Bathing a 4 month old

[MannUp]

How often should I bathe my 4 month old? I bathe him twice a week at the mo and wonder if this is enough. He is prone to dry skin do I'm still just using water- should I be using products? Thanks in advance!

[noblegiraffe]

Unless he has covered himself in poo and needs an impromtu bath, that's fine. Babies don't do much to get dirty at that age. Once they start weaning is when you start needing to wash them more often as they end up covered in food.

[Kafri]

Hi, I don't think there is a 'right and wrong'.

I started to shower my LO with ,e at about 4m as he was screaming so much when I bathed him. He's 5m now and still showers with me but I take him in every other night now.
As a tiny, I would bathe him every night as was recommended by his consultant (he had awful tummy trouble as a tiny and cons suggested the warm water may help relieve this) but there was no reason other than his tummy to bathe him every day. Similarly, a friends HV told her to bathe every day while my sisters HV advised not to and do it a couple of times a week.

As for products - the only thing I use with DS is baby oil on his head to help with cradle cap - the dentinox shampoo did nothing but the baby oil seems to be doing the trick, he only has 3 tiny tiny patches now. If LO has dry skin, you could try baby oil while bathing and see if it helps any.

One thing I was advised against was using any of the scented products marketed for babies, tough i'm sure others have had these advised to them (and if they've survived the testing they undergo then I wouldn't think they could do any damage - unless DC shows allergies of course).

[MannUp]

Thanks for the advice!

[wibblyjelly]

When ds was a newborn baby, our HV advised every other day. This is what we are still doing at 7 months.

[Pinkie29]

We give our 12 week old a bath every night before bed, it's become part of her routine and she really enjoys it, I think it's just individual choice and hv said 2 or 3 times a week is fine, we use Johnsons bedtime bath, she seems more settled with the routine in place now and actually gets grumpy about half 7 if she's hasn't been bathed!

[minipie]

We do a bath every night for our 6month old, have done since about 8weeks, but mainly because she loves it and to have a bedtime routine rather than because she is grubby (although now weaning has started she does actually need it!)

we just use water but then she has virtually no hair!

[Dogsmom]

I bathe my 10 week old every night but purely because she likes it so much, I use Johnsons baby bath, I initially only used water but her skin became very dry, we're in a hard water area though and it does the same to my skin too if I don't use bubble bath.

[lola88]

Ds goes in the bath every night, he suffers very dry skin so I only use a tiny amount of simple moisturising bath. I don't keep him in for more than 15mins as the water can actually dry his skin and only wash him if he's dirty (simple soap bar) so usually just his face and hands I do his hair once a week (simple shampoo) unless he's rubbed something in I can't get out with water alone also wash last thing so he is not sitting in the rinsed off shampoo and soap.

DS is 15 months so does get quite dirty during the day but it mostly comes off with the water it's self while he's splashing about.

[Pinkyorkbunny]

When my DD was 4 months we would put her in the bath every other night or sometimes every third night... now she is 8 months we do it every night as part of her bedtime routine.

[VikingLady]

USA guidelines are only when they are dirty in their first year!