Gabrielle Union Politely Claps Back After Being Criticized For Kissing Baby Kaavia On The Lips

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While spending quality time with her baby girl, Kaavia, Gabrielle Union couldn’t help but shower her with kisses. Unfortunately though, people had a lot to say about her decision to do so, and started to nitpick other concerns they had with how Kaavia is being cared for.

The 46-year-old, who returned to work on the set of the Bad Boys spinoff series L.A.’s Finest, played “I Like” by Hi-Five while she showed her daughter some TLC. Soon after posting, some people started saying that for the sake of the baby’s health and the immune system she’s trying to build, Union should be careful about kissing her on the lips. Some also pointed out that the breathing of Kaavia seemed labored and that it could be an early sign of asthma. People conveniently became amateur doctors on the star’s Instagram page.

But after a while, Union decided to politely set everyone straight and make it clear that she wouldn’t do anything to harm her miracle baby.

“Hey guys I appreciate all the concern about kisses on the mouth and labored breathing, I am blessed enough to have a nurse here with us while at work,” she wrote in response. “Kaav is healthy and I don’t even touch her without washing and sanitizing myself and everything and everyone that comes into contact with her. No visits with sick folk and even all of Oprah’s crew got whooping cough vaccinations and current on all vaccinations to be in our home. If you think I waited this long and went thru [sic] all this to put my baby in harm’s way… you got another thing coming.”

For the record, kissing a baby on the lips can be dangerous in some cases. Studies have found many Americans, 48 percent, are infected with the herpes simplex 1 virus, or basic cold sores, which are very common blisters on the mouth. Some tend to not see them until they ooze and crust. A child, Mariana Sifrit, died after contracting that virus after reportedly being kissed. However, with infection happening mostly from mothers who have HSV-2 (genital herpes) it and passing it to their babies when they come through the birth canal, the reality is that the kiss-causing transmission of HSV-1 is not very common. Still, anyone other than the parents shouldn’t be kissing on a child, and parents who do should keep their eyes on their mouths to ensure all is clear. But with Union having a nurse around to help, baby girl will be just fine. Wade has kissed her on the lips in the past, and nothing happened:

This isn’t the first time Union or husband Dwyane Wade have delivered clapbacks against those who have been critical about the way they’ve gone about parenting. In their upcoming special with Oprah Winfrey, Oprah at Home With Gabrielle Union, Dwyane Wade & Their New Baby, Wade called those who had negative things about how they announced the arrival of their daughter, which was done via a photo shoot in a hospital with Union wearing a gown, “uneducated.”

“For me, the most hurtful thing was once we had our baby and everybody started talking about, ‘Why is she in the bed holding the baby? Why she got a gown on? Why is she acting like she just had a baby?'” he said. “Once again, people are uneducated on the process and why we decided to go skin-to-skin as soon as our baby came out.”