to be shocked at how many parents don't....

[formerbabe]

bath their children every day!

Following on from the thread about a poster not changing her children into pyjamas, I was surprised reading the responses how many people say they only bath their kids a couple of times a week.

I bath mine every night before bed and always have done, bar illness or something catastrophic happening in my day. On the rare occasion they have had to miss their bath, I have done a quick wipe down with a flannel, but they never seem clean after it. My kids seem to get filthy during the day, mud/food etc.

I know those kids who have excema cannot always have a bath everyday, but for anyone else it just seems like pure laziness to me.

Have always bathed DS everyday (well almost everyday). Part of routine now. He LOVES his nice relaxing bath at the end of the day. Particularly if (as a huge treat) he has a LUSH Bath Bomb! Hates it when I suggest a shower instead (easier to wash hair). He's a hot/sweaty boy, so maybe that's why he loves it so much. Now he's 8, he really DOES need a bath/shower everyday. I'd hate not to shower everyday (though it occasionally happens!). It's nice to feel fresh and clean. He has clean PJ's everyday too. However, when I was little I'm sure I remember 1-2 baths a week with a once a week Sunday hair wash and PJ change! I didn't smell (I don't think!).

Do you never have one of those days former where the kids are having fun on the beach/at friends/in the garden or whatever and you decide to let them keep running about having a great time, then let them collapse tired, happy, and a bit grubby in bed?

I like to be spontaneous and enjoy the moment, and, to be frank, sometimes a bath is a dull alternative.

Op, yes you can flush bum wipes

You can, but you shouldn't as they aren't as flush able as the manufacturers would have you believe. Plumbers and drain rodding companies love them for their job creation potential.

My DD's had a sleepover at my mums and came back tonight and fell in to bed exhausted so no bath but I did brush their teeth whilst they slipped in and out of consciousness

I don't agree with picking your battles when bath time is concerned.

Hahaha! You haven't met my DS1. (In my defense we wen' swimming a lot in those days, and now he's a teenager he insists on a taking long shower every morning)

I shower or at least have a shallow bath every day* because I am an adult, get sweaty and therefore can start to smell.

Kids don't sweat and stink like adults do, so a bath a few times a week with a good scrub to get the dirt off in between will do them fuck all harm what-so-ever.

However, if your kids love splashing and you have the time and resources to do it every day, why not? As long as they're not suffering from dry skin or whatever, enjoy the mini-pool time.

Honestly, the shit we all get wound up about these days.

*Lazy days slobbing around the house don't count. Particularly during winter. I'm poor as fuck and my heating reflects this, I'm not getting naked in my freezing bathroom for no bloody reason. It can wait a day. I wont die of some mysterious slatternitis bacteria.

Personally I think it depends on the dc, how dirty they are at the end of the day, and what the dc and the parent think is best for the particular child.

I've only read the first few posts (I'm guessing it's gone bad )- I used to bath my babies/toddlers every day purely for my own sanity: it killed half an hour, and was part of the blessed routine on the way to bed.

I still often do it with dd2, aged 13 (she is learning disabled), because it calms her, and gets us to bedtime. I don't think that anybody needs a daily bath for hygiene reasons. A wash is just fine.

I shower/bath every day without fail therefore I don't see why it should be any different for my DCs (DS 4 and DD21 mo) By 6pm most days they are filthy due to eating/playing in garden/painting etc. plus DD still in nappies (baby wipes are not the same as a proper wash IMO) and for me a quick wipe down with a flannel doesn't cut it. Takes 5 mins to run a few inches of water,bit of mild baby bubble bath, quick scrub all over, out and into clean PJ's. Why put an unclean body into clean pyjamas and clean bed? Oh, and I also moisturise them after their bath, just to make me feel a bit less guilty about 'fucking their skin up'

My children have eczema so bath every night is not a good idea. Sorry if it shocks you but no children don't need a bath every night, washing their hands and face every night is enough most nights and I bath them twice a week. Also, bathing 3 young children on my own as dh is at work is completely pointless and unnecessarily stressful.

Mine, 21m, gets in the shower with me in the morning (not as he's 'dirty', due to him wanting to climb in) and usually has a proper bath at night to get him into bed mode. I prefer it that way especially as he's in nappies and a bit of a grub magnet. OP YANBU!

I bath every other day.
DD has a bath 2 or 3 times a week.
I wash our sheets every 3 weeks.
I wash our clothes after 1 or 2 wearings.
I clean the house every 2 weeks.

That's more than enough cleaning for me. Nothing smells except the cat. Everything is clean and tidy. Neither of us have any allergies, OCD or illness of any kind.

Judge away.

I judge you for sniffing the cat....

Even the cat laughed at that joke.

I honestly don't understand how someone could care less about the frequency a child that isn't theirs gets a bath. meh

Treaclesoda

About once a week here.

I vote we take a load of kids to OPs that have been bathed from 1 hour to 1 month ago, for her to examine & judge the dirtiest & see how accurate she is. Maybe she's like the princess & the pea with unclean children ;)

My ds who is 4 isn't great at wiping his bottom after a poo tho. Rather than waiting to put him in a bath where he would then be sitting in shitty water, I check & clean his bottom properly after he's been to the toilet & wiped himself.

Everyone sit down now while I tell you, I don't iron. Ahahahahahahahahaha!

Jesus, firstly, how much do you daily bathers spend on water?! I have a water tank and if all 5 of us wanted to bath or even shower every day we'd go bankrupt!

Secondly, I'm beginning to think you all seem to live in a place where your days are longer than mine, I get up at 6am, I work part time but it's an at home job I can dip in and out of as I please, I do all the house stuff and feed everyone 3 times a day, plus school stuff and entertain the baby. Where on earth do you find the time to bath the kids?
Mine bath 2 times a week at home and the older 2 bath once a week at their Dad's house, unless they get filthy doing something, then they jump in the shower.

Like I said, a bath for a small child only needs to be a few inches of water, they share or one go in one at a time in the same water. Whilst they're in the bath I'll sit by the bathroom door and fold laundry or sort a load of washing out. Takes less than 10 mins from start to finish. Not judging those who don't bathe their children every day, it's just I feel happier knowing they go to bed clean and fresh all over every night.

For me a daily bath is as much of a necessity as having dinner. There's days when I really can't be arsed to cook but wouldn't dream of not giving the kids dinner. It's the same with bathing them. I think it sets a good example for personal hygiene in the future, too.

I worked as a Staff Nurse in Dementia Units for years. I'm afraid most of our patients only got weekly baths as time and resources didn't allow for more. They all, however, got washed all over with a soapy flannel morning and night and thoroughly cleaned after toiletting or incontinence. Hands were always washed before meals and faces and hands afterwards.

It was way quicker than running baths every single day for 30-40 people!

mine are bathed 2 a week at best

eczema rules

This thread is fabulous. Competitive bathing and shitty kids arses with a good sprinkling of childhood eczema.

My bathing schedule consists of looking at the child and deciding if he looks a bit grimey. Maybe I need to complicate it a bit more.

you could get them to draw straws to see who gets one each night? Or flip a coin every night to see whether they get one or not.

OP if you want to bathe your child every night that's fine. You go girl. But to be SHOCKED!!!! that others don't is ridiculously unreasonable.

Many millions of children have been brought up on weekly baths perfectly healthily. The evidence does not support your claims.

A cream such as aqueous cream should be used instead of soap and for washing. A moisturising cream should be applied liberally to all areas of dry skin at least twice a day. Her eczema is very much improved from her bathing daily.

I used to bathe dd2 everyday. During one summer she spent an awful lot of time in water, what with our pool & bathing.

She developed dry scaly patches of skin in the folds of her elbow. I knew that it was just dry skin due to too much water, but I was convinced by MIL to take her to the dr, after it didn't clear up for ages.

She was dx with eczema. There set off a HUGE chain of events that saw her being bathed as little as possible (on recommendation from dr) having all sorts of creams on her on a twice daily basis (steroid & moisturising) - more if bathed - changing washing powders (which then made dd1 react).

The areas did not get better. In fact, she developed welts & areas of extremely itchy skin (on her back/front - nowhere near her original dry patches) that she clawed at constantly, causing her skin to break & get infected. EVERYTHING irritated her. I was giving a high dose antihistamine & she slept in my bed as it was the only way she would sleep without crying. This went on for months & caused a lot of issues with her wrt clinglyness, needing to be with me at all times, etc.

In the end, I stopped putting anything on her. I was SO frustrated. I was in tears every time she cried because she was so inconsolable. She was so upset with it all. We were referred for allergy testing, but in a moment of rare (at the point in my life) clarity, I just stopped using anything on her.

It was all gone in less than a week. The culprit? The intensive moisturising cream that I was told to use twice daily to prevent further outbreaks of eczema. It was suffocating her skin. But at the multiple appointments I booked with the dr, he said it was an allergy to something & kept changing her creams & told me to keep a food diary.

The dr doesn't believe that the cream caused all those issues, all I know is that as soon as I stopped it, there were no issues. Ever. Again.

So it's very much horses for courses. She hates being wet now & it has left her with issues surrounding materials, creams and medicine. I know now that if she spends too much time in water it will happen again, so we limit how much time she is wet.

That doesn't mean she isn't clean.
But watch out if she starts to itch again.