New mum alert!! Silly question.....

[Flossam]

Quite simple, how often do you give your baby a bath? Is it good to start a routine? I'd love to know what you all do!

How old is baby?

I was way too scared to bath ds at first - only top and tailed him for at least the first month I think.
We had no bed time routine for him again for at least a month if not longer. He had no idea - he was too little.

I bath my baby every day he is 7 months- straight after dinner

I think (cant remember) i bathed my babies daily (or sometimes every other) from about 3-4 weeks old. Before this occasional baths and top & tail.

My DD had mild excema and sensitive skin when she was born (she still is v sensitive, I can't use wipes or soaps/washes on her and she's 2y 3m). I used to bathe her every other day at around the same time. I've been told that it is advantageous to get into some sort of routine as the babies (and you) know where you are. Although DD had a good, solid routine, she was never a Gina Ford baby. DD and I worked out our own routine, which worked very well.

2 and half weeks

We started giving her daily evening baths at around 6 months

i went for every other night with mine (3 girls), initially due to baby ecezma & then so we were not tied to a bath every night routine - makes life more flexible & i'm sure kids don't need it every night.

By three weeks our dd was having a bath every night as part of a bed time routine (apart of course the odd occasion when she went off before we had a chance to get her in one). For the first two weeks we just top and tailed like tracy k

not very often. Initially I was too scared, then it got too cold, and with ds it was too much of a palaver with dd trying to "help". They both get bathed once or twice a week, but they do get a good flanneling every day!

It is good to have some sort of bedtime routine though, but it doesn't have to be complicated.

athomemum - All 3 of my kids (DS - 12, DS 12, DD 2) do need a bath every night. They get filthy despite regular 'wipes' throughout the day !

2.5 weeks - bless !

Sorry, typoed my kids ages, they are 12, 11 & 2

I'm with SP .. but then DD has no problems going to sleep at night .. if anything its keeping her awake till 6pm I'm having problems with ATM .. she's 6 months BTW .. she always gets cleaned off but an actual bath probably only 2 - 3 times a week

DS who is 3.9 has a bath every night

My DD was stinky for 12 weeks! We just topped and tailed for first month or so on MW advice, then dp got very ill. I was making 4hr round trip to hospital every day so bathing dd was not top priority. She didn't get daily baths til 12 weeks, no-one complained about the smell though

dd who is thirteen months now definately needs a bath every night..........Mucky pup that she is!!!!!

DS used to hate having baths so had them very infrequently (got topped and tailed a lot). So the thought of having bath as part of a relaxing evening routine was silly.

Think he started to enjoy them when he was about 4 months and now (just over a year) he almost always has one before he goes to bed. Occasionally he nearly falls asleep downstairs first and so skips the bath part.

I remember feeling bad at first that he hardly had any baths, but then remembered how much he screamed and really there was no point

You see I think it would be nice to have some thing like a routine (not a gina fan btw) for a bath. I could just top and tail but DS seems to get far more offended by that than by the bath! He generally seems quite happy in there and only gets annoyed when we take him out! But DP thinks a bath every night is being obsessive and unnecessary. I kind of know where he is coming from but thought that giving a bath every night was the done thing!

We gave DS a bath every night from about 2 weeks onwards, even if it were a quick dunk and a flick around with a sponge. He then had his feed and went down for the night . . . at the moment (touching every piece of wood available) this is the one thing I still understand about him! He sleeps pretty well and almost seems to tell us when it is that time of day now . . . hope you are keeping well. xxxx

we bath every night - its nice cos they seem to enjoy it and relax and we enjoy it too! its another form of interaction that everyone enjoys, and yes, its a start towards routine

at least 1 x per week. It's not good for them anyway to have baths too often, esp if dry/sensitive skin. My hv & paed both recommended 2 x per week max. If they're really grubby more often, but this is unlikely 4 such a small one

God, mine were 14 months apart, and I just couldn't. DD1 got done every day, dd2 about once a week. No way could those two be bathed at the same time. But topped and tailed her, and she was a refluxy baby anyway, so constantly got flanned down.

ours are 18 months (minus 4 days) apart and when they were babies we always brought the baby bath down every night, filled it with warm water, poured in some Johnson's Baby Bath, swished around and they kicked their little legs around, chuckled and we did it every night....cos when they get to 7 and 9 they don't want to get in the bath too much at all!!

I tell you what lavender2 it doesn't change. My 12 year old comes home from a rugby or football match completely covered in mud and asks why he has to have a bath

dd1 at first got bathed twice a week. had to up that to daily when ezcema got worse.

with dd2 i used to let her kick about with dd1 in the big bath from birth.