What Are Bath Salts? (for Parents) (2024)

What Are Bath Salts?

The name "bath salts" sounds innocent, but these are powerful and dangerous stimulant drugs.

What Else Are Bath Salts Called?

bloom, cloud nine, flakka, scarface, vanilla sky, and white lightning

How Are Bath Salts Used?

Bath salts are sold as a white or off-white powder, mostly in small plastic or foil packages. The drugsare usually snorted (sniffed up a nostril). They also can be swallowed, smoked, or mixed with a liquid and injected with a syringe.

What Do Bath Salts Do?

Bath salts contain manmade chemicals that increase brain and central nervous system activity in much the same way asdrugs likeamphetamines or MDMA (Ecstasy).

Bath salts can cause users to have an out-of-body experience, elated mood, or feel delirious. These effects can last up to 3–4 hours.

Other short-term effects include:

  • agitation and irritability
  • insomnia
  • dizziness
  • panic attacks
  • depression
  • suicidal thoughts
  • paranoia
  • delusions and hallucinations
  • distorted sense of reality
  • decreased ability to think clearly
  • mood disturbances and psychosis

Physical effects of bath salts include:

  • decreased muscle and body control
  • increased blood pressure and body temperature
  • chest pains
  • irregular heartbeat
  • nosebleeds
  • feeling sick and throwing up
  • seizures
  • stroke
  • heart attack
  • brain swelling

Userscan also develop what is called "excited delirium." When this happens, people get dehydrated, their muscle tissue breaks down, and they can go into kidney failure and die.

Long-term abuse of bath saltsmay cause people to have hallucinations, hear voices, feel paranoid, and develop a psychosis that resembles schizophrenia.

People who use bath salts easily can getaddictedto them. They mayfeel driven to do whatever they can to keep getting high, including taking risks.

Bath salts can cause heart problems and seizures. Taking too much of the drug at one timecan lead to an overdose. All these things can be deadly, even if someone only tries the drug once.

Bath salts have caused a number of deaths and been blamed for a handful of suicides and murders.

Where Can I Find Help?

If you or someone you know is fighting drug addiction, recovery is possible. Talk to your health care provider or check your state or local health department websites.

You also can get more information and support by calling 1-800-662-HELP (4357), or online at:

What Are Bath Salts?  (for Parents) (2024)

FAQs

What Are Bath Salts? (for Parents)? ›

Bath salts are known for relaxing tense muscles and reducing aches and pains. Indeed, there is some evidence that salt bath benefits extend to reducing inflammation which in turn eases pain. This is true whether your aches are coming from pushing too hard at the gym or because your arthritis is playing up.

What do bath salts do in a bath? ›

Bath salts are known for relaxing tense muscles and reducing aches and pains. Indeed, there is some evidence that salt bath benefits extend to reducing inflammation which in turn eases pain. This is true whether your aches are coming from pushing too hard at the gym or because your arthritis is playing up.

Are Epsom salts the same as bath salts? ›

True bath salts are therapeutic bathing products that contain the active ingredient magnesium sulfate, also known as Epsom salts. Epsom salts do not belong to the same chemical family as actual table salt.

Can you use bath salt with kids? ›

It is absolutely safe to take an Epsom salt bath for toddlers, children, and adults. When the salts are dissolved in bath water, they release magnesium and sulfate ions that are absorbed through the skin.

What is bath salt and how do you use it? ›

Bath salts, which are commonly made from magnesium sulfate (Epsom salt) or sea salt, are easily dissolved in warm bath water and used for everything from stress relief to aches and pains.

Do you need to wash off bath salts? ›

If you decide not to rinse off afterwards, your body may benefit for longer from the purported healing properties of the salt. However, Epsom salts can sometimes have a drying effect, so you may want to have a quick rinse off afterwards, especially if you have dry skin anyway.

Should you rinse off after using bath salts? ›

Follow your bath with a cool shower to rinse off excess salt and replenish the pH of your skin. Pat skin dry.

Who should not soak in Epsom salt? ›

Epsom salt baths aren't recommended for people with: Severe skin inflammation. Skin infections. Open wounds.

Does Epsom salt pull toxins out of your body? ›

Epsom salt contains magnesium and may help the body get rid of toxins responsible for exacerbating inflammation while also reducing swelling, stiffness, and pain.

What point do you put bath salts in? ›

First of all, you fill your bath with water on a warm temperature of choice. A bath has a good temperature when it is between 36 and 38 degrees Celsius. First, feel with your wrist in the water if it is not too hot and adjust when needed. Then add some bath salt to the bath.

What age should you stop having a bath with your child? ›

In general, I would say that by the age of 8 or 9 years-10 at the latest-most children have developed enough of a sense of personal boundaries and body space that they no longer want to shower with a parent or bathe with a sibling of the opposite sex.

Are bath salts safe for girls? ›

Bath salts can lead to changes in vagin*l pH levels, which can increase the likelihood of yeast infections and vagin*l irritation.

Is Dr Teals bath salts safe for kids? ›

Dr Teal's Gentle Epsom Bath is specially formulated to create a soothing bath time experience for your kids. This hypoallergenic formula combines Pure Epsom Salt, known for its ability to soothe skin and growing bodies, with Melatonin, a natural hormone that helps regulate sleep and wake cycles.

Do you use soap with bath salts? ›

Aim to soak for at least 12 minutes, and DO NOT USE SOAP. Soap will interfere with the action of the salts. Rest for about two hours afterwards, or better yet, take your bath just before bed!

What happens after a salt bath? ›

Taking a sea salt bath not only helps you relax, but it can also: ease achy muscles and joints. stimulate circulation. calm irritated skin.

Do bath salts remove toxins? ›

Having your bath with Epsom salt is a great way to draw out toxins from your body without any side effects. Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate, and this is a very important mineral compound that balances the body's biological process and makes releasing toxins easier.

What happens if you put too much bath salt in the bath? ›

Don't add too much epsom salts

Remember, while magnesium is a good mineral, too much of it can cause some of those unwanted side-effects like lethargy or muscle weakness. Traditional epsom salts recommend you use 1 to 2 cups of epsom salts.

Do salt baths help infections? ›

1. Treating fungal infection. Epsom salt has been used to treat wounds and infections, but caution is recommended because it could also irritate the wound. While it doesn't cure the infection, Epsom salt can be used to draw out the infection and soften the skin to help boost medication effects.

How long should you soak in Epsom salts? ›

If a person is unsure about how to use Epsom salts in their bath, they can follow these steps: Use 2 cups of Epsom salt for a standard-size bathtub. Pour the Epsom salt into warm running water. Soak in an Epsom salt bath for 15–30 minutes or up to 1 hour.

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