Baths - How often and timing?

My babies are a month. How often should I be giving them baths? We are doing 2 or 3 times a week but not sure if it should be more. They still don't love baths so we give it to them before the evening feed as they are pretty awake after (I know books say it sooths them before bed but not the case with our boys yet). Did you find certain times of day worked best? One of my boys has a small rash on his back.... should I be worried? Leave it for a few days? Treat it?

 

We do every other day because giving too many can dry out their skin and it's a pita! Mine are also energized, so we give them a good hour before bed.

I'm not sure about the rash- could it be a new laundry soap, baby soap or lotion?

 

We bath everyday and rub baby oil on right after to keep soft skin and not to dry out. They smell like rotten milk without a good cleaning ! I do it whenever is good for me at this age. Can't train them at this age - around 4-5 months I will switch to night baths!

 

The nurses in the hospital said not to bathe more than once/3 dAys so I bathe every mon & Thursday right now. I will move up to every oter day when they're a little older.

I always heard that baby oil was very bad for your skin. It is actUally mineral oil which is just oil refined from petroleum!

 

twice a week, mine both have excema and bathing them more often dries out there skin. They get stinky necks and I just use a wet washcloth every day to wipe under there necks.

 

At that age we only bathed our boys once a week! We only started bathing them twice a week within the last month Our babies HATED baths up until a couple of months ago, and me and DH hated giving them baths, LOL. I found Mustela Physiobebe Rinseless Cleanser to be a godsend!! We use it first thing in the morning and before bed around their diaper area, and anytime they have a poop, and I now keep a bottle on the table to clean their face off after meals. And our boys never even had a diaper rash until they were nearly a year old, and all it was was a tiny red splotch that went away in 2 days. I still think baby baths are overrated :lol: Don't bathe them everyday because you feel like you HAVE too. Only bathe when 1) they NEED it or 2) you WANT to

 

I agree--we still only bathe about 2x per week. They're not out playing in the sandbox or eating solids and getting messy. We do give a little wipe down every day of the neck, hands, and face but the full clean and shampoo only happens once or twice a week. Mine also HATED the bath--I recommend the Spa Bath--http://www.spababytubs.com/ Once we started using this, I swear, they loved it. It's sort of a pain because you have to hold them in there but it's like a mini hot tub for them and they really love it. I also use it if my kids are melting down, it totally distracts them and calms them down.

As far as the rash goes, my kids have had all kinds of crazy skin irritations which I think are relatively normal. I treat just about everything with Aquaphor and it seems to work. Try it for a couple days and I bet it will start to clear up.

 

I just ordered some of that mustela stuff! Can't wait to try it. I LOVE LOVE aquafor (target generic aquafor actually). Works great!

 

At one month our little guys were getting bathed 1x a week, if that. My parents had gone home and it was just too overwhelming to do it more often. I would wash their faces & hands more frequently. I'd get the ped to look at the rash at your next appt. If it gets worse, go in sooner.

 

We did baths every other day at that age. Unless someone had a really nasty poop, then it was easier to just pop them into the tub. I found my one daughter to have sensitive skin and eczema, so I stopped using the johnson and johnson products for awhile to try to figure out what was causing it. Eventually with some hydrocortizone cream (from the Dr.)it got better. I would just keep an eye on it. Maybe try some mild, unscented lotion on it, might just be a dry irritated patch.

Oh, and we found baths to be stimulating at that age too, so for the first couple months I did it during the day and then at about 3-4 months we started bathing as our nightime routine.

 

I did baths once a week.. if they were lucky! :lol: They always liked the bath, but our set up was a PITA, and my husband didn't like bathing them at first, so it was too much to handle myself. I always gave them a good wipe down before bed with a warm cloth... especially the neck folds where all the milk collected. I really liked aveeno bath; you can get oatmeal bath for them if you think their skin is drying out too much.

 

We bathed every 3-4 days early on but we wiped them gently with warm washclothes every night to get milk yuck out of folds, etc. We used aquafor soap. Pedi said it was better to put nothing on skin, but if we did it was Eucerin original lotion (which is the same company who makes Aquafor). Just a dab on the really dry areas though.

 

at that age we bathed about 3 times per week but we did sponge baths around faces, necks and hands every day.

 

We bathe every evening...as part of our bed time routine. I use lotion so their skin does not dry out.
Bath 7:00
Nurse 7:30
Bed

 

At that age we only had baths once a week (and not that much more often now to be honest). They get their faces/necks/hands washed every day (and in fact several times a day now after every solid meal). Both my girls have sensitive skin and eczema so the pedi said not to bath them more often than a few times a week. She also recommended we use a moisturizing baby wash like Dove instead of J&J baby wash. It's possible the rash could be dry skin or eczema or it could be heat rash or any number of benign rashes! It's hard to tell without seeing it or hearing a description of it. I would keep an eye out for any other symptoms (fever, fussiness) and if those aren't present I wouldn't worry too much about it. You can try putting an intensive moisturizer like Aquaphor on it to see if that helps. I also wouldn't try to give them more than 2-3 baths a week. That is plenty! At a month old they aren't really doing much - once the solid food stage begins you will probably want to bathe them more often as you will discover that food finds its way everywhere except their mouths most of the time! It's not necessary to make bathtimes part of your bedtime routine. My girls get energized by the bath as well so even if we were bathing every day I wouldn't do it at night. You can implement other soothing nightime rituals like rocking them in a rocking chair, reading a short book, singing lullabies, etc.

 

I would *try* to do baths on certain nights, but for whatever reason, we'd be out, or it'd be bedtime, etc. So it never worked as I would have liked. So in the end-I did baths when I remembered! :laughing: Mostly-two times a week. In the summer, we increased it as they were much more mobile! And they would get wiped down before/after meals as well.

I would do baths before bedtime. Or-I would do it during the day to kill time. Once we switched to one nap, I would give a bath to help prolong the morning until naptime. And they would sometimes take a longer nap! There was never a set schedule in terms of baths in this house!

I would bring up the rash with your pedi as well. Nicholas seemed to have some dry patches of skin. But I never did anything to it, and it cleared up on it's own. But it was small little spots, that most people wouldn't have been able to see.

 

I always intended to give them a bath every 3 days ---but i often found myself scratching my head at the end of the day thinking ...... was it supposed to be today? woops.

so - in the end i started giving them showers. They each go in with me one at a time while the other one watches through the glass. Its much faster - much easier, and i get a shower too! they love it and now no matter how cranky they are for bedtime - as soon as they get into the bathroom they're happy as can be knowing the routine.

so - for me -- I shower every day - and then cream and powder to keep their skin moist.

8pm - showers
830 - breastfeeding
845 / 9 - bed

i am in the process of trying to move it earlier -

 

At one month I was bathing them about 2-3 times a week. At around 2 and half months I started giving them a bath every night with the bedtime bath and body lotion. It smells great and really relaxes them. Then I would feed them their nightly bottle and off to bed. I find it super easy to give them a bath in the kitchen sink using a bath sling. I put water up to their chests and the bath sling allows them to lay in the water. Before I did this, they HATED bath time.

You might try some aquaphor on the rash and if doesn't clear up in a day or two I would call your pedi.

 

During the first month, we did baths 2-3x a week. I would also try aquaphor for the rash and if it does not improve, I would call your pedi.
My two were not fond of baths during the first couple of months. I would say it was around 3 or 4 months when they finally started enjoying getting a bath.
My DS had ezcema (not sure of spelling) and we used fragrance free bath wash for him and also washed both kids clothes with fragrance free laundry detergent.

 

At one month I was just doing a bath 1-2 times a week. They got wiped down once a day though with a wash cloth, wipe, etc.

At 10 months, we are still doing the same :unsure: ITs jsut very time consuming by the time I get home from work, get them dinner, etc

 

At a year, we still only do baths when they get really dirty. It ends up being about twice a week. My DS has eczema, so the bath just dries it out more. Now that its summer I sometimes have them play in the baby pool in the evening in place of a bath!

As for the rash, babies are very rashy creatures for their first couple months. If he is acting normally and its not bothering him, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

At one month we were doing every day and we still do. At that time Brandon in particular hated baths, once we put him in the bathtub he was screaming bloody murder. One night I turned on the sound machine and he was quiet so that's what we did. As for rash I wouldn't do anything about it, do you think he is too warm, could be he heat rash. We always put lotion after bath on my boys, so I would stick with that. If it seems to get worse I would give your ped a call. Good Luck. One month is a tough period hang in there I promise you it will get better (sending hugs your way).

 

You may think I am horrible but my boys only get baths about once every 2 weeks. Daily they get wiped down with a warm wash cloth under their necks and they get cleaned thoroughly if they have a dirty diaper. If they are really messy they end up in the sink with a warm wash cloth but just the thought of daily or even bi-weekly baths makes me tired. When they get older and are going to be getting dirtier I will give them more often but for now I am luxuriating in the few extra moments every day that I get to play with them.

 

We bathe every day here too. Our kids have a lot of hair and it can get stinky fast with spit-up. We bathe them at 7:30, bottles at 8:00 and they are in bed at 8:30. We've had this routine since they were 7 weeks old and they have been STTN since they were 3-3.5 months old. We did the same with our DD too and it seemed to have worked the same way for her.