To bathe baby once per week?

[StarfishSandwich]

He’s 7 weeks. I thought this was totally normal and fine. He gets top and tailed as and when needed - certainly daily! But I don’t feel like he particularly needs bathing. We always bathe him in the bath with one of us so daily would be a complete waste of water. I keep reading about people using baths as part of the bedtime routine and it’s just occurred to me that this means that lots of babies get bathed daily.

AIBU and scummy? His skin is flawless and he doesn’t smell FWIW!

I have a 2yo and we give her a Glastonbury shower every day (wet wipe wash!) but only a full bath and hair wash once a week.

She had eczema early on and we were told that once a week was plenty. Her eczema is under control, her skin soft, she doesn’t smell and her hair isn’t greasy.

We would have loved the daily bedtime bath but it didn’t happen and this works for us!

Only once a week? That's grim.

I didn't bathe mine daily at that age. I used water and flannels to wash their bottoms at most nappy changes at home and cleaned their neck folds daily too.
Other than that they bathed after major vomit or nappy leak or when their hair stopped looking fluffy.

I did the same with my DD at that age. I believe it’s far better for their skin and you still wash in between so it’s fine. You can still establish a nighttime routine without a bath.

Mine didn’t like baths at that age so I bathed them as little as possible. And at 7 weeks they slept down stairs with me until I went to bed, we didn’t settle into the ‘bath, milk, story, bed’ routine until later.

I think once a week is fine. Just make sure you clean any areas that are extra milky or after vomit/ poo explosions.
We didn’t want to do a nightly bath as we didn’t want to be scuppered if for whatever reason we couldn’t give baby a bath. We also thought, and Midwives/ Health Visitors advised, that a daily bath isn’t good for a baby’s skin.

Once a week fine if you're top and tailing. They dont get dirty and it dries their skin out more. Even i dont bath or shower everyday for the same reason.

I think babies in nappies, and drinking milk, sicking up etc need a bath every day to get into all the folds in legs, necks etc and between the tiny toes.

We only bathed out baby every 4-5 days until around 6 months. That's when we started to fall into a bit of a routine and began to bath each night. (Plus the added joy of weaning!)

I don't get all that top and tail business, by the time you've faffed about with all that the baby could have had a quick bath. I'd bath a baby every day and I think all adults and children need either a bath or shower per day as well.

Frequently baths are drying for a babies skin. They are getting washed daily so I don't see the issue at all.

Soap can irritate baby skin so the less regular washing is probably why your child's skin is so good.

I think babies in nappies, and drinking milk, sicking up etc need a bath every day to get into all the folds in legs, necks etc and between the tiny toes.

This ^
You can dip a baby in the bath (at 7 weeks, a washing up bowl does the trick) far quicker and easier than faffing about topping and tailing all the time. For those babies that enjoy it, it can also be a lovely time - and often a lovely thing for Dad to do, where baby is breastfed and the can't feed them.

aquamarine

What’s grim about a 7 week old being washed daily on face, hands, bum and genitals (as well as every nappy change?) and “only” bathed weekly for everything else and hair?

I think once a week at that age is fine. My 4 week old has only had 4 baths in his life my 2 year old has daily baths, because she's a mucky sod, the baby is pristine compared to her. I will do daily baths for the baby too, but not until we introduce a proper bedtime routine at 3 months ish.

Dd2 was bathed about twice a week or after a particulsrly bad poo at that age. Dd1 had such dry skin with eczema I wanted to avoid that with dd2. Just make sure at that age that their skin is clean and dry - a top and tail wash will do. It's when they start eating and smearing food in their hair that baths get more frrquent!

We only started daily baths at several months old but this was more because we wanted to establish a good nighttime routine rather than being necessary to keep her clean. Until then we did weekly too. Non mobile babies don't get dirty enough and it dries out their skin washing too often anyway

Once a week is grim unless they have problems with eczema. We started from the second day home with our eldest but left our youngest for a week or so as advised. The youngest was always getting muck in her chubby baby rolls They still have a bath together every night but there isn't much room now they are 6 and 4!

I always find this baffling that people will make sure they have a shower everyday but then only bathe their children once a week.

Slight derail, but if you have bought a top and tail bowl and barely used it, don’t chuck it. We have used ours for years in the car as a sickbowl. You can keep tissues in one side and they can vomit in the other.

We used to bath her in the sink in the morning ,I thought that was better for her after being in a wet nappy at night.
I also found that any night time routine should be.movable so could be applied anywhere so milk and biscuit,wash,into night clothes then bed.
Teeth cleaning and a story in bed introduced later.

I certainly think a baby needs bathing more than once a week.
Every other day at least. In fact those of you who don't are a load of idle good for nothings.

Always bathed my 4 every night before bed, 2 of mine used to get crusty cheesy neck folds from their milk  also I like the routine of it.

Evidence would suggest that infrequently is much better than frequently for young babies and you need only use water. Carry on doing as you are if your happy with it, and at 7 weeks its wasted energy trying to establish routine. In my opinion daily washes only become neccesary once weaning is well established and food is everywhere!

I think babies in nappies, and drinking milk, sicking up etc need a bath every day to get into all the folds in legs, necks etc and between the tiny toes.
I 100% agree with this. We did a proper bedtime routine including a nightly bath and it clearly didn’t hurt as by 7 weeks she was sleeping through the night.

Seriously. Too and tailing surely isn't enough. All the fluff and milk that gets in the creases. So if you do too and tail and creased you might as well give them a bloody bath.

Oh and to the PP who mentioned their now adult children having showers every other day... I couldn't do this either. Especially if sexually active or a gym goer. Boak.

I'm aware that many don't feel the same as me though. Different strokes for different folks hmm