How often do you bathe LO?

[tracymom1]

I keep reading all this stuff about "bedtime rituals" that include giving baby a bath every night before bed. Every night - Really?! Does anyone actually do this? Does it really seem to help trigger the "its time for bed" response?

Newborn DD gets a bath, at best, once a week. I just don't see the need to wash her more than that. DS (who is 25 months) gets a bath when he needs it - sometimes twice a week, sometimes more.

Should I be washing my kids more often?

[StrawberryFields]

I prefer to bathe them very rarely. But I have a 20 month old dd who loves and begs for baths and so it has become a chore to keep her satisfied with one bath a day, or every other day!

Both of my kids have sensitive skin that dries out easily (the doctor says it is eczema-prone skin) and so I only wish to bathe them when it is absolutely necessary. Like playing in a dirt pile or swimming in an ice cream bath.

Both kids got barely a handful of baths when they were newborn/infants.

[akichan]

I bathe the 3-month old every other day or every 2 days. The 3 yr old and 2 yr old get daily baths because we live in hot, muggy Hawaii and are drenched in sweat daily (no AC).

[Drummer's Wife]

When my kids were infants no way did I bath them daily. More like once a week, if that. Now that they are older, it's as needed. Like yours, sometimes my toddler needs a bath/shower multiple times per day - so on an as needed basis.

Babies just don't get that dirty (short of a lot of spit-up or a diaper blow-out).

[Bokonon]

Both kids get baths about twice a week unless DS is dirty from playing in the sandbox at school, or DD has spitup in her hair or has a major blowout.

[InMediasRes]

We bathe both kids once or twice a week, and always in the morning. We tried doing the bath for bed thing when DS was little, and decided it wound him up too much before bed.

[georgiegirl1974]

I bathe DS (11 weeks) every other day or every third day depending on how my day looks. His hair gets greasy, and he likes baths, so I think a few times a week is good. (DD hated baths at this age, so I'd only bathe her when she had a huge blow-out, which was every other day or so.)

DD is 3.5 and she showers every other day, and more often in the summer because she gets pretty dirty.

[peabean26]

We do bathe our 9 month old almost every day. She really loves water and it seems to be an excellent bedtime 'trigger' for her. There are some nights when she already seems too tired to do it, but we bathe her probably 5 nights of the week.

We definitely didn't do it during the newborn stage, but started around 6 months when we instituted bedtime rituals.

[lifeguard]

I bathe ds most days but rarely before bed. In fact I use it as an activity when I'm bored or tired or just out of ideas. Now it keeps him contained & relatively still for awhile & when he was younger it was just a really enjoyable activity for the two of us to do together. In fact there have been days we've had two baths just for fun.

That said, I had him in Costa Rica & moved home in the spring so we are just now having to deal with colder weather for the first time. I'm sure come winter the baths will cut back dramatically (our house is pretty drafty).

The only thing I don't like about doing it as part of a bedtime routine is, depending on the child's personality, it can become that they cannot sleep without it. Some nights it's just not practical/feasible to give a bath so I'm avoiding that particular sleep association.

[Peony]

The baby gets a bath when he smells. Maybe every 3 weeks or so. The DD's before him were bathed even less, months could go by....

[emmaegbert]

We live in southern california where we have little water anyway, and we are in a multi-year drought, I definitely do not bathe my kids for the sake of "routine". My 5mo baby gets a bath if she has a special event coming up, if she seems dirty (doesn't happen often) or sometimes if big brother is having a bath (he DOES get dirty and probably bathes about 3x per week, head wash at most 1x per week unless, like last Friday, he puts butter in his hair or something along those lines).

For a poopy bum I usually just give her a kind of "sitz bath" in the bathroom sink, quick, plain water, clean her off.

Our bedtime routine consists of nursing her while I read a chapter to brother from whatever book we're working on. Most days she goes to sleep then, if not, I take her out of the room and just quietly hang out, rock her a bit, etc. I try to keep bedtime pretty simple, as a PP mentioned, I don't want my kids needing things just so, since it won't always be possible to do things exactly the same way. Though, easy for me to say, since neither of them are really difficult about sleep.

[CookAMH]

My 5mo gets a bath 2x aweek and always has. When he's bigger he'll prolly get more with getting dirty faster.

[Vojerleda]

My dd's get a big bath/hair washing once a week. I do water only baths for the older one a few times a week, and let her wash herself. The baby gets wiped down frequently with washcloths and water, so rarely is she 'dirty.' The hair washing is also the only time she gets actual 'soap.'

[caro113]

Originally Posted by Peony

The baby gets a bath when he smells. Maybe every 3 weeks or so. The DD's before him were bathed even less, months could go by....

I don't even remember the last time DD had a bath. It's been too cold her to play in the dirt, and even then I just wash her hands. She doesn't have blow outs and usually takes off her diaper to poop or poops in it and then takes it off and brings it to me I pretty much only wash her when she gets dirty or wears her food or plays in her poop. Other than that, I don't worry about it. Sometimes she sits in the tub while I take a shower though ..

[caro113]

Originally Posted by tracymom1

I keep reading all this stuff about "bedtime rituals" that include giving baby a bath every night before bed. Every night - Really?! Does anyone actually do this? Does it really seem to help trigger the "its time for bed" response?

My friend does this. Always has. I feel it's a bit much but it works for her. They do a bath and then her DD sits on the potty (22 months) and then goes to bed.

A big reason I don't do it as part of a bed time thing is because DD makes her own bedtime. When she starts climbing into my lap and being still and rubbing her eyes, I know it's time for bed. So we go in the bed room and lay down while I rub her back and sing her lullaby. Then I leave. She's usually asleep when I leave but if she's not, she's okay with me leaving. I'm just in the next room and she knows that. Sometimes she prefers to fall asleep alone. Other nights she wants to cuddle up to sleep. Either is fine with me.

[kirstenb]

Originally Posted by Peony

The baby gets a bath when he smells. Maybe every 3 weeks or so. The DD's before him were bathed even less, months could go by....

Yep... DS got a bath maybe every other week when he was a baby. Now he gets a bath as needed, when I remember. I just noticed before bed he was starting to get a little grunchy so he'll probably get one tomorrow. I don't remember the last time he had one though.

[dawncayden]

6 month old gets bathed every two weeks. Almost 4 year old gets a shower one week and a bath the next week.

[luv-my-boys]

ok it seems im the odd mama out because I bathe my kids everyday even when they were infants. But now that they are older it definately is a *trigger* for our night routine. Plus the boys love water and nothing calms them (and I need calm in house full of boys at night) than a warm bath and cozy pjs. I

[Madalyn]

I bathe mine every day. The Florida heat makes his little fat roll creases smell gross. It's not really a bed time trigger for him though, just part of our normal routine. We do it around 7-8pm and he doesn't go to bed until 10:30.

[DangerMom]

I am so glad to read others who don't give their babies baths every night! I have been feeling guilty for not doing this. I did it for a few weeks, as part of trying to establish a bedtime routine, but man, after working all day, I am tired and the thought of a bath is just too much.

We bathe him usually about twice a week. His head gets super sweaty when he sleeps, so he gets a little ripe -- that's how we know it's time to bathe him again. :-)