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.

Have only read the OP...

When DD1 was born, both her and DS had a bath every night as part of our routine. She then got impetigo and another rash (can't remember now) and the doctor told me to STOP bathing her every night, as she wasn't building up any immunity to good old fashioned dirt . She is now 12 and showers every day but we went through a phase when she was about 9 or 10, where it was barely possible to bath her once a week, it was just a phase, but she is perfectly healthy and not damaged at all from it!

As for DD2, she had a colostomy bag for the first 6 months of her life and bathing her every night would have been impossible for many reasons. She is 3 now and we bath her every 2 or 3 nights (washes on nights inbetween). She is happy, healthy and clean and YABU!!!!!

We bathe our DCs more or less every other day. They are rarely ever 'dirty'. Unless your kids are tramping through mud every day I'd say that daily baths are actually MORE unhealthy because they work against the skin's natural processes. It's like when people get greasy hair and so they wash it every day - the answer is to stop stripping your scalp of its natural oils and treat your hair more kindly by washing it less frequently, and use conditioner instead of shampoo.

YANBU.
Unless extremely tired / ill (them or me) my DCs get a bath every night. They don't always have soap in it...but they relax, play, we sing songs - its a great wind-down to bed and yes, they get clean bums as a result instead of sore bums.

I think your suspicion that mums here are too busy writing on MNET (and consuming HUGE amounts of wine, by some accounts) to bathe their children, is probably spot on!

I also read the aqueous cream thingy Allhallowsandwine -- sodium lauryl sulfate grrrrrr.

And no, some children get extremely wound up by being in the water, Anonymosity, and some mums have better things to do of an evening than mop a bathroom and apologise to the downstairs neighbours for the wet ceiling yet again... And flushable wipes and a good wiping technique go far towards clean derrieres and lack of soreness. Same goes for lack of soap. Mine have always been ready for bed, relaxed and smelling good when the time arrives, and have never had any skin problems, on a bath once a week or so.

Avoiding something unnecessary and counterproductive is a bad idea -- why? (Apart from the sense of superiority it gives the runners of nightly baths...)

No one IRL I know leaves it that long

Should be

No one IRL I know admits to leaving it that long

The notion of needing a bath every night is a ridiculous notion - so long as they wash every day.

The only reason to bath every night is to get them into the habit of cleaning and also as part of a bedtime routine.

"think babies in nappies need a bit of warm water and soap to clean them properly rather than just baby wipes"

Ahh, you see, I never use baby wipes. Nasty slimy smelly things. My children get a proper wash with nice warm water at every nappy change. You can stop feeling sorry for my two now OP.

YABU and judgemental - unless other people's smelly kids are offending your sensibilities!

We live in a city with water restrictions; I could call people who bathe their children every night selfish and irresponsible

Funny things my DCs, until they hit puberty they didn't actyally need a shower every day, (or to use deodorant) because, get this, they did not yet produce the hormones that teenagers and adults do which make our armpits and genitals and egnerally our sweat so smelly.

I felt sorry for them, I was so desperate to have a valid reason to wash them every night, despite DD's eczema and DS's crying fits, because a daily bath would make me feel efficient as a mother in a way that no other activity did.

Now I was planning for the rest of my absurd story to be about me looking into hormone therapy in order to make them smelly, but it's 7am and i can't be arsed, so OP have a

oh, and you're a loon.

DS had. A bath every day as part of his bed time routine AND and body wash the next morning. At about 16 months, His skin was so dry that I dropped the baths to every other day. His skin miraculously cleared up in a matter of days and has been fine ever since.

He still gets a body wash every morning. He also has his hands and face washed before and after every meal, and obviously his bum cleaned with every nappy change. He's 20 months.

DD is 10 weeks old and has a bath every night as part of her routine, but is really just dipped in, swirled around, creases cleaned with a facecloth and taken out, as I don't want her to dry out either!

Maybe I am lazy, but dealing with dinner and bed times for 2 under 2 is hard work!

OP - I honestly think that if you went down to bathing your DS every other day, his eczema would really improve. But I'm figuring you keeping up appearances and bathing him every day is clearly more important to you than improving his eczema.

Perhaps your children just get smellier than mine, OP. Are they large? Mine are very slim and don't sweat much. They bath or shower three times a week.

what's a body wash? Like a shower?

I bath DS every day but only because he enjoys it and it winds him down towards bedtime.
If he hated it, or had skin problems it would definitely be less often.

OP - try googling shower every day. Not necessary.

And while you're being so judgey, so will I: it's number of people, never amount.

I think I'm as about the "ruining their skin" allegations as the lazy allegation.

I bath my kids every night. Its not some misguided notion that they will smell or anything, or anything to do with their bums, its mainly because the baby, 1 year old, is such a messy eater still that she invariably ends up with stuff in her hair and I tend to save the really messy foods for dinner time so that other meals like lunch dont involve a complete change of clothes etc. So things like bananas and wetter foods like yogurt, anything saucy, etc. I try and fob her off with sandwiches and apple for lunch!

It just takes less time to simply bath her than it would to try and pick the baked beans out of her hair individually if you see what I mean so maybe that makes me lazy!

The boy (3) wants a bath every night when he hears her having one, so he gets in too. When he was a baby, he HAD to have a bath every day, as he had severe reflux, and the sick would go down his neck and end up in creases etc and he STANK like a cheese factory, and a wash with a cloth didn't quite do it and would irritate the area, he was better off in a bath.

So for me with the various little issues we have, a bath is the best way.

If I had flaky kids with eczema it might be that I'd have to find another way!

I wouldn't judge anyone their choices though. One of my friends only does her daughter twice a week. Her daughter looks and smells clean. My friend is far from lazy, she has just recognised that its not necessary. That's cool!

What a stupid OP.

It depends on the age of your dc. If they are toddlers and are covered in shit, baked beans and paint every day at 6pm then bath them every night.

If they are 10 and pretty much clean as a whistle, don't bother more than every other night.

Etcetera.

ps Ha ha @ Abride's 'are your kids fat and sweaty then'?!!!

Our boilers gone tits up recently which is why we haven't bathed DS, it's sink and hot water from the kettle for him at the moment.

However, I don't bathe him everyday even if the stupid shitting boiler was working. What does it matter what everyone else is doing? Just look ater your own children and nevermind what everyone else is up to.

Just out of interest, do they share a bath? Or get one each?

Trot on OP, trot on. Silly little woman.

YABU.

My PFB had a bath every night when he was a baby, it was part of his "routine". However, now I have 3 and they are 4, 6 and 8 they only have a bath every 2-3 nights, ie when they need one. If they have been to football or hockey practice, or cross country running, or swimming, they will definitely have one. If they have covered themselves in dirt in the park, or coloured themselves in with felt pens, they will have one. But if they are not overly dirty they just have a wash at the sink.

Oh and they share a bath (DS2 and DD together then DS1 tops it up with some more hot water).

You must think I am really lazy [hgrin]

Tatty - I don't think dsily batting necessarily ruins their skin. Just that all humans are different, and all skin types are different.

As I say, I was giving DS a bath and a body wash (body wash - just a full clean with a bowl of warm water and a facecloth, before getting him dressed for the day) - and there was no denying that it was too much for his skin.

So - I dropped the baths to every other day (but keep the quick body wash up) and his skin is fine again.

I'm confident that he's clean and kissing sweet, and DD has her bath every day as part of her routine, so if that qualifies me as lazy, so be it!

I must also admit that I am very surprised that there are any semi-intelligent adults left in the world who don't now the difference between pre-pubescent humans and post-pubescent, and that the way sweat glands work after puberty means there is a far greater need for daily showering...

That is, 'daily bathing', not 'dsily batting'.

well I am clearly a lazy mother, my dd's get bathed probably 3 times a week, that is what the hospital advised me after dd's excema got severly infected

It's true, I don't bathe them every day because I am lazy.

Not at all sorry.

As ds is nearly 15 and bigger than me, it is impossible to strip him and manhandle him into the shower every night. I made him do a 21 km DofE hike on Sunday and that made him achey enough to have bath when he got home. Not sure dh wants to take him hiking every evening just to get him washed though!

Don't be silly OP.