baths - how often?

[mamajoy]

My sister recently criticized my practice of not giving dd a bath every day. She's one yo (dd, not my sister). I was wondering what other people are doing with baths. I usually bathe her and wash her hair every other day or once every three days. I wipe/rinse off her face, hands and feet as they need it or as I get to it.

Am I being too casual? I'm wondering if I should be doing more. I'm not real happy about the chemicals in L.A. tap water, which I think enter her system through the skin when she bathes, and so I haven't made a bath part of her daily routine, such as it is.

[Elphaba]

you are doing fine

.

[maxismama]

I don't bathe my ds every day either. He usually gets a bath every three to four days. I do wash his face, hands and diaper area with water and soap every day of course, but I really think that it's not good for their sensitive skin to be submerged in water every day. I think it dries up the skin and unless my ds rolls around in dirt, he doesn't get really dirty enough to give him a bath.

[peggy]

The only time we do daily baths is when Grace (9mos.) is having a cranky spell! The bath calms her so much. But for getting her clean? Once every couple of days seems fine.

peggy

[sleepies]

i give my baby a bath and wash his head (no hair on it) every single morning of the world.

i like to take two baths per day myself. baths make me feel awesome. i just always assume they make babies feel good too.

my baby seems to love his bath. he splashes and laughs.

i love baths though.

my doctor said every 3 days is ok. he also said daily is ok.

i think it is up to the mom.

i have LOTS of time on my hands.

and baths are so much fun.

the only dry skin my baby has is on his face, and we dont even wash that in the tub. i wash his face with plain water when he is on the dressing table/before the bath. his dry face is from him rubbing it ( i think i posted that)

do it however often you want/ or they need it.

as they get older they need more.

[Seawen]

We are an every other night family. I agree with Sleepies that bath's are lots of fun but we can't seem to get it together on time every night. And, I worry about DD's skin getting too dry now that it's getting colder and drier. Sometimes we go every three nights.

[Dancinmom]

we give our 15 month old a bath every other day or every 3 days. The only time we do it every day is if he is really dirty, has a bad diaper rash, or is in a bad mood. I don't think it is necessary at this point for him to get one every day, but I know some people do. When he gets older I know it might be a different story as he is getting dirtier.

[DirtyHippie]

My Gaige has a bath every 2-3 days. He is 7 months. Our bodies are not made to be bathed everyday. BUT my 5 year old is a "dirt merchant" and she gets a bath almost every day.

[Bella's Mama]

We usually give our dd a bath once or twice a week. I wash her face and hands every day (even though she doesn't like it). I like to use Burt's Bees soap. It doesn't seem to be drying to her skin. It is a buttermilk soap with a vegetable soap base. It has honey, buttermilk, oatmeal flour, and smells so good. I like the Baby Bee diaper ointment too, although we hardly ever use it. I use plain water and unbleached cotton wipes to clean her when I change her diaper, and she hardly ever has a diaper rash.

[Kiddoson]

We give one every other or every 3 days, unless of course one of us is trying to get a bath & she catches us then of course she must come in too! She loves her baths, we now have to spell the word or she will go running into the bathroom & expect one

[Mamax3]

We bathe our 3 little ones every other or every 3 days, depending on if they played outside. We bathe them all 3 together to conserve water. They love their bath but they all have sensitive skin and become very chapped easily. We only wash their hair sparingly, they have thick dry hair.

In the summer we usually bathe them every day, just because they spend so much time outside sweating.

I think that it is totally up to you, how often you bathe your child. As long as they don't smell and aren't having health problems from not bathing I think every other to every 3rd day is fine.

[peacemama]

I don't think they need daily baths either. I tend to give them because it's part of our routine, though, and in the summer i really have to bathe/shampoo dd every night because of the sunscreen, sweat, sand, ice pop drippings or whatever goo she has on her! In wintertime I'll skip days, when she was in diapers I used to stand her in the tub and wash her bottom. I didn't like the idea of her sitting in poop and just being wiped clean, and then not bathed that day.

[pear]

I give ds a bathe every day. it is a part of his routine. And fun! Also it's one of the babycare tasks that his dad LOVES.

With my dd , when she was little I gave her a bath every 2 to 3 days.

[Sahara]

DS gets a bath 4 or 5 times a week. He's SUCH a messy eater, he will smear banana all over himself and totally enjoy it. Then we hop in the tub together, which is also a blast. I wouldn't do it as much if he didn't love to play in the water.
We use Burt's Bees baby soap and lotion, too. It smells wonderful and he never feels too dry afterwards.

[bebe luna]

Talin( 10.5 mo) gets a bath 1-2x a week. But honestly, sometimes it's once every 2 weeks. I wipe his hands, face and diaper area daily. He just doesn't seem dirty. He doesn't get all sweaty and stinky like adults, so I try to limit the bathing. He does love a bath though... and swimming. I've taken him in a shower and he hated it. I also took him in our jacuzzi tub and he hated the jets. He likes to share a jet-free bath though...

[Gigi]

Our dds get a bath about 2x a week - I just don't have the energy in the evening for more than that, besides it's usually dh who gets in the bath with them and they all just splash about and make a big mess and have great fun. Otherwise I try to be pretty diligent about hand-washing during the day.

[kama'aina mama]

Bronwyn loves to bathe or shower. The challenge here is to get a shower without bringing her in! So, playing in the water and rinsing a bit almost every day but serious washing maybe a couple of times a week. I have all but given up on shampooing her though.

[chai]

I'm glad I'm not the only one bathing DS only every 1-2 weeks. I wipe him with a wet washchoth in areas that seem to need it (like his diaper area and feet), and we wash hands frequently, but he also just doesn't generally seem dirty to me. Bathing infrequently is also a great way to avoid the chemicals in bath/hygene products.

[ann_of_loxley]

Its up to you hun!
There is nothing wrong with what you are doing!

We do have baths everynight - but we only have the one, we have the time, and baths are a lot of fun!

We do sometimes skip a bath - and thats no big deal either! My dh gets home late and if hes been playing with our ds for too long and hes too tired and just wants to go to bed, we dont bother with a bath!

I myself have a shower every morning and my boy is typical little boy - by the end of the day he is just so grubby he needs the bath usually! haha (hes also not one for me taking a warm wet cloth to him either - hes rather get in a small tub and have a scrub down ! hehe...no bubbles though! - he freaks out if you have bubbles! lmao)

[Alyantavid]

My kids must be dirty little things then.

We do baths every night. We will once in a while skip the bath but its such a part of our bedtime routine that we try to stick to it. Besides that my 17 month old's hair is usually standing on end, stuck together with God knows what. We do almost always have a bubble bath on Fridays.

My kids love baths.