Check Your Halachos for Anachronism
I recently heard an audio Torah lesson from state-prostitute Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef (son of Rabbi Ovadya). Discussing יד מסמא יד מחרשת (O.C. 4:3), he said it still “applies”, and since one must wash hands after sleeping during the day (O.C. 4:15), therefore, one must also wash the hands of an infant (from the age it holds food directly, as opposed to a bottle) after every single nap (no mention of length) so it doesn’t go blind and deaf.
I’m not going to go into the independent onion-layers of ignorance shown here (per ספק ספיקא המתהפך). I wish to point out only the thought process which does and would have prevented many similar notions by modern Torah students: Try to imagine the sages of the Talmud actually ruling – and living! – according to your proposed understanding. In this case, the sheer logistics of using that much water, and the price of the water, not kept artificially low, as it is today.