Just curious.. do you always give your baby a bath every evening?

[wurlywoo]

I always try and give my baby who is 8 wks old a bath every night and I do think it helps her to sleep however some nights this may not be possible and I am just wondering what the majority do?

If you dont give your baby a bath do you have problems that evening???

I dont give either of my lo's (dd 4 and ds 17 months) a bath every evening - a couple of times a week is enough. They settle fine without a bath but then it is not part of their bedtime routine.

ds2 is 7 months now and I guess if he is lucky he gets a bath once a week! A quick wash down has to do the rest of the time . I simply can't fit it in with everyone else's needs. I can't say he does settle better once he has had a bath particularly, but then like seona it's not part of his regular routine.

Ds1, however (aged 2.5) gets a bath about three times a week, and I do find he settles better after having a bath (though again, it's not always possible as I have older kids too)

hmm interesting, what I am afraid of is giving her a bath evewry night and then her not settling when on the occasion she doesnt.. I'd like the bath to be part of the routine but not sure whether every night is too much!

once a week here, but she has quite bad baby eczema and bathing aggravates it.

I don't think it helps her wind down much either as she gets so giddy about it and splacses so much I have to out the curtain across to save myself anfd the floor......and she is only 9mo.

I'm sure in the summer when she is crawling and toddling around the garden and making mud pies, the frequency will need to increase.

My older DS (5), gets a bath once a week and has a shower after his swimming lesson on Saturday morning.

and the doctor advised me that once a week is fine for babies.

I too gave my dc a bath every night just before bedtime,then a bottle since he was 2 weeks....He still loves at 18months

I didn't give my two a bath every night when they were babies (or even now they are older) because I found it got them more wound up not less - they loved splashing about and hated getting out. Even if we used lavender bubble bath that is supposed to be sleep inducing.

The consistent bit of the bed time routine comes after the bath/wash when they had a drink, story and cuddle before going to sleep.

Mostly every other night or every third night. Depends if can be bothered. She is 20 months though so gets quite mucky. When she was alittle baby probably just once or twice a week I should think.

My Mum didnt bath us every night either and I know of others too that dont. Guess I am being over cautious in case things go really awry in the night..(but to be honest things arent exactly peachy in the night anyway!)

We didn't bath our LOs every night until they were a couple of months old, IRRC. Newborn skin is dry and delicate, and doesn't need frequent bathing. Once we started to get them into a bedtime routine at about 3m, then they would have a bath every night. More for the fun than for cleanliness!

I think that if you are bathing them evey night then it is better not to use any soaps or bubbles, as that can be quite drying for the skin. Reserve chemicals for treats, or once a week, say.

We still chuck all 3 in the bath together almost every night.

My dds get a bath twice a week. when teeny tiny they were maybe 3 times a week. The bedtime routine is linked to getting jammies on and clean nappies, bedtime story and milk etc - the bath is just an addition every few days for them.

It takes soooo much time to bath them and tbh adds alot of stress to the 'wind down' for me.

Try making clear associations with the other parts of the routine. WE used to have dimmed lights for DD1 and definately no TV. DD2 had to fit in a bit more with what we were doing though.

Thanks its so good to get different ideas, its nice to see what other people do in practice as opposed to some silly book!

didn't start bathing every night till she was 6mo and started getting covered in food

before that it was twice a week tops

I've always given my daughter (3.3) a daily bath, though until she went to school this was in the morning not the evening.

She loves the bath, spends hours in it playing and relaxing... and I like very clean children .

PFB ds1 had a bath religiously every night, but then we had ds2, and it became a bit of a marathon, so we decided to do it every other night (now every other night or so...) and neither of them seems to be upset by this. And ds2 is a rubbish sleeper too, so if it was a problem I'm sure we'd have been informed .

we do everynight DS1 is now 4 and I think there are only a handful of days that he hasn't had a bath before bed.
We started bath boobie bed routine when he was 6 weeks old but with DS2 we started at about 3 weeks just because we were already running the bath for DS1.
They love playing in it.. they spend about 30 minuted playing together.

I'll give DS a bath every night, she is 13 mo now and started when she was about 1 month I think. It's part of her bedtime routine and loves it and also has helped in a sense that she is not scared in the pool either. I work fulltime so like to have some daily routine with her. We only bath for about 10 mins. and take time to moisturise well after due to a little eczema which keep reappering every few months.

I'll see how it goes I think, Might not give her a bath tonight and see what happens either way its unlikely she will sleep through from her very last feed at 11pm!! sigh! wishful thinking on my part there me thinks!!