see if there’s any truth to that advice.

“Do you guys change your kids’ clothing when they come home from school?” she asks in her video on the topic. “I actually thought this would be an old wives tale, but I saw two pediatricians that I actually follow recently posting about this, like ‘One of the ways to keep your kids safe is to change their clothes when they get home.’ I have never done this.”

She does note that if her kids are particularly grungey or if their clothes are soiled from sports practice, of course they change. But otherwise, their school uniforms are fair game to play in until bathtime at the end of the night.

“I wanted to look into it and really look into the research and see: Can you actually get sick from anything on your clothing?” she continued, and there’s good news for moms who also don’t bother with new outfits after pick-up time. 

“Chances are slim to none,” she said. “[It’s] extraordinarily rare that enough staph or enough e. coli are actually going to be living on your clothing for enough time that you’re going to touch that area and then touch your mouth and nose. It’d have to be the perfect storm for you to ever get sick.”

There are some exceptions to the rule of changing clothes after school, of course. Healthcare workers who are routinely around sick people at work might want to change when they get home. And immunocompromised people are most at-risk to encounter the “perfect storm” she mentions, so if you have any of those in your household, changing is a good idea. But generally speaking, for healthy kids and adults who don’t spend time in environments where they’re exposed to a lot of pathogens, this isn’t really something to worry about.

“Honestly, I’m really shocked with this myth being passed around,” Dauer said. Now we can all do our part to stop that!