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Original poster

How often do you bath your children?

90 replies

judetheobscure · 13/05/2003 11:14

Interested in this because I know many parents bath their children every day. I can't understand spending so much time and hassle doing this.

Dare I say it, mine get a bath once a week (just like when I was a child) but more often if they are dirty or they've been running round a lot. I do wash their hands and faces after every meal (the younger ones that is.)

OP posts:
Hughsie · 13/05/2003 11:18

Baby of 10 weeks is currently getting one every other daay so does 2 year old but every day when in nursery - more due to how dirty I feel they are and cleaning bottoms!

edgarcat · 13/05/2003 11:19

Message withdrawn

Marina · 13/05/2003 11:22

Ds comes home from nursery looking like Pigpen most days so he has a bath every day, but unless there is visible debris in his hair we wash that twice a week.

pie · 13/05/2003 11:27

My DD has one every night, though I admit I'm a bit fanatical about personal hygiene. More often than not she will try to get in the bath with me, though as she turned 4 last month I am trying to cut down on this. Plus she usually gets out of the bath before me and has taken to spraying the ceiling with her water gun so I sit in the bath feeling like I'm being rained on...

Demented · 13/05/2003 11:30

When it was just DS1 he was bathed every morning, I felt like people would know if he hadn't been in the bath. Now I have a DS2 all has changed and they both get bathed together about three times a week (sometimes less sometimes more depending).

SueW · 13/05/2003 11:33

Jude, I have to admit I wondered at the daily bathing routine that seemed to be part of what you were supposed to do with a baby! Could never remember having that many baths as a child.

DD has bath and hairwash at least twice a week. In between she might go in the bath more often if she wants to, especially in the summer when it is hot - nice way to cool down.

boogs · 13/05/2003 11:33

I bath dd when I see a distinct difference in shade between her face and neck!

No, I actually bath her about twice a week, unless she's been rolling around in sand, grass, mud all day. We like to bath together, I sit back an relax (try at least) while she drowns Barbie!

Jaybee · 13/05/2003 11:36

Has always been every other day but has often had to be daily due to the state of them. They often now (aged 9 & 6) have a shower instead especially as ds (@9) is quite sporty and consequently gets a bit sweaty around the armpit region so he tends to shower daily.

griffy · 13/05/2003 11:42

I bath DS every day without fail. For two reasons:

  1. every day at nursery he gets filthy and comes home with food in his hair/ snot all over his face/paint in places that I can't think how it got there etc.

  2. It's part of his bedtime routine, and marks the start of 'wind down' time.

I find the question really interesting, though, because as a child I remember clearly that we were 'allowed' a bath only once a week on a Saturday evening. ONCE A WEEK! For crying out loud we must have been filthy! And we've got pictures to prove it! But that seemed 'normal' at that time (1970s). What did others do?

pie · 13/05/2003 11:45

I get my hygiene obession from both my parents who bathed my brother, sister and I every night.

My sister wasn't born until I was 10 and until the age of 8 my brother and I had a bath together every night.

I say 8 because when I reached that age I was already developing (periods started when I was 9) and so I felt that as an almost woman it was not appropriate to bathe with younger brother.

My brother being about 5 failed to understand this and took it as a very personal rejection. In fact he pushed open the bathroom door and pissed in my face whilst I was in the bath.

Revenge is very traumatic.

sb34 · 13/05/2003 11:47

Message withdrawn

Bozza · 13/05/2003 11:59

Everyday but the actual washing takes maybe 1 minute max unless home from nursery covered in particularly stubborn paint. Hair wash every other day - tempted to cut down on this, Most of the time is for playing. I don't think this is necessary but is a nice start to the bedtime routine.

Our bath night was Friday and I dread to think what the state of the water was having 3 of us in it...

griffy · 13/05/2003 12:03

Jude - sorry - I've just read your message. My first post just answered the main question heading the thread, and I didn't read your post all the way through. Didn't meant to imply that your gorgeous offspring are anything less than perfectly clean - and I'm sure that your approach is most sensible!

winnie1 · 13/05/2003 12:09

It's part of the bedtime routine for our toddler too, so everyday (and sometimes in the morning too)... and frankly teenagers have to bath/shower every day. We too only had a bath once a week (in the 70's)... suddenly feeling very guilty as all my green principles seem to be being flushed down the bath!

Bobsmum · 13/05/2003 12:11

Ds has a bath every night time permitting. At 8 months there's no way he's actually dirty enough to "need" a bath but he's really enjoyed it from birth It's also now part of bedtime - with nice lavender/chamomile babybath. The main reason really though is that dh gets a chance to play with him and spend time with him, without really winding him up before bed. Bathtime is definitely daddy time in our house.

doormat · 13/05/2003 12:20

I bath my little ones 5 and 2 daily. Lad of 9 has an aversion to bathtimes so 2-3 times per week. Elder girls when they want which is all the time.

Gini · 13/05/2003 12:20

my ds (and I know this is ott) gets one in the morning and another before bed! Reason being I went back to work and his nanna looked after him, she got him in a routine where he had his bath at 10am and then bottle and then slept till 1ish.
I was having a hell of a time in the evening getting him to understand bedtime, so came up with the genious (at the time) idea of a bath. SO here we are, getting baths 2 times a day.

Now I am not working I am going to try and wean him off the moring one with a top and tail.

(only one with soap though).

Bumblelion · 13/05/2003 12:27

I find it very hard to get eldest DD (10) in the shower/bath - at best I can manage it twice a week. I know in a few years this will change but at the moment she seems to have a bit of an aversion to water.

DS (6) loves the bath and will have one whenever he can. He has been known to have two (and once, even 3) in one day but that was an early morning bath, a night-time bath with baby sister and a mid afternoon bath as he was wet and cold from the rain.

DD2 (18 months) loves the bath and although she doesn't have one every day normally has one Sunday morning, Monday night, Tuesday night, Thursday night, Saturday morning. Saying that, she had a bath yesterday morning before the other two went to school as she was very hot and sweaty (been a bit poorly recently). Because she got a bit "grungy" (as I call it) yesterday she also had one before she went to bed. She loves a bath - but the morning one was a "practical one" to get her clean - 3 minutes running bath, 2 minutes in and then got her out. Last night was a more "relaxing fun" bath and it was 3 minutes running bath, 10 minutes in and then got her out.

Sometimes if she is in a real mess (dirty face, food in hair) I sometimes find it is quicker to dunk her in the bath rather than trying to wash face, hands, etc.

wigglybitsAKASamboM · 13/05/2003 12:28

Twice a week as she gets eczema if I do it more oftens

Bozza · 13/05/2003 12:38

Not just quicker Bumblelion but less hassle if they're in such a mess IME.

54321 · 13/05/2003 12:39

Ditto wigglysotit's and like Judetheobscure I wash hands and faces all the time.

SoupDragon · 13/05/2003 12:47

About twice a week I guess (and they go swimming once too ). It's such a full bathroom experience that I can't cope with it more often! The whole room is soaked!!

JanZ · 13/05/2003 12:51

Oops - bad mum alert here! Ds (2 1/2) gets a bath once a week if he's lucky (or in his mind unlucky!). He used to like them, but is going through a phase of objecting to them - and he absolutely hates getting his hair washed. Showers are even miore of a battlefield, so they are not a viable alternative.

Fortunately, he's always been a very clean baby (recent incidents with felt tips pens notwithstanding), so it's never been an issue. When he was a baby, I didn't see the point in doing it more often, as I understood that it potentially interfered with the baby's skin's acid mantle (or something like that). Anyway, he's got gorgeous skin. I had my time cut out with him when he was very small, as he seemed to spend his entire time attached to me, as he was a very slow feeder, so I also never got into the routine of more regular baths. My mum was horrified, as she needed to bath us more regularly in the dusty environment of South Africa.

He gets topped and tailed every day, and we've always used water to clean his bum, followed by vaseline (or rather, yellow petroleum jelly), rather than wet wipes (which we only use on trips out). And he loves standing by the sink and washing his hands!

GillW · 13/05/2003 12:52

Two or three times a week, unless he gets very dirty. Mind you I usually end up getting an involuntary shower every time ds has a bath! I'm so glad you raised this - I was starting to think I am the only one who doesn't do it every day!

slug · 13/05/2003 13:04

The sluglet drags her bath out, points at it and shouts "Bath! Bath!" every evening about 6.30pm. She loves bath time so much that occasionally we give her one in the middle of the day if she's having tantrums.