Baby bath time help?

[Halli2020]

My baby is 9 weeks old today!
We bath him once, maybe twice a week. I fill a baby bath with some child's farm bath stuff in, about 4 inch deep or so, put in bath seat, put baby on bath seat, make sure I put a bit of the water in bottom of bath seat so his bum doesn't get cold, put warm flannel over his body and give him a wash down with the child's farm lotion. That is literally all I do, bath time takes about 5 or so mins mainly to get in his neck folds, bum area, armpits etc etc.
But he hates it. He literally screams the whole time and it makes me feel like a shit mum, it's like he's in pain and cries so hard, I feel so awful afterwards. Is there anything I can do to make baby bath time better? Will he grow out of it?

Do you give him a toy to play with?
Is the bath water warm enough for him, is the room warm enough?
If yes try to show him the bath before plonking him in backwards
Otherwise I'd ditch the bath that often, bath once a week and just too and tail for a while.
Alternatively bath with your baby sometimes they like to still feel mum.

Definitely check the bath and room temp. Both of mine absolutely screamed their heads off if the bath was too cool, even though they liked bath time otherwise. If you have a baby bath thermometer, I know ours flashes the red 'too hot' as soon as the water hits 37C, and if you ask DD1 and DD2, anything under 37C is in fact baby torture. They preferred at 38-39C...

I have tried it a bit warmer and going to try and new baby bath seat I think it may be the seat being too hard / cold so I'm getting the angelcare one to see if that helps in big Bath, maybe slightly deeper water too :)

@JLQ1020 I have tried the toy but he's not interested and crying too hard to notice :(

I think some people put a flannel or hand towel on the bath seat to make it softer/warmer – you could maybe try that before buying something new.

I might also be tempted to just give him a really good sponge bath a couple times a week, rather than a full-on bath, and just try baths again in a month or so.

Could his skin be sensitive to the products? If you haven't already, you could try a few baths without bubbles or other stuff and try switching brands for body wash/lotion/etc.

@Scirocco i didn't think of that actually, will give that a go also thankyou!
Just assumed as I'm using child's farm it tends to be the most gentle on babies skin like aveeno, but will try without

It's not recommended but our baby would scream unless the water was 39/40⁰C and very deep. After starting baby swimming she's got used to cooler water.

Also to get her used to it at the start when I got into the (main!) bath and my partner handed me the baby.

Agree 38 degrees was tolerated better here. Under 37 would result in meltdown. You could try ditching the seat all together and just hold him? We never used one.

No need to use bath products at that age. Also maybe try without the seat. Am sure it will improve as he gets slightly older but as others say just do a sponge bath until he’s more confident.

Mine hated hated the bath, so I went in the big bath with him. I made it nice and deep and warmer than you're supposed to but not hot. He seemed to enjoy it. After about a couple of months of that once a week he will now happily go in his baby bath. I fill it much deeper than they say though and also warmer. I wouldn't like a shallow cool bath so it's no wonder the baby doesn't!

Tried a bath today with no products, slightly warmer and deeper, no baby seat. My OH kept his body covered in the water and he didn't cry! Don't think he liked the seat

My DD hated baths until about 6 months. I used to take her in the shower with me, wipe her with a flannel in the folds, etc to make sure that she was clean, then afterwards, wrap her up in a towel and lay her on the bath mat whilst I dried off.

She loves baths now and will have a shower with me, but much prefers to splash in the bath in her bath seat