To leave a four year old downstairs alone for about an hour?

Ah if baths helped your eczema then it must be the same for everyone in the world with it?

It's fine if your child is happy.
Other options are play a game with him in the bathroom while younger child in the bath - snap or colouring or Duplo etc.
Or bath them both less frequently.
Doing bedtime routine together is undoubtedly much quicker so I would aim for that in the long run - they can choose 1 or 2 stories each and sit in your knee for their story. They can listen to the other story or play quietly in the bedroom if they don't want to listen. May need to be a bit strict to begin with but they soon get into a routine with it.

Ffs…. They don’t help Ops child’s eczema, as she has said. Why are people insisting that they know better than a hcp and the child’s mother

Why are people recommending daily baths when Op has specifically said that it’s helped her child’s eczema since she reduced bathing, and that a hcp has recommended the reduction? Having had a child with severe eczema, it is often trial and error with this type of thing. One very short shower per week was what worked for Ds, but I wouldn’t tell Op she is bathing her child far too much.

As long as it's a shoutable distance for both of you, he knows he's welcome upstairs, and you (knowing your specific child best as you do) aren't worried about him doing anything wild then I think it's perfectly fine. I'd probably get in the habit of asking him each night "do you want to watch your show downstairs or in my bed?" Easy enough and then it's always his choice.

I'm an introvert - I have always needed alone time from when I was a toddler - and I think it always seemed logical to me that even small children need opportunities to enjoy time by themselves, especially after full days of school and then evenings with siblings.

A 4 year who can occupy themself for an hour ? That is brilliant . Teachers will thank you. As long as he has access to toys, books, and it’s not all screen time it’s a win win.

I'd just let him have a bath with Aveeno or Oilatum or something super gentle. Baths help my eczema!

I would be happy leaving a sensible four year old downstairs watching TV for an hour but if you’re worried you could have a baby monitor in the TV room to keep an eye or get a small Tv for somewhere upstairs x

I agree.

Wow that’s dramatic

no bookshelves in my living room. Maybe op is the same

Balls are not for kicking indoors and again very unlikely the ball would hit tv - fall over and kill ds

Daddy wouldn’t do that - no dad here so never gonna happen

Sure @downthestepsisnt going to leave a pan of boiling water on the stove for ds pull off 🙄

Bet you’re wishing you never mentioned the eczema now 🤦🏼‍♀️

Oh give over. We don’t need to spend every waking moment entertaining kids. A child watching telly for an hour is fine.

Agree with the points about daily bathing for eczema. My daughter was under the care of dermatologists for her eczema at that age and they strongly recommended daily baths (no more than 10 mins) and emollient afterwards. Her eczema has almost completely cleared now and she is off steroids.

No. She’s been told not to put him in the bath and didn’t ask for advice about products or including him in the bath or facilitating a bath for both of them. That was not her question and unless you’re a qualified dermatologist who’s seen the child and got a full patient history medical advice is not what you should be giving.

Its entirely unnecessary to make a 4 year old play on a bathroom floor and follow mum around while she does bedtime for sibling.

I think he should join in with story time. He needs to learn to share, and it’s good bonding time with the baby, and the chance for you all to have some family time. It’s a bit sad that he’s watching TV for an hour on his own. Lazy parenting, sorry OP.

So my answer was - that the 4yo could either have a bath or join OP in the bathroom. No need to be facetious. Kids with ezcema DO have baths, you know.

Yes, that daily hour of sub-standard cognitive development is going to make the difference between whether OP’s son grows up to be an AI prompter or an AI prompter’s boss. It’s not too late to save him OP!

Yes, I read the OP. Her 4yo needs to have a bath with younger child… there are lots of eczema friendly bath products (both on and off prescription) and they only need to sit in a couple of inches of water which would not exacerbate it. Mine suffered from eczema too. Failing that, 4yo brings some toys up and plays beside the bath. They could even help…

I know when I’m putting two small children to bed solo, the first thing I do is get a massive pan of water boiling on the hob with the handle sticking out at child height instead of on the back burner then scatter all my medication around for a scavenger hunt, can’t believe this isn’t part of every standard bedtime routine tbh.

Amazing. The entire question was prompted by the fact that the 4 year old is not having a bath. What question did you think you were answering?

Did you read the OP? 4 year old isn’t having a bath.

I wouldn't be concerned about the child getting hurt so much as the fact that 1 hour unsupervised screen time every night is a lot. It's using the TV as a substitute for social interaction and other activities that are much better for cognitive development. At least if you watch together you can talk about it etc but that isn't the case here.

Of course DC will say they'd prefer to watch TV because that's what children do. This is a case where the parent needs to overrule the child's preferences.

Well said. In reality the reasons they are bathing together are utterly irrelevant and any advice on the skin is unsolicited.

And actually anyone giving medical advice here is off the bat proving they aren’t professional and people you should take advice from because step 1 in dealing with skin is don’t advise until you’ve seen it and got a full history from the patient.

Not sure I understand why you are setting up the routine this way - I have a 3yr age gap with mine. Bath time was done together even when youngest was 18m old - you just leave 4yo in the bath with bath toys for older kids while you are dressing/drying/tooth brushing younger one (staying in the same room on a mat/table beside the bath). Then you pop younger one in his cot while you get older one out. You then send older one to watch a bit of bed time telly (in the night garden etc) to wind down while you focus for 15mins on the younger one. Then older one gets your attention again. Mothers have been juggling this for centuries without abandoning one child to an hours worth of technology or CBeebies…