Help! My baby hates her bath time

[BabyLinthwaite]

I don't know what I'm doing wrong. My 3 1/2 week old hates her bath times. She screams and gets very distressed. I use bath temperature gages and the waters always right, but she hates it. How does everyone bath their babies? Is my room to cold, is my routine wrong, is the bath water too hit or cold, how do I make her bath time happy? Should I warm the room up more..? House temp shows 21-24oc' bath water is 35-37 on the gauge and says the water temp is correct.... I've even followed instructions on how to bath a new born, but still get it wrong.

Stop if she's getting upset. I used to take dd in the bath and shower with me at that age and just top and tail her.

Don't worry - Ds hated bathtime as a baby! He only really started to enjoy it when he could sit up so when he was little I normally went in with him and sat him in my lap. I didn't bother every day either - just gave him a good wipe down. Don't stress if its not working out.

He's 2.5 now and we have tears when he has to get out.

I always found the best way to bath my babies was to get in with them. I could do this on my own one I got the hang of it but to start with would probably want someone else there to hand the baby to while we got in and out.

The water's too cold
My DS cried every bath time until he had a bath with DH who has it a lot hotter and he loved it! So we made his bath hotter than the recommended temperature and he was happy from then on

www.mothercare.com/Mothercare-Stripy-Fabric-Bath-Support/566274,default,pd.html

a thingy like this was helpful
and water just a tiny bit warmer
might help
but she might just hate the very idea of baths

Dd1 hated bathtime too, best thing was putting her in with dh. She equally disliked top and tail washing. Bathing with dh was a special thing for them to do together, I think we did it until she could sit up in the bath herself. he would just sit in bath and hold her, then lift her up occasionally so I could give her a good soaping. She also hated being cold afterwards, so lots of towels, and I used to warm her babygro under my clothes (pfb!). As pp have said she only started to enjoy it as she got older.

I wouldn't bother if she doesn't like it - they really don't need a bath, especially not every night!

If you want to persist though, 37 degree water and get in the bath with her.

In the early days I'd get in with them too, lots of skin to skin an after a while of doing that they were happy enough on their own.

Don't worry too much tho, the bigger she gets the easier it'll be :)

An elderly friend advised me to drape a piece of muslin across my baby sons shoulders when bathing him as this would help him feel more secure in water .
I done this with both my children and they loved their bath so may be worth a try.

Mine was like this. I thought all babies were supposed to love bathtime so it was a shock to find mine hated it. At 5mo she's come round to it; I wouldn't say she loves bathtime but she tolerates it and if I work really hard occasionally smiles during it!

When she was very little I only bothered twice a week because it was such a trial. She just had a top and tail other days. HV said this was fine.

Also bathing together means you can do a deeper bath and have them more in the water, also keeps it warmer

Oh yes, a PP has reminded me - we used two flannels for a while. One to wash and one draped on her tummy. Don't know if it made her feel more secure or warmer but either way, it seemed to help.

I'll try the muslin draped round and again try bathing with either me or DH and see what happens and put the water a tiny bit hotter. Thank you for the advice, much appreciated