Bathed baby in bath too hot!

[Kudds]

I am revisiting something that happened a few yrs ago as it has sort of become relevant.

When my some was around 1, I had accidentally bathed him in very hot water (1-2mins at a time) every day for maybe a week or two. It was maybe 40-42 degrees. He usually would scream when we initially out him in bath so he did that as usual but these times he kept screaming and we just thought he didn't like that bath (I literally can't believe we didn't consider it was too hot!!).

I was using a digital bath thermometer that was apparently not working properly and reading below the actual temperature as I found out later. My hands were very dry and couldn't distinguish water temperature accurately so I had relied on that.

I am revisiting this now as he is now suspected to have ascending testes. During consult with dr we talked about how testes high up are under higher body temperature and so can become impaired. I am now worried that his exposure to hot water baths in the past could also have impaired his testes function.

Has anyone else bathed their kids in such hot water by accident?

A couple of observations... I'm really surprised you could remember the bath temperature from a few years ago. I honestly think reliance on technology and approaching motherhood scientifically and academically is part of the blame here. The thermometer was put above common sense. I have absolutely no idea what temperature I ever bathed any of mine in as I just took a guess. I don't think I used my elbow specifically but I dunked my full arm in from what I recall. To this day I don't know if it was too hot or cold I just gauged each time.

Secondly, if your baby was inclined to cry every time he was bathed anyhow why was he getting a bath every day. Babies do not need to be immersed in water to be clean. Again this sounds like you were following a mothering method that said it was necessary so it was followed blindly against baby's cues.

All I can say is we have all done dumb things OP. I could count many things I did with my first that were either ill informed or misjudged. There is nothing gained by beating yourself up now.

Yea I have had anxiety for a few years.. peaks and troughs... But yes I did make it sound pretty bad in the original post..

And I think k it is true as a first time mum I did rely on tech a bit cos I didn't want water to be too cold or hot and was trying to be exact.. I had used that thermometer since he was a newborn so I trusted it. My skin on my wrists were pretty damaged so even warm water felt much hotter .. that's why I didn't rely on my wrist and if my hands were hot I put it down to damage and not the water actually being too hot..

If you can't bear water hotter than 30 degrees, you have a problem. That's really not hot at all.

How do you know it was 42 degrees if the thermometer was broken?

Update - I took him to see a paediatric urologist today and he has retractable testes but not undescended. Also asked him about the hot water situation and he didn't think it would do any harm and brushed it off. I also asked his paediatrician who said it wouldn't do any harm either. But I do still feel terrible about it..

I know it's hard for some ppl to understand but his cries were not too over the top above normal cries.. I guess we thought it was that he didn't want a bath or maybe it was a cut somewhere but couldn't find anything.. we just quickly rinsed him and took him out.. and I think it happened a few times before we thought to check the temperature cos until then we had relied on that thermometer and we just didn't think that it had stopped being accurate..

Anyway it seems like it's OK and I'll just have to try live with feeling guilty about it and learn from it