Bathing

[MangoMonster]

saw this on another thread and wanted to ask your opinions.

I only bath DS twice a week but wash his face and hands everyday. Is this too little? At the moment I won't bathe him alone, need another person as he is constantly moving/ standing up/ walking/ and slipping. I have taps in the middle of the bath and scared he will bang is head on them...

What do you do?

I only bath dd and ds once a week in general but I shower them every other day.

I'm a clean freak and shower everyday, hope he will too one day, but should I start now? He loved baths but won't sit down in them for more than 5 seconds :)

He is scared of running water at the moment, but we are working on it.

How old is he?

if he's younger than puberty - I think that's fine

On the other hand, DS has had a shower every night as part of his bedtime routine (mild sleep issues when he was younger) and it has made the transition into smelly teen much more pleasant, rofl

you can get tap covers that sort of thing would that be useful?

He's 2, didn't realise you could get tap covers! Will look into it.

I'm definitely getting tap covers! That would really help :)

Ds is 6 and we manage 2 baths a week, 1 hairwash (on Sundays), maybe 1 face wash between that and if I get teeth done once a day I am doing well. Does that make you feel better??!!

Ben much better! I do his teeth twice a day, so I'm not completely neglectful ;). Maybe I just need to get over the fear of bathing him alone, he's a slippery one though! And would hate for him to have a bad experience and go off it, we had that before, took ages to get him to be ok with it again. Plus he's only just started enjoying having his hair rinsed, so I honk I'm scared to push it... I know I'm a wuiss!

Same issue here. DS used to love being in water but last month he refused to even get in, it carried on for a few days. In the end, i had to get in the bath with him couple of times, which made it a bit better. But now i just make sure he has lots of small toys in the bath and i stay outside and keep him distracted. That seems to work until it is time to wash his hair.
tabul thanks for the link for the tap covers. def need to get this as DS is constantly on the move in the bath.

Ben hope that didn't sound rude, was joking but it might mot have come across that way, sorry :). Hate it when humour gets lost in text and my humour is probably a bit off anyway! ;)

dev DS is the same, have to play and sing constantly to make sure every experience in the bath is a good one...

Not sure if it helps but i think one of the reasons Ds went off baths was when We had to switch to shower when our boiler broke. I could tell that He didn't like the feeling of spray on his body, but now he seems to enjoy baths as usual. Still can't get him to stay still though.

dev I used the shower with him once and now he is completely freaked by running water, still working on it 6 months later. I should have realised at the time, but these things happen.

I'm a really bad mother, then. They get bathed once a week, face wash every morning and teeth twice a day.

Glad I'm not alone :)

OMG have I got OCD our 2 DC's disabled, incontinent get showered at night (they enjoy it) and I couldn't let them go to school smelling of poo and wee so they are showered in the morning-I find it quicker than washing bums etc. Mind you when I was a lass it was once a week if I was lucky.

No EJ I'm worse than you! You do teeth and face every day. I can't face it

Definitely no offence taken Mango

Bath mine twice a week. 1 NT daughter, 2 SN sons. The 'worst' one will sometimes stand in the bath and have a quick wipe down and get out (I call it a "Micro-Bath" because he's in there for seconds!

He will occasionally let me wash his hair - but NO CONDITIONER!

Teeth? Ha, bloody, ha. It's like trying to wrestle with a greased pig. If they get done once every 2 days, I'm a happy mummy.

Face washing is a no-no and he will only change his underpants if he's got 'skiddies'

:)

Btw, rubber mats with suction pads seem to have taken care of the slipping. He doesn't sit down for long and keeps moving, so I do have to watch him very carefully.

DS always manages to step out outside of the very large mat! ;)

One thing we did with Ds was that probably once a week he would go in the bath with one of us - usually dh with me on hand to help him in & out. In our case it was so he had an opportunity to be immersed and splash around as the bathing aid he had meant only a tiny bit of him got immersed. But with an adult in the bath it provides reassurance and would go some way to prevent standing up.etc as there wouldn't be room!

Mango, wonder where have I seen that before... We have two mats end to end. Looks stupid but at least he can't find a spot where he is going to slip.. :-)