Do I need a bath thermometer?

[BellaBear]

Right, am having panics that I Haven't Bought Anything Yet (am 35 weeks) so DH and I went to Boots and we looked at baby monitors, decided to buy it online and then saw a bath thermometer.

DH said "do we need one of those? I thought you were meant to just stick your elbow in the water"

to which I replied "yes, but I have no idea what you are meant to feel with your elbow, how do you know if it is too hot or too cold, are elbows special like that?"

to which he said (and I quote directly here because it speaks volumes) "can't you just ask all the women on mumsnet what to do?" (Note POSITIVE comment about me being on MN)

So what do I do? Do I need one or is my elbow special?

is it me or do bath thermometers say everything is too warm unless the bath is bloody cold.

got midwife to show me in hospital and i'm glad i stuck myy hand in the water as i was quite suprised how warm it could be.

i don't think i'll ever be as effeicient as her when bathing ds though!

I have a bath thermometer which is still in use now that DD is 4 ... I am so crap. But it's one that actually tells you what the bath temperature is, rather than just 'too hot'. I am terrible at judging temperature, left to my own devices I run myself scalding hot baths that leave me like a lobster and in a state of near collapse. So I need help. A 'proper' thermometer has meant I can up the temperature as DD has got older - although it does lead to us arguing over whether her bath is too hot, 'no it's not, look it's 40 degrees!'

i don't even know how many degrees its meant to be!!

Hmmm well I bought a bath thermometre, but it was only £2.99 from Mother care, so I am not worried that I wasted my money! :-)

i didnt bother with a bath thermometer. started using the elbow test thing and like clumsymum wondered why DS screamed at every bath. made the water warmer and he loved it. you will get to know your baby and how they like the temp to be