# Colloidal oatmeal baths: relaxing soak or POOL OF POISON?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colloidal-oatmeal-baths-relaxing-soak-or-pool-of-poison/437480>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 13, 2008, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colloidal-oatmeal-baths-relaxing-soak-or-pool-of-poison/437480 "2008-02-13T19:26:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![brossa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brossa/32/3040_2.png) [@brossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brossa)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colloidal-oatmeal-baths-relaxing-soak-or-pool-of-poison/437480/21 "2015-12-02T20:56:34Z")

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> [@moriah](#):
>
> Dry oatmeal expands a lot when a lot of water is added. Also, if just a little water is added, it can become like thick paste.
> 
> Neither scenario is good for a child eating it dry.

I am reminded of the book _The Emigrants_, in which a four year old girl gorges herself on porridge that has not soaked sufficiently. The grain continues to swell and swell in her belly until her bowel ruptures and she dies.

That would probably not happen with ground-up oatmeal, but I think **moriah** is right in that a couple of spoonfuls of powder could make a pretty solid sludge in the GI tract.

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**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2015, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colloidal-oatmeal-baths-relaxing-soak-or-pool-of-poison/437480/22 "2015-12-03T17:51:16Z")

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> [@brossa](#):
>
> That would probably not happen with ground-up oatmeal, but I think **moriah** is right in that a couple of spoonfuls of powder could make a pretty solid sludge in the GI tract.

The stuff we have has mineral oil in it, so I think it’s a self-correcting problem. :eek:

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**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2015, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colloidal-oatmeal-baths-relaxing-soak-or-pool-of-poison/437480/23 "2015-12-04T07:10:53Z")

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By the time one is finished soaking oneself in it, I probably wouldn’t eat it.

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**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2015, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colloidal-oatmeal-baths-relaxing-soak-or-pool-of-poison/437480/24 "2015-12-05T12:26:35Z")

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> [@CookingWithGas](#):
>
> Not a crock, [according to NIH](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17373175).
> 
> Doesn’t shed any light on the warning label, though.

Thats his retirement paper… his swan song… the fat lady singing. He got mentioned only in a few papers from 1970 … and its an opinion piece beating up the presence of ‘phenols’ in oats.  
They published it, but how credible is it, does the paper even say that there is any actual effect of the phenols as anti inflammatory ? The greater benefit might be that the skin absorbs about a pico-gram of starch… hey thats like eating !. Why not just eat it ? The paper doesn’t suggest why eating a few oat grans wouldn’t be far more effective…

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