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Chrissy Teigen and Kim Kardashian Bond Over Accidentally Getting Spray Tan on Babies

Friends Chrissy Teigen and Kim Kardashian commiserate about mom life; they don't judge. (Photo: Getty)
Friends Chrissy Teigen and Kim Kardashian commiserate about mom life; they don’t judge. (Photo: Getty)

Nobody’s perfect — even the most doting moms in the world are only human. In a video posted to Instagram, model Chrissy Teigen jokes with Kim Kardashian about moms who nursed their babies and forgot their spray tans hadn’t dried yet, leaving the hungry infants with orange faces. “That happened to North once,” Kardashian admits with a smile. The lighthearted exchange between girlfriends is part of Kardashian’s #KKWinnerCircle series, which can be seen in full on Kardashian’s app.

Our #KKWinnercircle is up on @kimkardashian’s app! (We have not spray tanned our babies) (today)

A video posted by chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) on Jul 25, 2016 at 8:53am PDT

The “memes” Teigen refers to in the clip probably include a mother of two whose Facebook post — a photo of her spray-tan-stained son — was captioned, “This is what happens when you breastfeed after fake-baking.” According to a post on Yahoo News last summer, the mom, Gemma Colley of Leeds, England, was trying to get a laugh from fellow moms on Unmumsy Mum’s public Facebook page when she wrote, “From one mum to another, I’d like to let you know about my epic fail of fails. Yesterday I had a spray tan, a few hours later I breastfed my little boy. Cue 5 o’clock shadow and a very guilty mummy. Lesson to you all. Don’t do this.”

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The photo went viral, racking up almost 150,000 likes in less than 24 hours, plus 18,000 comments and 37,000 shares. Most moms were amused, but others, not so much. To prevent public backlash, a breastfeeding advocacy group, the Breastfeeding Place, quickly came to Colley’s defense, writing, “sunless tanning has shown no evidence to be harmful to a nursing baby. “This includes self-tanning lotions as well as spray tans and airbrush tans. It is recommended to avoid the nipples and areola when applying. Also allow the sunless tanning product to dry completely for at least an hour before nursing your baby.

Still, Colley felt the heat, and she felt forced to reply openly to the haters. In a post on her blog, Colleys Wobbles, titled “Nobody’s Perfect,” the mom explained her goof and appealed to her fellow parents to understand that she’s a human being, and she makes mistakes just like anyone. She laments the “abuse” she took from her mommy-blogger community. “So what abuse did I receive? A number of people telling me I shouldn’t be allowed to be a parent, I was selfish for getting a spray tan and should spend my time with my boys, I’d intentionally poisoned my son with chemicals, I’m the worst mum in the world, I was a f*&%ing whore, and I’d given him cancer.” Yikes!

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But most of these women probably made their hurtful accusations without consulting professionals. “It is safe to use self-tanning products while breastfeeding. There is no scientific evidence to show that the use of cosmetics makes breast milk unsafe,” says Eleanor O’Connor, communications coordinator for the Cosmetic Toiletry & Perfumery Association. “Because cosmetics are applied externally to the skin and hair, rather than swallowed, they can have no detectable effect on breast milk.”

That said, new moms should not go around believing that it’s completely fine for spray tans to rub off on their little ones’ skin. “Whilst breastfeeding it is best not to apply self-tanning products onto breasts to avoid a baby swallowing it and also it won’t taste or smell very nice for the baby,” says O’Connor.

The lesson learned? Avoid this breastfeeding snafu, but if it happens, don’t beat up yourself — or anyone else — over it.

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