To wash my kids once a week?

[HuckleberryBlackcurrant]

I have 3 DC, DS 6, DS 4 and DD 4 mths.

When my first child was born, he had eczema and sensitive skin, we live in an extremely dry climate with weather extremes, so our Dr recommended bathing once a week.

We do not have a bathtub, only a baby one we put in the shower for our daughter now. The boys have of course outgrown it.

As our other children have come along we have kind of stuck to this schedule.

We of course wash them any time it is needed, for nappy blowouts, when they are ill, if they get extremely dirty or sweaty, or if they request a shower.

But barring any of these, a weekly bath it is.

Recently I was spending some time with my sister, she commented that she needed to bath her daughter. I said oh really, I thought you only bathed her yesterday! My sister said she bathes her at least every other day.

My sister lives in a different climate than I do, we were at my parents' for a visit.

My sister was shocked when I said we only bath/shower our children weekly, and brought up that they wouldn't be used to regular showers when they hit puberty. I replied that that is a conversation we will have at that time, but for right now they aren't producing BO and there is a lot of research to suggest that excessive washing dries out the skin and depletes natural oils.

Myself and my husband shower every other day unless we have been sweating a lot.

My sister said that she thinks this is a bit 'grimy'. I'm feeling terrible now that maybe we are bringing our children up with bad hygiene habits?! I never notice them smelling bad, apart from my 6yo who is learning how to wipe, and if this occurs of course we have him shower.

We of course wash hands and face daily, as necessary.

This is what I was advised for my Ds & my granddaughter who has eczema we do the same for her she either bathes or has a shower daily.

YANBU.

Once a week baths were completely normal when I grew up and I think some people are too obsessive about cleaning with far too many strong chemicals. I definitely wouldn’t ever use wipes. The fact that they’re damp tissues stored in a pouch yet never go mouldy, must surely alarm you regarding the chemicals they’re stored in. 😳

My 14yr old DS showers twice a week which I think is fine and better for his skin. Neither he nor his dad are smelly people. In comparison, my ex needed to shower daily as he would be whiffy by the end of the day. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Well for one thing your 6 year old is very nearly too old for you to be poking about like this.

Just stick them quickly in the shower every day for top and tail. You don’t need to lather up their whole body everyday, if they aren’t grubby- twice a week is fine for that. You could wash them daily at a basin instead but a shower is easier and teaches then the habit. Your 6 year old needs to start to learn to wash himself, which he isn’t right now.

In most cultures bums are washed whenever you go to the loo.

I have psoriasis too but I shower everyday. I also bath my baby DD everyday. Your baby DD will end up irritated down there. Just use unscented baby safe products.

I grew up with a bath a week.
My teenage dc's were bathed every few days when little as we had no heating or shower.
Now we have both and they shower daily so no bad habits set up there.

It’s hilarious when people bring up how decades ago it was normal to bathe once a week. Poor hygiene routines decades ago does not excuse continuing with poor practices now. Especially as all homes have better facilities now.

In Tudor times, people bathed a couple times a year. That’s not a good argument to continue with those habits.

I don't think you have any understanding of the skin conditions OP mentioned. Washing every day can be awful for many many skin conditions, and strips skin of vital oils. I say this as someone who showers daily.

The children should be bathed more than once a week though.

My 14yr old DS showers twice a week which I think is fine and better for his skin

That's really not acceptable.

I can't believe there are so many grubby people about. I'm glad I WFH and don't have to put up with smelly colleagues or members of the public.

Hoardes of 80s kids grew up with a Sunday night bath for the week and I don't think they've been damaged by it.

All 6 of us shower every morning. I’ve got a teen and a pre teen and getting in the shower every day has been something they’ve always done so there’s been no issue as they hit puberty/approach puberty. I wouldn’t dream of going a day without a wash and it’s much quicker and easier to jump in the shower than it is to do a sink wash. I know some people go a day or two without washing but I couldn’t do it personally.

I think a bath once a week is fine,as long as they having a strip wash every day/every other day...that was my childhood but we didn't have a shower back then... now I shower everyday and would feel unclean if I didnt! Thank god for the shower invention

@inquisitiveinga

No real reason other than this is the pattern we have developed

@momonpurpose

I suppose I'm as overwhelmed as most parents of 3. Lol. I'm not so overwhelmed I wouldn't bath my kids more often if that's what you mean.

Well lifestyles have completely changed too. Jobs were a lot more manual and mucky, keeping a home was a lot more intensive and dirty work too, kids would play in pit heaps and get filthy. We don't get as dirty as we used to so are we really needing to shower every single day if you say WFH and don't exercise? Your home isn't a hive of filth I presume so what's causing the person to get dirty in that scenario?

@ClumsyNinja if your 14 year old son only showers twice a week then I can guarantee you he does smell.

I could accept that if it were just the OP, but both her and her DH have conditions that prevent them from showering daily? Seems terribly unfortunate

It’s as easy to stick your older kids in the shower than a stand up wash at the bathroom basin. You could do a shower every second night and then a stand up wash the other night.

Wash, bath or shower everyday day. Change underclothes every day. It’s just simple cleanliness.
I’d be too ashamed to admit I only wash myself or DC once a week.

Bath or shower once a week is fine but face , hands and bottoms and private parts need a daily wash. Little girls get sore in particular. Urine is strong and needs washing off. Can they not have sink wash with a soapy flannel every day? That was my 70s childhood with a weekly shared bath.
You could use an oilatum product or similar in the shower so as not to dry their skin out. Probably easier than a strip wash.

Bathing daily is soo bad for you.

Once a week was the accepted norm for a long time and is much healthier for your skin and microbiomes.

Ds5 has a shower each morning and a bath every other evening. He still wears nappies through the night though so Id worry about him smelling of pee if he didnt have the morning wash.
Ds20 months gets bathed every other night and he does start to get a bit whiffy if it's any longer.

I grew up in the sixties and seventies and had a bath almost every day, on the occasions that didn't happen we had a full flannel wash of hands, face, bum, feet. I bathed my own children born in the nineties every day. I helped in primary school when my own children were there and latterly with my grandchild, and you can definitely tell the children that aren't cleaned very often. They look grubby but also have that horrible musty smell, it's not BO but it's a definite unwashed smell. I'm sure their parents think they are clean but they aren't, or not what I'd call clean anyway. I think it's pretty dirty not to bath or shower your children every day, it doesn't take long.

For most people it isn’t bad though. My husband, me and my children have all had a daily bath or shower for our entire lives and have perfectly healthy skin.

When I was growing up, we had a bath once a week. Pretty sure that was normal.