How often do you bathe your newborn? - Page 2

[alaskanmomma]

I usually just bathed my kids from NB-3 months when they started getting a bit smelly or had one of those blow-outs that no amount of wipes can handle lol. With the stink issue, usually once a week, blow-outs...well, a bit more unpredictable. 

[SplashingPuddle]

I bathed with my daughter every day, but it was because I wanted a bath, not because she was dirty. I never used soap on her or shampoo, just the water. I fondly remember our baths together as a relaxing, connecting time. 

[LLQ1011]

Yeah we took a lot of baths together too, It was hard on my back to try and bend over a bath. I say two or three times a week.
 

[Quinalla]

With a newborn, usually every 3-4 days and at least once a week, sometimes more depending. She was BF and was not a spitter-upper so she didn't get grimy too often. She liked baths pretty well, so sometimes I would try that to soothe her when nothing else was working. When they are really little, they don't need baths very often, but if they like them its no problem to give them one everyday or whatever either. After the newborn stage, I usually switch to every other day unless extra sweaty/dirty/etc. That's what I do for myself too.

[Jaxy]

My baby is very sweaty so even when he was a newborn it was every other day (besides, the sound of water running really soothes him) and now that he started solids it's pretty much every day! If we miss a day dh gives him a sponge bath!

LLQ1001 : I sit on a milk crate to bathe him, so much better on the back!!

[blessedwithboys]

In our family, we bathe/shower daily, and ALWAYS with soap.  The only time I skip soap is if it's been a gross hot summer day I and feel like crawling out of my skin and can't focus on cooking dinner until I just hop in the shower and rinse with cold water for a bit...but if course I've already showered once that day...it's shampoo and body wash every morning for me.  I set this good example with my kids right from birth.  They got daily baths, with soap, from the first day I was recovered enough from the csecs to stand in front of the kitchen sink for 10 minutes.  A particularly bad blowout might require a secondary washing from the poop-line down.  I can't even fathom not wiping or rinsing one way or another during a diaper change, and I used cloth part-time on both kids.  What does cloth have to do with it?  Pee still touches the skin.  I guess if you're ECing and not missing much, a big ablution wouldn't be necessary each time. 

I used a good natural soap for baby baths and followed with a natural moisturizer.  The kids got little mini massages each day.  Dry skin was never an issue.  Matter of fact, my kids both had unusually gorgeous skin as babies.  Probably because it was clean. 

[mamazee]

When mine were little babies, it was about once a week, sometimes twice if they got dirty. Their skin seemed nicer and healthier when they weren't bathed too often. That could be specific to my family as I have sensitive skin too. Bathing less often seemed preferable to me to bathing and then adding something else to make the skin stop being so dry.

Then when they're toddlers it's more often as they get dirty more often - maybe every other day to every few days in the winter, but probably every day in the summer when they're outside getting dirty a lot.

At some point during childhood they get a bit stinky if they don't bathe every day, and then of course they start to bathe or shower every day.

[sageowl]

Depends on the age, but notion of DS "stewing in his own juices" always made me do it at least every other day...but usually it was just a warm-water-only bath below the waist in a baby tub.  A full on bath with actual soap in the water and headwashing only happened about every 3-4 days. 

[Quinalla]

Originally Posted by blessedwithboys 

In our family, we bathe/shower daily, and ALWAYS with soap.  The only time I skip soap is if it's been a gross hot summer day I and feel like crawling out of my skin and can't focus on cooking dinner until I just hop in the shower and rinse with cold water for a bit...but if course I've already showered once that day...it's shampoo and body wash every morning for me.  I set this good example with my kids right from birth.  They got daily baths, with soap, from the first day I was recovered enough from the csecs to stand in front of the kitchen sink for 10 minutes.  A particularly bad blowout might require a secondary washing from the poop-line down.  I can't even fathom not wiping or rinsing one way or another during a diaper change, and I used cloth part-time on both kids.  What does cloth have to do with it?  Pee still touches the skin.  I guess if you're ECing and not missing much, a big ablution wouldn't be necessary each time. 

I used a good natural soap for baby baths and followed with a natural moisturizer.  The kids got little mini massages each day.  Dry skin was never an issue.  Matter of fact, my kids both had unusually gorgeous skin as babies.  Probably because it was clean. 

That's great that it works for your family, but the implication that other people's babies are dirty is pretty rude. I can definitely believe that some babies would be dirty/grimy without a daily bath (especially spitters or sweaty babies), my DD was not at all in the newborn stage and I've met many Moms IRL and online who had the same experience. Personally, my skin and my DD's skin would be way too dry if we used soap everyday when not needed and hair washing everyday is unnecessary for us either. I too always wipe down with something at each diaper change, unless I accidentally changed a dry diaper.

[LilyTiger]

Originally Posted by blessedwithboys 

In our family, we bathe/shower daily, and ALWAYS with soap.  The only time I skip soap is if it's been a gross hot summer day I and feel like crawling out of my skin and can't focus on cooking dinner until I just hop in the shower and rinse with cold water for a bit...but if course I've already showered once that day...it's shampoo and body wash every morning for me.  I set this good example with my kids right from birth.  They got daily baths, with soap, from the first day I was recovered enough from the csecs to stand in front of the kitchen sink for 10 minutes.  A particularly bad blowout might require a secondary washing from the poop-line down.  I can't even fathom not wiping or rinsing one way or another during a diaper change, and I used cloth part-time on both kids.  What does cloth have to do with it?  Pee still touches the skin.  I guess if you're ECing and not missing much, a big ablution wouldn't be necessary each time. 

I used a good natural soap for baby baths and followed with a natural moisturizer.  The kids got little mini massages each day.  Dry skin was never an issue.  Matter of fact, my kids both had unusually gorgeous skin as babies.  Probably because it was clean. 

I agree with Quinalla.  The tone of your post is a little insulting.  My daughter has gorgeous skin and we only bathe now every other day at most.  And when she was a newborn, I would never have traded that wonderful newborn smell for anything.  We bathed every few weeks when she was tiny and never had diaper rash, cradle cap, or any skin problems whatsoever.  And she smelled glorious.  I love that newborn baby smell. 

[CA Country Girl]

We are also just a couple times a week here.  DD1 is 7 yrs and DD2 is 8 months.  Both have inherited my sensitive skin and would get dry and itchy if bathed daily.  I also find that over-washed hair gets dry and brittle too.  My girls have curly hair and we often do conditioner only.  Shampoo sometimes less than once a week if they don't have something sticky in it.  We check skin folds on a little baby- neck, armpits, and genitals, because they can get irritated easily, but I personally don't go in for daily washings.  I believe skin has natural oils that are better than replacing stripped skin with artificial moisturizers.  

 I also agree with the two above posts that their is a tone issue in the post.  Maybe it is the capital letters- "In our family, we bathe/shower daily, and ALWAYS with soap" and suggesting that showering every day is setting a good example for your children.  The two don't really seem at all related to me.

For the OP- I am glad we have been able to give you a variety of answers.  Just trust yourself and don't worry what other people say.  My experience is that people often have way too many opinions about other people's parenting choices.  Snuggle that sweet new baby (and like Lily says, soak up that sweet baby smell), they grown up so fast.

[erigeron]

We bathed a few times a week when she was a newborn. Now as a toddler she gets a bath most days because she enjoys playing in the water. If she wasn't a fan we would probably do 2-3x/week or so assuming she wasn't all over mud. 

I don't necessarily wipe after every diaper change--sometimes I skip if we are on the go. She definitely gets wiped at the first change of the morning and after she poops, but I don't wipe after pee 100% of the time. 

We bathed with her from about 2 months until toddlerhood. Bending over the baby tub (and we'd actually strip down and sit in the big tub, rather than kneeling at the side of the big tub) was not ergonomically fun. 

[Escaping]

I did it every day but that's just because I love bathing/showering and just assumed my baby would too. 

I'd like to do it less but I'm addicted to the feeling of freshly washed hair.