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.

I am a teacher. I cannot tell. What a ridiculous comment. The only children that i can tell are the ones whos clothes are filthy. Otherwise = no.

Peonyfan.....Very unusual for a young child to smell. Could it be their clothes, or do they have parents who smoke perhaps?

My kids get stinking!!! Especially getting into the nicer weather. I picked my ds up after work and he looked like something out of Fegan's boys in Oliver!

Not in my experience, it's a stale sort of smell. Not smoke or BO.
I noticed it when I was doing a peads placement too.

By not allowing them to play, feed themselves or sit on the floor.

Oh yes DD is only allowed to hover daintily above the sofa and always wears a cellophane wrapper to make sure not even one speck of dust gets on her.

Mine is a filthy child; we live on a farm/small holding. I have bathed her daily since she was a week old: first it was hair and grime in her neck folds, then food, then mud and food, now at 3 years old, it's everything.

I can understand that medically it's not wise for some, and I include those with additional needs, but frankly for NT and children with no medical issues, I can't get why you wouldn't bath daily. I despise baby wipes; I never feel clean after using one. I remove my make up with them, but still rinse after!!

I remember as a new mum over twenty years ago, the horror of what somehow gets stuck in the baby's neck folds and behind ears.

Llanali.....But you live on a farm....Of course they are going to be dirty. Kids who generally live in normal cleaning environments may not need washing so often....Depending on their age of course.

Clean ish....Not cleaning...sorry

I think it depends on the child, DS(12) has never been a particularly mucky child and has only just started actually needing baths every day, DD(8) is possibly the muckiest child on earth and always has been, I actually don't know how she gets so dirty!

I work in a school and volunteer with kids, i can tell you which of the younger ones aren't washed often enough but not which ones are bathed every day, with the older ones that have started getting BO and using deodorant i can though, there is nothing quite like the smell of a weeks worth of deodorant showers and dried on sweat on a summer afternoon.

My ds ages 12 and 17 are still showered everyday. I can't see how they stay clean either!

Mine have both liked baths but hated being wiped so I suppose baths are easier for us.

^^

This same for us. If our daughter age three is tired or feeling rough she may request no bath, but she normally loves it and so does 16 month old. Daughter will scream and wail if wiped down.

They do need baths really. baby rubs dinner in hair, pre schooler still potty training.

I work in a nursery and I have first hand experience of what you mean. The kids get so mucky eating, playing, rubbing their snot-filled noses etc. Eating is the messiest activity. There is food everywhere. We do wipe them down with a wet cloth, however, it doesn't clean them thoroughly enough (we have to clean about 12 children on an average day). It is not very visible to parents when they pick up the kids, but they get really, really dirty. I hope they get bathed daily.

I also work in a nursery (with under twos), most of the older children, 18 months and up, are quite competent with a spoon and are able to feed themselves with little mess. Tiny ones are a different matter though, oh the horrors of the necks creases, food in hair, etc.

That said,my children are older now (key stage 2 and 3), I have never been into daily baths, partly because they didn't need it and mostly partly because I couldn't be arsed. The eldest is now old enough to take responsibility for his own hygiene (with a little nudge from me!) and the youngest loves bath time so he will run himself a bath most days.

It's just not something I'm that fussed about, they're healthy, happy and well fed/clothed - that's enough for me!

My DD tends to have a bath once a week, I don't encourage anymore because she isn't dirty or smelly and she also enjoys to play in a filled to the brim bath for at least an hour and I'll be damned if I'm entertaining that more than once a week.
Once she hits puberty she's been instructed that daily showers will be required but in the meantime she seems to doing fine and hasn't been socially rejected by her peers because of a pigpen stink

Mine were outside on the garden for a couple of hours last night, playing on the slide, trampoline and with water. But they weren't dirty after it finished. It's not obligatory even for small children, and I don't think mine are any less trampy than average.

One of them had mucky clothes afterwards, but it hadn't gone through to her body. They washed their hands when they came in for tea so I guess those may have been dirty, but obv you would wash hands for meals whether they're bathed daily or not. I did actually end up showering them both anyway, because I was going for one so it spiralled from there, but they weren't actually dirty when they got in iyswim.

My MIL baths her just 3 yr old once a week Hes not smelly or dirty though, in nursery we wash his hands and face when muddy or sticky and he has his face washed each morning.

My kids get bathed every other day, sometimes very other other day over the weekend.
They don't smell.

Each to their own.

My 4 dc ( 2 now teenagers and two 7&8) have had the same routine since they came home from hospital! Which is dinner/ tea, homework (if needed) and then bath or shower and they do that every night without fail! When they were younger it sent off to sleep and it still does the same now! The thought of putting smelly, dirty boys into nice clean beds is not something my mind can deal with! It's part of their bedtime routine and part of mine! Lol x

My DD tends to have a bath once a week, I don't encourage anymore

Sorry, I find that grim.

I shower every day and have done for as long as I can remember,so does my DH it takes 5 mins literally. My DS is 9 and a half months old and has a bath every other night,he occasionally misses a night he's due if there's a good reason but I feel guilty if he does!

I actually do agree Op ....we are all daily showerer/bathers and dd since she was a baby.

My toddler has a bath every 2-3 days. In between just wetwipes and a hot wet flannel. She has clean clothes every day though as tends to get food on them.

She doesn't play outside every day so doesn't get muddy much and if she does the mud is usually on coat/wellies. I don't give 'messy' food everyday as she likes to 'paint' with sauce/yogurt/sticky things. If it's not a bath night she has pasta/rice with chunky veg and shredded meat and wears a full bib! She also wears dribble bibs all the time (changed at least 2x day).
I wash her face and hands often throughout the day.

Amazed at how many posters use Wipes for washing

Mine are 11 and 6 so not toddlers rolling in dirt any more. However, the big one has just begun to get faintly sweaty so showers voluntarily most mornings (he's just been sat next to a new girl at school, which I don't think is unconnected with his new-founddesire for cleanliness) and the 6 year old is feral and has to be chased and threatened before he'll bathe. I fill the bath with all sorts of shite to get him in there; this week it's Hot Wheels cars (which will corrode and no doubt fall apart) and hand puppets. He has to have a bath at least every second night or he looks vaguely homeless, and I work at his school so am a bit more pretentious about his filthy habits than I'd otherwise be.