to think people who don't bath/wash their DCs every night are lazy?

[BigMommaOf4]

I am shocked by the amount of people on here who state that they only bathe/wash their DCs once or twice a week. OK bad cases of excema accepted, I just think that's soooo lazy. No one IRL I know leaves it that long so is it just a peculiar Mumsnet trait because they are too busy MNing?

DTS1 has excema btw, I just cover him in an emollient before he gets in the bath and it does not exercerbate it.

I mean, come on, babies and toddlers in nappies, older Dcs not very efficient at bum wipeing - how can people leave them to fester for days?

In the 'olden days' when tin baths had to be got out and water boiled in a copper pot, obviously it was not possible every day but nowadays that's not the case.

Also my DCs love RELAXING in the bath/shower. It's not only for cleanliness. They love feeling warm, clean and comfortable before getting into bed. Even my 12 week old starts getting excited just from me taking him upstairs of an evening because he knows he's going in the bath and he adores it.

Do all these people, who only bath their DCs twice a year, have a bath/shower every day themselves? Bet they do! Feel sorry for the poor DCs.

I developed ms while I was pg with dd who is our one and only child.

By the time she was born I was so weak and ill I could hardly hold her (she weighed 6lb 2oz). My muscles fatigued within 30seconds and by 3 minutes you would find me collapsed on the floor (am intimately acquainted with many many shop floors!).

Bathing dd, even as a tiny baby, was a serious problem. At the time, no one knew what was wrong with me and I was treated as a malingerer, lazy, useless and burdensome. People were disgusted that I couldn't keep on top of the washing up (couldn't stand up long enough), let alone wash a baby. I couldn't bend over the bath. I couldn't lift the plastic baby bath. What was I meant to do?

My condition continued to plummet until dd was nearly 3, when I lost of the use of the right side of my body. At this point the process started to get me a dx and people started to realise that I wasn't lazy, etc etc.

Even so, not one person offered to bath dd for me. Not one.

Having failed to establish a habit which I would very much like to have established, it was not too easy to introduce. Particularly as I still couldn't bath her with anything approaching ease; it was still as stressful and painful for me as it ever had been.

It is only in the last few years that I have been able to do things like that without too much pain, and that my muscles have stopped turning into water within a very short time.

Meanwhile, dd has grown up. She is now 11. She is more interested in keeping her hair clean and shiny etc so is establishing her own routine of bath every other night. Good on her.

Bonsoir, 'Aqueous cream aggravates eczema' piece here -- sodium lauryl sulfate, found in many soaps, body washes and shampoos, is a culprit in aggravating eczema, apparently.

Eczema and asthma link here.

I am terribly lazy so yes that is indeed the main reason I never give kids a bath every night.

I also think it's making a rod for your own back as it teaches small kids to only go to sleep if they've had a faffy, mostly unnecessary bath. Whjat even if you've been out all day and get back at 9.30pm. Pffft. Stuff that.

Life's too short.

Also, I'm so terrible even I don't have a shower every day, just every other day. So now you really better call CID and be done with it.

mathanxiety

thanks for that link, which makes total sense. I actually just bought some aqueous cream for ezcema - won't be using it now.

Our derm nurse (who is brilliant and bang up to date) told us on our last visit that aqueous cream is now not recommended for eczema. Bet GPs will continue to dole it out as a first line treatment for years yet..

Well... better phone Social services on me then... my 4YO has'nt had a bath since Thursday... purely based on the fact that he is caked in chiken pox and it hurts so we have just been wiping down, calomining and change of pj's! :o

Normally though we bath him every 2nd/3rd night unless he really needs it in between, it is a fact that it dries skin out and he has to have Aqueous baths so the less we have toi use it the better. He's clean enough, does'nt smell and is not caked in snot/shit for days on end so what's the ishoo? :o

BTW I think Aqueous is okay in water as a soap substitute AFAIK

Remember what the head witch would shout if she smelled a child in Roald Dahl's 'The Witches' - "Dog droppings!". Brahahahaha [hgrin].

Seriously though, bathing the DCs daily is a faff but have you stood in full waft of a class full of kids after break time? My very dear friend, whom I was teaching with on one such occasion took a quick sniff and exclaimed to me under his breath, "rabbit hutch!" as we were both standing there trying our best not to breathe too deeply whilst leading a session.

Having said that, I had one bath a week as a child [never did me any harm emoticon].

Honesty, schools smell like rabbit hutches even when they are empty though.

I bath my older 2 (7 and 5) every other night but my 20 month old has a bath every night because of nappies and her being the messiest eater in the world.

I used to bath my older 2 every day but was told to stop by my dermatologist as it was aggrievating their excema. Every other day seems to be keeping it at bay

I used to have eczema. My excellent dermatologist put me on a routine of showering daily followed by a moisturising routine (which I won't go into in detail) and... It worked! No more eczema:)
Different strokes for different folks. Everyone's case is different.

I've never quite understood the desire to shower/bath, get all clean to lie in clothes you've been wearing all week, in a bed full of dead skin. What's so clean about that, OP?

Or do you change pj's and sheets every day?

my kids get clean pjs after every shower, although admittedly climb into a bed which usually has the same sheets for a couple of weeks.

Personally i prefer morning showers but logistacally with a house of 5 not-morning people it doesn't work

omg i dont give dd clean jammies everyday, they get changed when the elbows and knees are out of shape [hgrin]

I think Sodium Lauryl Sulfate is not recommended at all for people with eczema, Mamadiva, (so Aqueous Cream falls into this category although up to very recently it used to be recommended) Article on SLS and normal use but it should be noted that the USFDA grandfathered in many ingredients without testing them when it was first set up. SLS is basically a very cheap surfactant that isn't necessary for the cleaning function of soap it just makes you think you're getting clean because of all the foam.

National Eczema Society recommends non foaming soaps.

It's not very eco minded to have a bath every day. Waste of water, gas, money etc but if thats part of your kids evening routine that fine. My kids are quite clean really - so no need to go over the top. A good sponge clean is perfect most days and we have our own bed time routine.

I can see no reason why all children need bathing every day at all.

My 8y DD washes every day at the sink using a bowl of warm water and a couple of flannels. She then has a long relaxing bath and does her hair at a weekend, and she has a couple of quick baths or showers and does her hair durng the week in a morning.

She doesn't have time in an evening most evenings once she is in from Brownies, Drama, Climbing or whatever.

So, IMO, YABU.

Do what suits you best and let others do what suits them best.

Oh - and no need to feel sorry for my DD. She could chose to grab a shower instead of a wash should she wish. She is clean and tidy, and very much feels comfortable and secure.

My 9 year old baths 3 times a week. She is not smelly as she is a child and has no body hair. She attends activities 4 times a week, that stimulate and educate her, and arrives home at 8pm which I deem too late to bath as she needs to be in bed where she can rest until she has to get up for school in the morning.

I have not read through the masses of replies but think the OP should find more constructive ways of spending her (and her children's)time.

mmm bed of dead skin, thank you for that, echt. [hgrin]

Don't bathe mine every day as:

• am conscious of wasting water
• they have eczema
• dd2 hates it
• a few germs is good for them
• I am a lazy fekker
• sometimes the lure of getting downstairs to lovely dh and bottle of wine is stronger than the urge to be uber-mummy!!

Couldn't give a fig what anyone else does!!

Ah Jux what an awful time for you. I'm so sorry.

I must be such a lazy minger. I am a LP to 2 ds's. 1 10 the other 16. I also work full time. My ds 16 showers every day, my ds 10 gets a bath once a week (he does NOT smell) and I shower and wash my hair every other day... judge that!

Ds age 2 goes swimming on a Monday so I count that as a bath.
The he has another bath weds and sat - sorted.
You re a bit Dim Op.

Anyone who thinks that children don't smell is living in cloud cuckoo land. My dc's are always coming home with tales about smelly
children. My best friend is a primary school teacher and is constantly telling me stories
abot stale smelling children. Some posters use the excuse that they work FT, have several children etc. Those are just excuses
If you have time to contribute to a thread on washing your dc's then you surely must have time to wash your dc's.

Only if they are dirty. For info, I am a teacher in an infants school :) there is a distinct difference between the children who have filthy dirty nails/lice ridden hair, and are generally dirty and those that wash their hands, brush their teeth, are capable of wiping their bums properly, and have clean clothes to wear.

echt i wear clean pjs every day yes!