How often do you bathe your under 1 year old?

[Mscandylamb]

Hi all,

36 weeks preg and just have a question to ask about bathing under 1 year olds. My anxiety is that my baby might drown in the bath so Im not sure I would like to bathe her every day.. Also i'll be on my own raising her in my own flat so things will be much more of a struggle.

Does anyone have any tips to keep their baby safe and clean ??

Get a shnuggle bath or one of those angelcare seats. Much easier than a regular baby bath.

LO had a bath every 3 days when he was tiny. My tip would be to bath when you're both relaxed, he was so fussy of an evening (as lots of newborns are) so a bath made it worse, we'd often do his bath of a morning when he was calmer.

Most nights here, mainly because mine have always loved baths and because it takes up some time in what can otherwise be a fairly fraught ‘witching hour’ with babies! DH worked away a lot when my first 2 were little so I mainly did it alone. We’ve always used an Angelcare bath seat in the proper bath rather than a baby bath, much easier.
If you’re always with them (which you will be!) they won’t be able to drown.

Just do whatever works for you. Our 4mo gets bathed every night as part of his bedtime routine. He loves it! He's had a daily bath from a very young age because he was colicy, and it gave us 15 minutes respite from his screaming.

If you've got your mum to help, 2 months is plenty of time for you to get confident. It seems scary now, and it's a steep learning curve, but you'll figure it out!

Under 6 months probably a couple of times a week or if covered after a poo-plosion! Once we were weaning, from 6 months plus, every day or every other day as we did baby led weaning and they got messy!

I remember being nervous to bath my first mainly as they were slippy and I'm clumsy! It helps to have everything out ready by the side of the bath. A towel with a hood means you can kind of pop it over the head and then fold around them as you lift them out.

My niece preferred a shower with her mum once she could hold her head up herself. She liked to decide for herself when to put her head in the stream and loved it. My SIL invited me in the bathroom once to show me because it was so much fun to see her like that. She has always loved water and grew into a keen swimmer.

So when you're alone you could do that.

Not sure if anyone’s me ruined this but we brought a shnuggle baby bath - it’s got like a ridge the baby sits behind to stop them slipping forward and a sort of anti slip bit behind their heads

While you obviously still can’t leave them etc it gave me more peace of mind that he wouldn’t just slip into the water and made it easier to wash him as I had both hands free

Oh and I do it every 2-3 days just because it’s part of his routine

Mentioned not me ruined 🤦🏻‍♀️

Daily for routine rather than hygiene.

My 13 month old DD loves playing in the bath. But we do it every night as part of her bedtime routine, and have done since she was 3/4 months old.

I rarely bath mine. He gets in the shower with me for a rinse in plain water every 2-3 days.

Every night. People do say it dries out newborns skin but from about 3 weeks we did it every night as our DD slept really well afterwards for like 5 hours! So we would so a bath at 11pm and then get a good chunk of sleep. The bath/bed routine gradually got earlier and earlier.

My daughters skin has always been fine and has never been dry from a bath.