Bath time

How do you guys handle bath time? With our twins, who are 2, they don't like being washed as much. Some days are better than others. Today I had them both screaming as I was rinsing their hair. One of them didn't calm down till like 30 minutes later (( they used to do that couple months ago and then it was good and today they cried again.

But....

The main/ everyday issue is when it's time to get out. This is what we do: my husband takes one, I take the other, we go to our room where we dry them, put lotion on, diapers, pjs etc. all through this (usually everyday) they scream and fight and kick. It's really frustrating to get them dressed after bath.

Any advice on how to handle this better?

 

Could you have something that they enjoy after and say after your bath you get to...read a book, have a snack, etc., whatever they might be interested in, but probably something calm so they don't get wild before going to bed. Do they like songs? When my little one starts to fight against getting dressed I start singing one of the songs she likes. If your happy and you know it song works pretty good because they know they have to clap and that might keep them distracted enough to get a diaper on. If you can find something that really distracts them, you might have an easier time. Hope that helps.

 

My secret is that they hardly ever get baths! I know that sounds terrible, but we do maybe one or two baths a week and I typically just take them in the shower with me. They love the shower because they can play with the water stream and I have some bottles and cups in there they can fill up and dump out. If the water is streaming over their heads they don't seem to mind getting their hair wet quite as much for some reason, and it's less struggle for everyone.

 

Yup, this exactly. Sometimes, I forget to bathe Emmett for more than a week. :blush: For the girls, we usually let them watch tv for 5-10 minutes just wrapped in their towels before we worry about PJs, etc. They like the naked time.

 

I agreed with pps. My kids only bath 2xs/week. We usually just wah their bottoms, feet, hands, faces and brush their teeth, change pjs before bed.

My son used to hate taking a bath. Basically, he hated even wash off. What we did was, run a warm bath, add balls, bath toys, and let his sis in and play first. If he didn't want to join, no pressure just watch. Then eventually, he joined her. I let them play like 20 mins. And I turned up the heat and make sure the room warm enough for them... And he just got over it. Now they love bath time. We still give them 10 mins to play and practice swimming (??). But we don't allow too many toys anymore. They can pick 2 only. My son still hates hair wash. So we always do it quick and make sure water doesn't come in his eyes.

It might just a phase as well.

 

I also agree with PPs. My LOs take a bath about twice a week, apart from that we use a washcloth for a quick wash of face, hands, bottoms and feet or they hop in the shower (originally they showered with me, now they love doing it on their own).

After baths they are allowed some naked time in their bedroom which they love and spend in really wild play; if necessary I time it with a timer. I just make sure they get their baths early enough that we have time to calm them down afterwards before bed, e.g. with time for an extra chapter in their bedtime story.

 

Thank you for all the replies. It sure has been a long phase though when they were younger we used to bathe them everyday because they were so good and I didn't mind it. When they started acting like that I stopped the baths everyday. Now it's like 2-3 times a week. But it still happens all the time. Not sure about a shower, never tried it. But I think it's the water getting in their eyes that they don't like so I'm not sure that would work. I think maybe letting them be naked for a bit might help. Thanks ladies

 

Do you go swimming with them or do you have a play pool for the garden in summer? Mine stopped worrying about the water in their eyes and faces after I started going to the swimming pool with them; I just reminded them how they love the water in the pool and jump and splash into their own faces, and somehow that settled the issue for us.

 

My kids are 2 and 5 months and we still give them a 10 minutes bath every evening, it's part of their bedtime routine. Max gets his hair washed every night, but he has short hair. Vanessa has long thick wavy hair and she doesn't like to have her hair washed, so I only wash her hair once or twice a week, but she takes a bath and then a short shower to rinse every night, I just put her hair up in a bun for that. I make sure to wash her face with warm water when I don't wash her hair. I don't do any lotion, afterwards, I don't have time for that , I think their skin is fine as it is. The way I see it, we take a shower every day, we wash them every day day also - especially since Vanessa is not potty trained yet. After their bath I clean their noses with the Graco nasal aspirator - they HATE it, but so far, they never had a cold, or a cough or a runny nose. I think making sure their noses are clean every night helped with that.

 

This is a good point - since starting swimming lessons, my girls have lost almost all fear of water in their faces.

 

My advice is to just keep doing what you're doing. While it is a pain to listen to, they need to be bathed. It's just one of those things. Eventually it will pass or they'll just realize the fits aren't changing anything and move on to something else

 

You have gotten really good advice from PP's. I think this "no bath" thing is a phase. I remember my lo's going through it when they were younger and now they ask for baths. Keep perserving and I think they will probably come around again.

We tried a number of things for hair rinsing. (They didn't mind the shampoo so much, just the water getting in their eyes and ears.) What finally worked (besides swimming lessons) was giving them a washcloth and telling them to put it over their eyes. When they were younger, I would tell them to look up and I would hold the washcloth over their eyes. I then used the showerhead to rinse their hair until it was free of shampoo.

I purchased a couple of those animal towels and they loved pretending to be those animals when it came time to drying off after baths. Like PP's said, something fun after a bath (a little reading, or naked time, or TV show) always helped.

GL!

 

It's a phase. It gets better.

We do bath twice a week (really, every 3 days). More in Summer obviously. I've also never bothered with lotion... they get some aquaphor if they get a dry spot but it's only on their hands for DD and under his lips for DS (due to too much lip or finger sucking. SIGH). So no lotion makes bath much faster already. Now honestly I have the other issue, they don't want to get out. Either way I hate bath nights and can't figure out how people can do that every night without going nuts.

 

We don't do swimming yet, although I want to sign them up. And over the summer they were like 18 months and HATED the pool. They wouldn't want to get in. They were scared. Towards the end of the summer they started showing more interest in water so I'm sure this summer they will enjoy it more.

Like the idea of the animal hooded towels. I just use regular towels but I think they will like those better. Also I want to keep doing lotion because their hands and legs get super dry.

I actually thought of maybe just getting them ready in the bathroom. Not going to the bedroom. Maybe they will like getting dressed and lotioned in front of a mirror. We have a pretty big bathroom with two sinks/two mirrors. Will try that next time.

 

My point was that if you don't do a bath every night, their skin will get much less dry, and you probably won't need lotion. We've never had to use it here but I don't think that little kids get dirty enough for a bath every day anyway.

We used to do the same and go to the bedroom to get them dressed, now we just do it in the bathroom (but we've moved and have a bigger bathroom). Could be that they're cold once they leave the bathroom too. We have cute hooded animal towels but the novelty wore off pretty quickly. Or maybe you could try and get new bath toys or something.

 

Thank you. I will def try a few different things next time it's bath time.

 

Mine love hooded towels and a little time to run around naked after bath. It is the only time they are allowed to do that! Also, mine do get lotion with bath because they do have dry skin, but it has helped to let them "help" put the lotion on. They insist on a little dab of lotion on their hands and they will sit still and try to rub it in while we lotion the rest of them. Then, I encourage them to get themselves dressed as much as they can. Getting them involved has decreased the fights 100%.

 

Thank you! I am working on getting the hooded towels. Letting them put lotion on themselves will probably help as well. We took a bath last night and I ended up getting them ready in the bathroom in front of mirrors and it went really well. They liked that so we will be doing that from now on. There was no fighting, screaming , crying. Etc, all the great things we love :/

Thank you everyone!