To wonder how you can not bath or shower kids every day?

[Kalitall]

I know this ones been done, and I don't think anyone is dirty for not bathing every day and I understand about skin conditions.

I just don't know how everyone gets away with not bathing children each day. Especially little ones.

My two boys seem to get filthy. They both play outside every day and end up muddy. The toddler gets really mucky eating meals, usually ends up with food everywhere even in his hair. Also often ends up with paint over him from nursery. He poos in his nappy every day and even though he's clean up is usually still a bit smelly. In the Summer they both get quite sticky.

I find it easier to run a bath or put him under the shower than to top and tail to clean all the muck off.

Like I said I'm not accusing anyone of being dirty, as an adult I could probably get away with not showering each day as I don't sweat much and don't get mucky.

Do other children just not get in a mess?

It's the same with washing clothes. I reuse my own clothes but I could never not wash the dcs clothes, because they're always covered in food or mud.

Mine were just a grubby as small children. There was a blissful period where I could get away with bathing them every other day. DS1 has now reached that delightful pubescent phase where he needs daily showers to remove the BO and hair grease. DS2 gets away with every other day, as long as they haven't been painting at school that day

My baby gets 2-3 baths a week. Gross eh. I suppose I just don't care that much if she isn't spotless.

Top and tail and shower once a week. My dd who is 10 washes under her arms daily and puts deoderant on. What on earth is the problem. Underpants are changed everyday and uniform is changed twice a week unless it has paint on or something. They havent fallen ill or have a lack of friends because they smell. My kids dont do anything to get particularly dirty. No need to have a bath daily. When i grew up and my older children did, it was also once a week. Big deal.

I think it depends on the child and also what they are doing. Mine are bathed twice a week, but hands regularly, faces morning night and after every meal, and they get cleaned with water after using the toilet. Any other mess/dirt is normally on clothes. During toilet training I did daily baths as I would only give them a quick wipe after wee accidents.

I've always just dunked mine in the bath at the end of the day - never given it any thought and they enjoy having a bit of fun in the bath together. Hair washing is a bit more traumatic (girls - long hair), so that's usually only twice a week! Not sure they "need" that amount of washing though, if that makes sense.

Mine have a bath or shower 2/3 times a week as we don't have the hot water (an immersion small tank that takes an hour to heat) for them to have one every night.

My oldest doesn't like to be dirty won't finger paint eat with his hands or play in muck unless he has a stick to use he won't even touch sand so never got very dirty just hands and face washed even as a baby he was never one to rub food everywhere I assume because he didn't like the feel. Ds2 on the other hand is 7 months and likes to rub his food everywhere and squash it with his hands so he has a bath every night after dinner. Ds1 isn't a big bath fan either come to think of it but ds2 loves his bath that's probably had a lot to do with it without me noticing.

It's only part of the bedtime routine for some and only if you make it so. I certainly wasn't bathed nightly as a child. My poor mother had 5 of us she'd never have been done running baths!

As an adult yes I shower daily but I get my period, perspire occasionally have leakage and so on. Children need to be washed but that doesn't mean a bath every day. How much water are some people using anyway?? At 5 and 7 mine mostly shower, usually twice a week including hair wash, sometimes more if they're especially grubby. They really don't have that much opportunity for actually rolling in mud to the extent they need to be dipped

Honestly a flannel, warm water and soap will clean child's face, neck and their mucky mitts right up to their elbows, it's fine. You can even run it over grubby knees if necessary. Being taught to wipe properly, fresh underwear daily etc also helps.

"unless you have a skin condition/sn, then I don't get not showering everyday for everyone,"

Water dries your skin out whether you have a skin condition or not.

'I cannot fathom why ANYONE wouldn't bathe their kids every evening. It's part of the bedtime routine, and an absolutely essential part of the wind down process before bed IMO'

My eldest DC had severe eczema, the kind that got him hospitalised. I used to have to bath him and put on wet wrap bandages. I hated bath time, it was the worst time of the day. This feeling never went away.

Not everyone finds bathtime a lovely wind down. Quite a few people find it a stressful, wailing, wind UP.

The day it occurred to me that they didn't need a bath every day was a turning point. I still remember the feeling of relief.

I have to add though that them not having a bath every day meant it was hard to get them to start bathing/showering every day when they started to get smelly aged 10 or 11. But we got there.

My kids have a bath once or twice a week - the toddler has a flannel wash to get the grime off.

It is so much quicker than a bath!

For those with kids with eczema, you shouldn't have a bath with plain water as it will be very drying. Every skin specialist I saw with DS said whisk emulsifying ointment in warm water and add to the bath and then use to moisturise afterwards too.
DS had terrible eczema, constantly getting infected, always bleeding and weeping, covered in scabs etc. had to be wet wrapped 12 hours a day. Doing these baths made a massive difference.

I wash my son every day he is gross!! The things I find in his hair and neck 😷

For a moment I thought pp dusted with her dc then realised she was talking about baby wipes.

The children can be pretty good dusters as well. I've seen babygros with cloths on the knees for exactly that purpose. Wish they did them for 4 and 8 year olds

My mum used to make me bath everyday and as soon as she stopped monitoring it (around year 7) I stopped doing it. At one point I went about six weeks without a bath or a shower and no one mentioned that they'd noticed me being extra smelly or dirty, but when I finally did wash, the towel rubbed off all the un-exfoliated skin and it looked like I was covered in tiny skinny flakes of rice.

I just wanted to share that image with all the people horrified by the thought of two whole days without a shower.

I think I have found the answer to the reason we have water shortages in this country - every bloomin kid gets a bath.....every night

Mine bath twice a week. They are still quite small. During the summer, we bath every second day because I find it the easiest way to clean suncream off.

I do not like bathing them because it takes an hour to bath them, five tantrums, numerous screams because they don't like having their hair washed, conditioned or brushed for that matter. They usually flood the bathroom which takes another half hour to clean . I am exhausted by the time they are done.

At one stage, I bathed every night to see if that would help them to stop being nightmares in the bath. It didn't.

I try not to bathe my two every day, but they're such disgusting little buggers that it's hard not to.

We live in a hot country and when the helper picks them up from school she takes them to the park where they run around in the sand, dust and various assortments of chicken and iguana shit whilst rubbing sand in their hair and getting 10 shades of minging.

Some evenings we get away with it by chucking them in the pool, but most evenings I try and gauge it by how much sand falls from their hair when I kiss them hello.

Most evenings I just put them in a warm bath and let them just play with toys whilst I mumsnet and drink wine, if they're particularly grimy, I run the shower and give their hair a good scrub.

Two DSs - I can get away without bathing them for days.

I discovered that, if they get really muddy, the mud sort of wears off over the course of the week anyway. It's usually knees and elbows from playing football and that doesn't show under school uniform

my mum couldn't afford to run daily baths so our bath day was only a sunday and Wednesday. even then we all had to share the bath water. we survived. back then we didn't have gadgets, smart phones and consoles so our only fun was to play outside and we got dirty. mum used to flannel us on un-bath days

with my kids I have a 6yr old mermaid who will sleep in the bath given the chance, 12y old soap dodger who thinks spraying deodorant in the air and walking through it is enough and a 15yr old spends longer then all 3 of us in the bathroom.
we don't bath every day, in the summer is more likely.

I think it depends on what age we are talking about plus every child is different. And boys may get dirtier than girls. When mine were small babies I would top and tail them with cotton wool and water, when they were a bit older and I needed a bedtime routine I would bath them. It definitely does not take just five mins as someone has said. It takes mins just to run the bathwater! Then they want to play in the bath with toys. When they got to an age that it was taking up all night I curtailed it to a few times a week. Generally they are not dirty. Especially on a school day, unless they have been rolling in the mud at playtime. I think some parents wash their children away and cause excema.

Because some people are bloody lazy.

They may think that their DC don't smell as they're nose blind.

Teachers have posted on threads like this before saying they can tell which kids are bathed daily and which aren't.

Quite a few DC at DSs school have visibly unwashed hair (and unbrushed) especially noticeable with the fashion for boys to have long hair.

It's a basic child care task IMO.

I grew up in a poor household (council) but was bathed every night. It seems to be MC mummies that insist their DC don't stink!

I feel so sorry for DC who are only bathed once or twice a week. Little DC sweat does smell and they pick up smells in hair, not to mention butt detritus. Can not imagine not soaking a nappy covered bum every night. Also used to quickly shower DCs bottom in morning after taking off night time nappy.

Everybody used to smell in the last generation when hot water wasn't so easily available. No excuse now.

I cannot fathom why ANYONE wouldn't bathe their kids every evening. It's part of the bedtime routine, and an absolutely essential part of the wind down process before bed IMO. Takes 5 minutes.

Jeez Louise you need to come to the Hazey household at ds's bath time, I think it would be a bit of an eye opener.......'wind down' wouldn't ee the way I would describe it (picture a feral cat being put in a bath of water)

Re the eczema thing, my eczema is unbearable if I don't have daily bath in emollient followed by creams, and dds has improved with a daily bath routine and she no longer gets infected eczema, which was a problem before.

I would love to bath dd5 every day but she has sensory issues so we compromise at 1-2 per week. Her hair gets very 'wild' though but that's my issue not hers. Ds age 1 gets incredibly dirty every day but gets a rub down with a flannel daily and only ever has a bath if he is joining his sister or me! He looks generally grubby but no one has called ss yet

I can get away without bathing them for days.

But why would you consider that 'getting away with it'? Do you not like having clean kids??