Baby baths

[coffeegirl]

[reposted] So my little Annie is mostly a really goodnatured, go-with-the-flow kind of baby, but there are a few things she absolutely doesn't like and is very vocal about, and one of them is taking a bath. She is 6 weeks old.

I've tried so many different things. First, I used one of those bath cradles in my bathtub. She hated that. She felt unsafe on the bath cradle, and the sound of the faucet scared her.

So I returned the bath cradle and tried it again with her in my lap, me sitting in the bath water with her. It wasn't much better; she still cried and didn't like it.

So then I tried showering with her. She didn't like this either, but it was the only one she didn't get the panic or cry about, and it's the quickest, so it's what I've been doing. But lately she's started to hate the shower, too.

.....so then we tried the bathroom sink. It's very small. Filled it with warm water and put a towel on the bottom, and I filled the rinse water in a cup from the tub faucet so the sink faucet (water falling on her) might not scare her. Since I don't know the basis of her fear/aversion, I'm kinda trying it all. She didn't like the sink, either.

Now, when I say she "doesn't like it" I'm not talking about a little fussing. I'm talking about my usually mild-mannered baby screaming her head off, turning bright red, crying so hard she's nearly choking herself and hyperventilating. I try to make it as quick as possible, but I still feel like a torture master now every time we take a bath. I just can't do it anymore, can't put her through it.

So I'm just wondering, first of all....what the heck is going on with her??? Have any of yall experienced this with your young babies? And if so, did they grow out of it and how did you do the bathing thing until then? I don't think that exclusive sponge baths are going to cut it. At least not for long.

She has seasonal allergies so whenever we spend some time outside I like to at least rinse her off, so none of the pollen or whatever it is she's allergic to goes to bed with her. Also we use cloth diapers (prefolds) which sometimes get soaked in a matter of minutes and the cloth touches her bottom and legs and I feel that I need to at least rinse her off, again, at the end of the day for this reason. I only use baby soap maybe every other bath or so.

Aside from the above questions, I'm interested in hearing about the bath routines of mamas with similar-age babies who don't hate their bathtime. And if anyone has some tips on some gentler bathing methods that might work with my baby, that would be really awesome!

[Snapdragon]

Do you have a bath tub? Probably not or I am sure you would have mentioned it. When ds was 6 wks I would take him into the bath with me and nurse as much as he wanted to make sure he was calm. Often dh would come in the bath with us too and we just talked to the baby and made sure he felt calm. Now a days (at 6 and a 1/2 months) I bathe him in the bathroom sink and he is fine with it.

[mommariffic]

DD hated baths for quite a bit, but DS seems to love them

We have showered with him sometimes, but I recently got that bath tub [from a friend] that looks like...a bucket essential. They can "sit" in it, and its' like "being in the womb" apparently. If you can find one used, try that! And if not, just keep trying because eventually it'll get easier. Some babes I think just dislike the water!

[lifeguard]

Ds hated the little baby bathtub & the shower terrified him until recently.

Pretty much from day one what I've done is fill the tub up while we're still clothed (you could do this with dc out of the room if you think the sound scares her). Then I would undress both of us. As much as possible I would incorporate dh in this - so I'd have him hold ds while I got into the tub & then he could pass ds to me. We almost always nursed in the tub. When we were done I would call dh who would take ds from me & then I could get out.

Couple notes: I made the water pretty warm, verging on hot - considerably warmer than what is recommended. And if I was worried ds would get cold I kept a washcloth in the tub that I could drap over him after wetting it with warm water.

FWIW - I pretty much never used soap at all.

[jessica_s]

I was going to ask about the temperature of the water. It seems like most (at least newborns) hate being the least bit cold and it's easy to do that with a bath unless the water is really warm. You might have already tried to up the temperature but thought I'd throw it out there!

[Knitting Mama]

I would try both of you in the tub again with you nursing her. If that doesn't work, then there's nothing wrong with doing sponge baths and just trying again every few weeks. I really don't think babies need much bathing, personally, so a wipedown once a week or every couple of weeks should be enough.

[Peace+Hope]

i only use the shower/bath a couple of times a week still with my 6 month old. i'm not saying you don't need to bathe her more often, but i do think sponge baths are awesome.

if you have some kind waterproof or wool pad you could put on the bed, with a soft towel over that, warm room, low light, warm water and a cloth should be fine! maybe incorporate massage before/after to help her relax. my LO loves massage....

[ErinYay]

re. the wet diapers- we use disposies, and 90% of the time, for just pee, I don't use wipes or anything. Urine is sterile, as long as baby is dry before a new diap is put on, you really don't need to wash them. We've had very, very few diaper rashes, and nothing that didn't clear up in a day.

[treeoflife3]

The only thing that worked with my kid was making the bath hotter. I actually had to make it hot enough that her skin would turn slightly pink after a few minutes. I expected it to be too hot for her and felt like I must be a bad mom to allow her in such a hot bath (it wasn't burning hot to me but certainly warmer than what people would do for a little one) but it was the only way she would not scream... in fact, she ENJOYED taking baths once I started doing that. Even now, she is much happier with hotter water (and can eat hotter food than I would have expected) although she is good with cold now.

Otherwise, she really probably doesn't need a bath that often. Kiddo would soak her diapers too and I still only bathed her once a week. As for the allergies issue, you can just try wiping her down with a warm wash cloth while playign in the living room or something. I don't suffer from allergies, but I can't imagine she would need a full fledged bath every day to rinse off. You could always change the bedding more often as well to help get rid of build up if you are worried about her bringing her allergens to bed.

[ann_of_loxley]

How warm is the water? The best tip I was ever given before I had my first son was that if baby doens't like the bath - make the water hotter. He didn't like his first bath, so I made it hotter and he loved it since then! With DS2, I just went straight for hotter water (obviously not scalding or warm enough to make one faint! lol - but as pp above said, enough to make his skin go pink!)...and DS2 has never had a problem with the bath!

[Mom2M]

Warmer water and heat in the bathroom really made it good for DD. She hated being cold, especially that young. I have that nursing cradle too and I filled up the tub first and then put her on it and used a little bucket to dump water over her. That way the water would warm her up if she got cold.
Now she loves the bath

[love4bob]

I don't really have advice, but I sympathize with you! I haven't heard the make the water hotter idea before, so I might try that. All of my babies have HATED baths since birth. The oldest still hates me washing her and rinsing her hair. She screams horribly, and I just have to hold her down to do it. I just bathe as quickly as possible, and they don't get bathed as often as I would like. I just can't handle it everyday though! It is normally DH's job too since he has more patience with it, but he is deployed.

[Snapdragon]

Somehow I misread your post where you Do say you have a tub! oops. Yeah- I agree about the temp. I make it way less hot than I would for me alone- just warm enough to be nice but not hot. And try nursing the baby and holding them in your arms, and then just let a foot or a little bit of their body go into the water. Then use a wet warm washcloth on them while you are holding them. Rather than trying to submerge the baby's body in the bath, just get them slowly used to the water.

[aphel]

My LO also didn't like baths until I started making them considerably warmer . . . . so warm that the temperature alert thing we have always turned white (the "too hot" color), and her skin does get a bit pink. But since I've been doing that she's actually enjoying bath time.

I always leave face/hair washing for last, it always seems to upset/startle her. And I have a thick bath towel under her, so she never feels like she's going to slip.

[ShanaV]

My babies didn't like baths at that age either. You can get the idea from Vinny's first bath at home.

What I do, and they are now more-or-less cool with, is fill the bathroom sink with warm water and a teensy bit of soap, get a washcloth and towel ready and get em nakey. Then I hold them tummy to tummy, and slowly lean forward to lower his bum into the water. I stay leaning forward the whole time so his head is sort of smashed into my boobs. His little hands often grip my t-shirt for dear life. I sing about washing their little bums, tummies and pits as I swish water over them and rub with the wash cloth. Then, if I have used soap, I quickly let out some of the old water, run a bit more for a quick rinse, and then scoop him up onto my chest. I get wet in the process, but so what. I grab the towel and place it lengthwise over him, rub him dry, then take him to the changing table for a more thorough dry and change. I'm also of the mind to get it over with as quickly as possible. They're only submerged for like 30-60 seconds.

I'll have to try using hotter water too. Once I remember I let the water coming out of the faucet get pretty hot as he was sitting in the sink (I leave it running really slowly b/c my sink leaks, so I need to do that to keep it full) and it touched his leg or something and he screamed. I thought it was because it was too hot, I dunno. Maybe it was just a shock bc the temperature was different from what he was sitting in.

[Ninetales]

My baby screamed those all-out, "I'm going to die, what's happening???" screams when we tried to bathe her early on. She hated her little bath too. She did great when I got in the big bathtub with her and held her. Plus I felt better about actually washing her since we were together and I could keep a good grip on her. Making the water warmer helped a lot too.

Once she could sit with a little help I started using the kitchen sink, and now that she sits well I sit her in the big tub.

[mummy marja]

I think some babies just hate baths. My first two screamed when I bathed them , and #3 just likes it--I'm not doing anything differently. I tried everything to get #1 and #2 to like baths, but it just took time. Around 6 months #1 was ok with it. #2 liked it for a while and then hated it for several months until he was about 10 months. I didn't bathe them as often , made it quick, or just sponge-bathed them instead. Now they are 6 and 8 and will stay in the tub for an hour or more!

[eleonrauis]

My DS, now a 2.5yo who loves the bath and would stay in for hours if I let him, was the same at that age. What finally worked for us was white noise and a very warm bathroom. The apartment we were in at the time didn't have a vent in the bathroom so we used a space heater to warm up the room before bath and I would hang a hair dryer off the door (to keep it far away from the tub) and turn it on for the noise and a little extra heat. I think we had to do that every time until he was old enough to sit up and play more.

[1blueheron]

A tip from my MIL that helped us -- wrap unclothed baby in receiving blanket, lower into bath still wrapped up, unwrap gradually if at all, washing piecemeal. A little more laundry but worked sooo well for us

[neonalee]

Originally Posted by ann_of_loxley

How warm is the water? The best tip I was ever given before I had my first son was that if baby doens't like the bath - make the water hotter. He didn't like his first bath, so I made it hotter and he loved it since then! With DS2, I just went straight for hotter water (obviously not scalding or warm enough to make one faint! lol - but as pp above said, enough to make his skin go pink!)...and DS2 has never had a problem with the bath!

Another vote for hot water. DS loves showering with his daddy and doesn't mind a bath in his little tub either ... unless the water gets cooler or (in the shower) he isn't begin hit with the hot water. Then his little bottom lip quivers for a couple seconds before he screams. He also starts screaming about 5 - 10 seconds after he comes out (even if the bathroom is hot and steamy), and continues until I've managed to get him dried off (despite flailing limbs) and cuddled next to me! I think temp is the key for him

Also - I'm wondering if I have an especially smelly baby? We bath him daily because he gets stinky!