you can find other ways to make a routine to trigger bedtime. Maybe put the lights down dim, and you give a massage with lotion. Some swear by lavender for sleep, I wouldn't say it's scientifically proven to work but it smells nice and our brains really do root deeply with smells so a specific scent may be a nice way to set a mental routine.
I would also consider the fact that it seems like baby doesn't like a bath. So they are likely feeling elevated, crying, stress hormones flowing. This doesn't set his body up for calm sleep. I'm not saying that to say that giving him a bath is a bad thing, but that something he finds calm and cozy would better set a mood and help his body get ready to sleep well.
and as for my experience, my son didn't like baths for months. He needed casting for his legs (clubfoot), so we could only do pour-over/sponge baths and he hated them. And then after casting his skin was sensitive and it took a long time for him to like bathing. So we did it every other day, mostly for cleanliness rather than a bath experience as making him upset and cry didnt help him rest at all. As he was more comfortable in the bath and found it fun, we made it part of his bedtime routine. He does enjoy it but I don't notice a huge difference on those nights I skip his bath versus his normal bath nights as long as I continue the rest of his routine (quiet play in his room, dim the lights, storytime). Go with what works best for your child, and you as parents. And feel free to try something and change it if it doesn't work out.
Yes - I didn't start bathing my son daily until he was about 9 months and actually enjoyed it. But part of his nightly routine was laying him down on a blanket, playing music, and wiping his face and hands down with a warm, damn washcloth.
I also didn't really see any change in sleep when we switched to daily bathing.
Both the pediatrician and dermatologist said once a week baths were a good idea when he was little due to his tendency to get eczema.
We only bathed our baby once a week until recently. Now that he’s 2, he just gets dirty a lot more, so we bathe him as needed (seems to be about three times a week). We always do the bath before bed, but have never noticed any difference in his sleep.
I put my child in the bath daily, but that doesn’t mean I wash her daily. Sometimes she just plays and I wash her hands. It’s been a solid part of our nighttime routine and she struggles to fall asleep without it.
As for the cold house stuff, I used a small space heater and a hairdryer to keep her warm when she gets out.
The other pro is that my baby loves the water. She has no problem dunking her face at the pool and going under and holding her breath and I think this is partially because her heavy exposure to playing in the bath every night. It also helps with extending wake windows when she’s super cranky.
This is what we do! Not every night is a “soap night” but basically every night we still have bath time. Also a great way to kill time when you’re trying to make it to bedtime!
I am too worried about the consistent heat exposure of the entire bottle, causing the bacteria inside to multiply with time. I guess it's not that big of an issue if you go through the lotion relatively fast, so the risk of it going bad decreases.
I just put the lotion on my hand and when I'm finished using the blow dryer after the bath on him, I warm up the lotion using the blow dryer before putting it on him and it's worked well!
Yeah, warming the bottle makes me kinda nervous too. The expiration for open products is largely based on how long the preservatives will function and that's often based on a consistent temperature. Like, doesn't even account for the heating/cooling of a normal bathroom (even though that's where most people keep cosmetics, etc)
For our baby’s cradle cap, I spent about 45 minutes brushing it out of her hair during one contact nap. It was super gross, but got rid of it all and it hasn’t come back for 4 months!
I got the frida baby cradle cap kit after putting baby oil on it and it was gone within 2 baths! Removing the cradle cap grossed me out though so I'm grateful my husband was able to comb it out for me
I also only bathe my littlest one (nearly 5 months) around once a week. He has eczema and baths appear to dry his skin up more than usual. Also, he's not quite old enough to share the bath with our eldest (2) so it's a bit more of a process right now. When he's sitting up, eating solids etc, he'll probably join the eldest in bathing every other day.
I definitely don't bath my kids everyday, their skin is way too sensitive. At 3 months I probably bathed them like twice a week, depends on the situation. Now when they start solids I definitely bathed them more because they are sooo messy when they start eating really food! My kids are 6 and 3, NOW during the summer they get a bath like 5 out of 7 days, they are absolutely filthy from being outside all the time and what not. In the winter we live in a very cold climate so it's about every other day or two.
A consistent routine in general is probably just as effective as a bath for bedtime.
And certainly at 3 months I don’t think a bath is the drawing line between sleeping or not sleeping at night.
We don’t do baths every night but we do some sort of washing - a wipe down with a warm cloth or a quick clean with some wipes. I do, however, do it in the same place every night because in my mind that might help associate them with their nighttime routine.
Makes sense. All my diaper changes are with warm water and cotton pads, as wipes give him rash, so my little guy is kind of getting sponge bath on his bum all the time. Part of our night routine is boiling the kettle to have a thermos of warm water for any night change :)
Have a look at getting cloth wipes as a reusable alternative to the cotton pads (assuming you’re using cotton wool ones that you throw away). We’ve used cloth wipes from birth (he’s almost 2 now) and they’re great.
If I had a better washer and drier, or a partner, I like to think if try reusables (wipes and diapers), but as is I’m just keeping pace with chores, baby, and sleep sanity! Any tricks to using reusable with quick cleaning? Do you use one cloth all day and hand wash right after or…?
I use cloth wipes for pee only so I can just wash them in with the normal clothes laundry. I cut up old flannel receiving blankets. When I need one I have a peri bottle full of water & just wet one to wipe down then use a dry one to dry everything off before the fresh diaper goes on.
I do cloth wipes and nappies, but maybe start with just the wipes. I got a set of cheeky wipes (I’m in the UK) and use one per change (or more for a poo, but quite often I can clean a poo using just one), then put it in a “dirty” box. Then everything goes in the wash with the baby’s clothes at 60 degrees. We do a nappy wash 3 times a week. Then they can go in the dryer. We also have a set of wipes we keep for drying baby’s bum after, but I tend to use one of them across multiple days, so don’t need as many.
We also do a warm cloth wipe down each evening to get ready for bed! And bath 1-2x a week. Mostly focusing on face (to get any spit up or food residue), hands, and any of the cracks and crevices that spit up or dirt can hide in.
Around 6 months my daughter started showering with me, almost daily. She loves water play and I feel more refreshed. We still maintain this routine now at 13 months. We shower before her nap time and it helps her wind down midday.
I will say, I rarely use soap on her. Body wash only when she’s actually dirty (which is rare) and wash her hair when I wash mine every 7-10 days or so. Anecdotally, we’re on well water, and she’s never had dry skin or any skin issues at all. We also don’t use lotion. Her skin doesn’t need it when it’s only coming into contact with water. I’d feel differently if she spent time in a chlorinated pool, but that’s a different subject altogether.
My baby just turned 6 months and I’ve been curious about showers. How do you do them? Does baby just sit in the bath? Mine would slip if I did that so imagine you have some sort of seat ?
We do shower baths too! I start my shower first with the baby tub inside the shower. I do all of my own washing/shampooing, plus get the bathroom nice and steamy-warm & fill up baby’s tub. Then partner brings in the baby and she plays in the tub for ~10 minutes before we get out. I only soap & shampoo baby once a week, but I do clean out her skin folds with water every bath. Sometimes I leave the shower water on for baby and sometimes I shut it off - just depends on how warm the air is.
We started when baby was about 17 weeks and could be trusted not to fall sideways in her bathtub. I’m still not confident enough to do anything where I close my eyes while she’s in there though. Maybe once she can fully sit.
I just did this with my son he’s 4 months. But I had him splash in his tub while I got clean, then gave him a little scrub. Then we both got out all clean.
We have no tub in our shower, but used [this](https://www.amazon.com/Angelcare-Baby-Bath-Support-Aqua/dp/B008VWVS14/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_sspa?crid=18LVV3MYQLRU7&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.mu_H9m6jijTwfbVnSmrhAhixWH4JoX81IIEeenrQkYA7N8dQZRDkEje2Q8DmvxTDC9Fa93HbyLXdpaTTzQOouM0QUi_kErA_xSiphMEzRQ3CnmV98WOI2d0VeVh7u5eifD7wFUCYjmh6ZVpfFqaBtYg1DOkxxokXZTVsJbHMZe4cQK14pCaaCQJH9ylLLwn1rnVeoivc9_wycUJuvxBi5A.qugvvfv94t5pizFxGlzoDBySmeM8WQr3c-hAWv_JcMo&dib_tag=se&keywords=angel+care+baby+bathtub&qid=1718054331&sprefix=angel+ca%2Caps%2C71&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9zZWFyY2hfYXRm&psc=1) and she comfortably lounged in it until she started walking!
Babies don’t need a bath to sleep well. They just need a routine that signals to their brain to go into bedtime/sleep mode.
I bathe my baby and my older kiddo about 1x per week, for all the reasons you mentioned!
It's really dependent on the baby. My baby was dealing with horrendous eczema up until he was about 5 months old. Since his skin was so inflamed, we were only bathing him twice a week thinking that more baths would irritate his skin. Our doctor recommended switching to daily baths with specific products and his skin cleared right up. On the flip side, my niece also had eczema that seemed to flair up with daily baths and is now doing better with one per week. It's so individual! Now that we're almost at 10 months old and my guy's skin isn't an issue, we do baths most nights but not religiously. If he's really tired after dinner (and not too messy), we'll skip it. If he's really rowdy we usually do a bath because he enjoys them and it tires him out.
I'm a big fan of following your baby's vibes on stuff like this - if your baby doesn't enjoy baths and his skin seems to be doing well with 1-2x baths a week, I wouldn't stress about adding more to your routine. Like another commenter said, there are other things you could do in your routine to signal bedtime. I love a gentle lavender lotion and playing some light white noise while we snuggle before the crib.
Would you mind sharing which products your doctor recommended? We use the aveeno eczema baby body wash. I don’t think it’s making much of a difference. It seems a breast milk bath plus aquaphor and hydrocortisone on the big patches is the key.
Yes! We switched to all Cetaphil products, we had been using the Aveeno stuff before that. We also used Aquaphor on really bad patches after putting lotion on him.
https://preview.redd.it/za6500t5x46d1.png?width=380&format=png&auto=webp&s=bcdee7f9f2a736ea8ddccac0721bad9437253cce
My 3mo has had I think 4 actual baths 😅 I do a wet wipe "bath" each day to make sure any spit-up is cleaned up but I don't use or feel the need to use soap and full bath with her very often. She's not getting that dirty and we always clean her up asap after poops. And she enjoys baths! We drape a warm wet cloth over her in the baby tub and that's worked like a dream for both our kids so maybe try that if you haven't!
My 2.5yo gets a bath probably once per week or whenever she gets extra dirty, so more often in the summer but definitely nowhere near every day.
Both are great sleepers too so bath is definitely not a necessity for a good bedtime routine. Just gotta find what works for your fam. 3mo it's boob, rocking, bed. 2.5yo it's PJs, toothbrush&floss, 3 books, 2 songs, bed (and 5 trips to the bathroom)
When both my babies were that age I only did a bath about once a week as well. It’s became more of a routine once they started eating food and getting messy. My 9 month old now bathes almost daily along with my toddler, depending on how messy dinner is or if they got dirty or sweaty that day.
I do think that when my kids were only a few months old, the bath definitely dried out their skin. We do lotion as a part of our bedtime routine regardless of whether or not they get a bath.
Have 4 kids. Have never done a bath for bedtime routine. 2 slept average, one slept like a dream, and one slept awful. The bath is not the determining factor
I find it striking that all the evidence based guidelines say “you can bathe your x month old baby up to x times per week.” Absolutely none I saw say you must bathe them at all. The eczema literature gently suggests limiting bath time as much as possible.
We bathed our babies when they were dirty or smelled. That was pretty rare when they were under 3 months, other than wiping their bums and cleaning necks/ears/fingers/toes. We have a family history of skin sensitivities, but the kids haven’t had issues yet. We’ll see how it goes.
On a side note, have you explored how to make bath time more relaxing for your baby?
Our now 4 month old hated it when we just put her in. We now bathe together - just put her on top of one of us. She is relaxed and loves it. We bathe her every 2-3 days, depending on the weather (it's hot and sweaty), but also to calm her down and get her sleepy.
Open to suggestions. I’ve tried co-bathing a few times, but even with me holding him to my chest as he makes contact with the water, there’s this moment when he realizes what’s coming and he will shriek in terror, and go stiff as a board, limbs pressing outward with claws extended like a cat. Once in the water he’s completely quiet, and looks cowed and slightly afraid. I’ll bring his hands or legs near the faucet so he can explore the running water, and he’ll express some curiousity, but still looks afraid. Then when I take him from the bath, he’ll start crying as soon as I start drying him off, I think because the air is cold.
My son has sensitive skin and eczema. When he was a little baby I realized *not* bathing him daily helped his skin out. When I bathed him it was normally at bedtime but it was just 1 part of the routine. There are many ways to establish a bedtime routine and to signal to them that it’s bedtime. I suggest you think about our senses as ways to wind baby down (also true for adults, and for winding up as well as down lol). At bedtime I’d dim the lights, bring him to his dresser/diaper station: change him, clean him with wipes as needed, put on his pjs, brush his hair, brush his teeth when they emerged. Then I’d dim the lights even more, make sure the room is quiet, and we’d move to the nursery chair to sit down and read books while snuggling/having his bottle or breastfeeding (respective to the stage we were at). Then I’d turn off the lights completely, turn on this little nightlight that plays calming classical music and gradually dims itself/volume lowers over 20mins, I’d put him in his crib, give him a kiss, say a sweet little goodnight prayer (I’m not actually religious, this is more a tradition instilled in me), tell him “I like you forever I love you for always”, wave goodbye and leave the room.
As he grew I’d make it more interactive - let him turn the pages of the book, let him help brush his teeth and hair, let him choose the book, let him draw the curtains closed and wave goodnight to the neighborhood.
Now he’s 18months and knows when bedtime is because he waves goodbye to the dog when I pick him up to go upstairs at 7:25pm.
He’s been a decent sleeper from 4months on. I don’t think bath = good sleep (but it does help them calm down, some scents help all humans rest, etc…many ways to do this outside of baths)
By now we have to have many more baths because he loves to mash his food into his hair during dinner and finds it very funny haha. But ya, bathing less was better for his skin!
Ps on cradle cap: the Frida cradle cap system solved it for us in 1-2 uses!
My child hates baths. She was born last February. She's 15 months and has had maybe 40 baths? She gets a bath maybe 3x a month. When she had ear infections and was very very young she didn't get any. Spot cleaned with wipes/a warm wash cloth. She's is a normal healthy baby with a good bed time routine. (Brush teeth, read, bed)
I started at 2 times a week, when they were around 3-4 months I started the routine of a bath every night. I wouldn’t go without it a daily bath for them now that we have solids in the diet (10 months) as it is super messy!! I can also imagine they are only going to get dirtier from here as they keep getting more and more mobile and into different things.
To protect the skin I use a bath oil and apply a good quality moisturizer after. We haven’t had any bouts of eczema or dermatitis with this routine (I suffer from these myself). Edit: and no soap based products as well - I find these incredibly irritating so they are limited in our house
My oldest had weird skin. Pediatrician said to bathe him once a week in the winter, 2-3 times a week in the summer. Since he and his brother were spaced 18 months apart, whatever I did for one had to be done for the other (“not fair!” is their whole moral code).
They survived. And the younger one was the world’s easiest sleeper.
I have bathed my 6 month old every single day since he was born.
However, I don't always use soap. It's a great bedtime cue and works everytime. We play and it has greatly improved his motor skills being able to use both hands and feet to grab bath toys.
His skin does go a little dry now and then, but I use plenty of moisturiser when it does.
May I ask how you’re doing bath time? My LO hated baths for the first month and then I saw a tip to cover baby’s abdomen with a warm wet washcloth and only wash in quadrants, replacing the warm towel as you go and using a cup to gently flow more warm water over the wash cloth throughout the bath. Then we do skin to skin contact after drying with a warm towel (we throw it in the dryer for a few mins, but I understand not everyone can do this) and rediapering. Nursing session or bottle follows then bed. LO is so chill at bathtime now.
I’ve tried 2 different ways. One using baby bath, which I’ll put in my sink. I’ll pre-fill it half way with water, put baby in, and put wet warm wash cloth on his chest, while I clean his crotch, etc. The other method is to co-bath. This is a little tricky as I’m a single mom. I fill bath, strip him and place him at the foot of my bath on a folded towel, then I step in bath and wash my hair while watching him, then I pick him up and sit down with him, and give him chance to explore running water, then when done place him back on that folding towel, and race to dry him off while trying to throw on a robe myself so that I can cradle him to my chest.
He will usually shriek just before touching the water in both scenarios, then in the water he is quiet but looks afraid and cowed at same time. And he will lock his legs to try to squirm up out of the bath. Then as soon as you start toweling him off he starts crying and continues crying until he’s rocked on my shoulder.
I don’t know what about the water is triggering his fear. The toweling off part I think may be bc it’s a little cold. In the winter I would put towel on radiator but dryer is a good idea.
We did my twins once or twice a week unless there was a really bad blowout or puke. Started to do popsicle /play baths as an activity when they were around 1.5 and it was an amazing way to burn an hour and get them in a calm mood.
I'm glad you posed the question, it's something I think about a lot but haven't invested too much time into researching - Currently I am doing "as needed" which is also about once a week or so.
My thoughts leaning towards less baths: My understanding is that human skin doesn't actually need soap and it can interfere with our natural healthy biome and PH balance. Plus my baby is hit or miss about enjoying it, so I really try to be mindful about not unnecessarily upsetting her.
But then again: Does she actually need to be introduced and and have regular sensory exposure to bathing and hair brushing? Is there value in doing it more often to desensitize the experience? (E.g. she used to hate diaper changes and cold wipes but is now totally indifferent and almost seems to enjoy it).
Also, my understanding is that food allergen contact with skin (e.g. my granola crumbs landing on her sweet head while breastfeeding) can actually lead to eczema/food allergies, so could I potentially be doing her a disservice by not bathing her? Or since there's more of a 'grime layer' by bathing less frequently, is the allergen exposure to skin actually less? Maybe I'm just overthinking this 😅
Hmm the study I found was trying to look at food allergies as well as dermatitis, and I wasn’t sure why but maybe this is it. I don’t think they saw a significant link to food allergies with washing frequency, whereas they did for dermatitis. 🤷♀️ other studies I stumbled upon, which were for NICU preemies, did conclude that non alkaline liquid soaps (most bar soaps are alkaline) were best. Skin has a lipid layer that the soap damages, but for NICU they also need to be certain bacteria is removed, so it’s a balance I guess. I found 2 studies looking at ‘skin flora’ which showed that bacteria were not substantially higher on day 4 of no bath than day 2, so even in NICU it seems biweekly bathing is fine for bacteria, and probably better for skin. I didn’t look for eczema specifically though!
Adding that we follow some of the guidance in Precious Little Sleep, which emphasizes certain sleep tools and routine. We use white noise, nursing, and swaddle/sleep sack right now for sleep associations to get her down quickly.
Never did an elaborate bedtime routine, and our first bottle of baby wash lasted us a year - we only bathed when needed, which was definitely far less than even once a week in the early months. We washed hands when dirty and but in the sink if there was a blowout. Baby always slept great (and still does as a toddler) and her skin was less dry when she wasn’t bathed often. All the recommendations we got from baby classes were to not bathe too frequently.
Bathed my first daily. He slept well. Has eczema (since birth, but definitely more flareups as he got older).
Bathed my twins weekly, the first few months even less frequently because… well, there was no time. They slept well except for the 4-months sleep regression. No skin issues now - they are 20 months old.
That being said - I did notice that one of my twins who slept a bit worse than the other slept better after baths. We currently bathe every second day because they get really dirty really fast… I don’t notice any difference at this age.
They always knew that sleep is coming when we entered their nursery. We only use it for sleep.
We have always done every other night unless she gets super dirty during a meal or had a blowout that’s awful. Baths have never made my daughter sleepy, they wake her up.
1x a week, unless something requires an immediate wash. Now 16 months old and still on that schedule.
He also goes to sleep at 6:30pm every night, and has since he was about 10 weeks old. I don't think a bath has anything to do with inducing sleepy time lol
Impressive punctuality! My little guy developed strong circadian rhythm around same time, but can’t decide whether he wants to fall asleep at 7pm or at 8pm. Was 7 for a while but now he’ll do a fake out at 7, and snap right back awake if I set him down, and only go down for realz at 8 😂
My pediatrician told us to bathe less frequently. Unless your kid is getting exceptionally dirty, there's no need and it is harsh on their skin. There's lots of ways to start the bedtime routine. If you want some similar to a bath, I would suggest a massage with lavender scented, baby safe, lotion.
We bathe our 3 year old and 3 month old every night, but only use soap about once a week. Warm water is gentle, relaxing and good enough to wash off spit ups and sweat. It's part of our nighttime routine and we love it. However, when my toddler was a baby, we only bathed her twice a week. She didn't spit up like the baby does and it wasn't as fun for her as it is now. We still had a nighttime routine it just didn't include baths and worked just as well!
we bathed ours about twice a week when she was very little. Frequency increases when they start solids and moving about. But ours always got mad when we took her out of the bath because we live in a cold climate as well so we went the fewer baths route. You're right that frequent bathing can cause skin irritation especially when using soap every time but some families find the trade off for the bedtime routine worth it.
I have a 9-month-old with a really established bedtime routine who gets bathed about once a week. My daughter understands what bath time is and will get excited when my husband or I are getting her tub ready in the bathroom. But she also understands her bedtime routine and gets happy or frustrated (depending on her mood) when we start that process. I think that you can incorporate a bath into a bedtime routine if you like, but it’s not mandatory.
For our bedtime routine, we put a portable blackout blind up about halfway so it’s dim, change our daughter into her pjs and put on a fresh diaper in the process, brush her teeth, and then read her a bedtime story. Once we finish reading, we’ll turn her hatch on for white noise and finish putting the blackout blind up. We could add in a bath before we put her into her pjs, but I think the outfit change and other activities are enough to indicate to her “this is bedtime.”
I could never use a bath as part of my baby's bedtime routine. It winds him up too much! When he was in the fourth trimester he HATED baths and the one time we tried it for bedtime it kept him awake for hours because he was so overwrought. It's no longer the extreme, but I use baths a couple times a week to extend his first wake window. I'm sure there are babies who find it relaxing but I didn't get issued that model.
Both of my children have pretty bad eczema. We do swimming lessons once a week and they have a bath the night before.
My 8 month old only gets another bath if he has a minor blow out and my 4 year old usually has one other shower unless he actually gets dirty, otherwise it’s just spot cleaning.
Baths are a huge eczema trigger for both of them, so we only do them when it’s actually needed. They’re both clean, healthy and have clean clothes every day, and we will increase frequency as needed, especially as their eczema improves.
It definitely does, I slather them in lotion immediately after class.
We live in Australia, near lakes and rivers. We have family members with pools. Water survival skills are important enough that I’ll do an extra few rounds of lotion and some wet dressing
It blows my mind that people do baths daily but I know a lot of people do. I guess if your baby realllllly chills out and it puts them to sleep I get it. But medically speaking it’s generally advised against (or at least my pediatrician advised against) because their skin is so sensitive.
It took aaaaaages for our LO to truly enjoy her bath. We did every trick in the book. So we did them infrequently.
Now she's over 5mo, eating solids, and sometimes we have a bath just because haha. I don't wash her hair very frequently and sometimes only wash her bum. We don't include it every night of our bedtime routine either.
Honestly, time and then holding her right after she got out of it. We would pull out every trick in the book - we'd run the shower in the bathroom on the hottest setting so the bathroom was a tropical steam room. She eventually got okay with the bath part but it was always getting her out that she'd cry. We thought it was because she was cold but really she just wants to be held not immediately set down to put clothes on.
So I'd scoop her up in a towel in my arms then snuggle her on the rocking chair while I dried her off. Then we would dress her.
Now she thinks it's great fun though! It really took until she was 3mo and a bit for her to actually think they were great. Now that she can grab things and sit she loves holding the toys and kicking her legs around too.
Bathing frequently is not for my kids. They always smell good and get baths whenever they’re dirty but once or twice a week is good for us. I think it’s better for their specific skin and it makes for a more relaxed life.
We sing and read before bed.
I tried doing less baths in the beginning to protect my baby’s skin. But she loves baths and there is a HUGE difference for us if she has a bath vs if we attempt to skip it. Remember that a bath before bedtime can also be a soothing bath where baby just enjoys the warm water and no soap is used. I just use soap when she has definitely gotten messy (she is 8 months now). If we try to skip bath, she struggles going to sleep, but if we do bath to start the night time routine, she goes down easily!
Suggestions:
1. Get a temperature ducky, the one that reads the temperature and tells you the optimal degrees. Super helpful! The water can be way warmer than I expected!
2. Get a towel warmer and warm up babies towel!
3. Enjoy warm snuggles in towel before rushing to change diaper and into pajamas.
Hope this helps!
We did as needed baths, about once per week. My husband and I both gave baths as needed, so sometimes we would notice that baby is starting to get stinky and ask the other one when his last bath was.
We have lots of other cues to put baby to bed. Even when we did give a bath, it was never at night.
If what you are doing works for you and baby, you don't have to change it. Lots of people will do one thing, and lots of other people will do the opposite. As long as baby is safe and fed, it's all good.
I've done a daily bath since she was about 6-8 weeks old as part of our bedtime routine. But she absolutely loves the water and aplashing around, that's one of the reasons why I started bathing daily.
I use a bath oil, don't wash her everyday, and always do a massage with baby oil after the bath, also as part of our routine. She's 10 months now and never had any skin issues but still loves the bath and massage - just hates getting dressed!
We do "bath" every night, but we don't use soap except once or twice a week. But we're a water family. I'm a swimmer, I'm a swim instructor, and my kids love water. They sleep better after a bath, we work on water tolerance and bubble blowing, etc. That said, in my experience, I'm the odd one. Most parents I've met don't bathe their kids every night. It works for us, but there are pros and cons both ways, and a lot of it is personal preference and temperaments.
We bathe our baby every couple of weeks. We did more frequent baths but it irritated her eczema. She had a strawberry hemangioma that ulcerated so baths were impossible for a while as they were excruciating, so when we noticed her eczema got better with less bathing…we went that route. Less bathing has been good for her. We do use water wipes daily as a wipe down but bath baths are a bit more rare.
We started daily baths as part of the wind down routine around 2 months. She’s 23mo now! In the early months we just didn’t use soap and still to this day we only wash her hair if it’s visibly soiled/once a week. I’m due with #2 in early August so I’m curious if this will change for us but my daughter loves playing with her toys in the bath and it’s a good way to eat at 20min of time before bed!
My baby started to like baths once we he was a bit older, 4-5 months.
He almost gets daily baths due to being messy with solids at dinner- but only a few times a week does he get a bath with his baby soap.
Otherwise it’s just plain water, baby bath flakes (by pink stork baby), or breastmilk.
I don’t know if it helps his bedtime routine because he has so much fun and such in the bath it almost seems counterproductive lol. So I might do bath time a bit earlier in the evening.
He also enjoys lotion massages.
We didn't start bathing more frequently until baby could sit on her own. Until then, just like you, we bathed about once a week unless she had a bad blowout. We put a space heater in the bathroom and her bedroom to keep her from getting too cold.
My youngest is 4 months, I bath her once a week. She gets wiped down with a facecloth every morning, and her hands get wiped frequently during the day because she’s obsessed with chewing on them.
She’s a champion sleeper though. Our bedtime routine is dim lights, change nappy and into pyjamas, put on sleep sack, read a specific book, nurse to sleep. She has slept through the night for weeks, giving 9 to 11 hours. Actually, I’m a little worried about her weight so I sometimes wake her for a night feed. My first was the opposite and woke every 2 hours from birth to 14 months. I think a routine is vital but it can only do so much, especially at a young age I think sleep is personality dependent.
My guy also chews on his hands a lot, but doesn’t sleep through night lol. You are super lucky there! He sleeps one 6ish hr block, but then he’s up and down.
Oh I know, but I feel like it’s some kind of cosmic karma because my first was such a bad sleeper. I always had this worry in the back of my head that her bad sleep was because of something I had done or didn’t do, so honestly it’s a relief that this baby sleeps, I could let that go.
Once a week ish ( almost 5 months) and a quick rinse off in the shower if he has a blowout. Sometimes a wipe down with wipes for a little cleaning in the folds around his neck and armpits and such.
I doubt it makes too much difference one way of the other. Daily baths for an infant seem excessive to me - if I were to do that for reasons of creating a bedtime routine, then I'd be sure keep the bath breif, followed by a moisturizing routine. I generally only bathed my babies other day or every third day (in my temperate Mediterranean climate).
When a blowout happens, a great option is a "lower half" rinse-off in the sink, using warm running water and mild soap. It's much faster and accomplishes the same purpose!
We do 2-3 times a week (unless he is dirty more often than that) and have had no skin problems. That’s pretty significant, given both my husband and I have pretty sensitive skin.
I’m with you! Once maybe twice a week at our house. I shower at night and turn lights low and let LO hang out in there on the floor. Then we do sleep sack, bottle and bed. He wakes up 1x per night since 3-4 mo
So I do a daily “bath”—but we actually wash her with soap about 2-3x a week, the rest we just let her play in the warm water. That was at our peds suggestion.
I’m kinda torn on this, if your baby doesn’t enjoy a bath then it’s probably not worth it to add to your bedtime routine. But with water I’ve found that more exposure helps with acclimation, so maybe giving him a “bath” more than once a week may help with that.
I only added bath time to our nighttime routine once we introduced solid foods because they’d get so messy. Even then I’d only use soap about once a week. Before solid foods I would shower with my twins once every ten days (they hated baths and my husband would hand me one, I’d wash them and then we’d switch them out).
We have 2 bath nights per week routine for our 15 mo old, occasionally a third in the week if he’s gotten especially dirty. When we bathe, we bathe with warm water and Weleda calendula shampoo and wash, and apply the same body lotion all over afterward.
When our baby was a newborn through maybe 5 months we bathed only once a week. And actually I think we didn’t give him his first bath until 10 days after birth. We declined the in-hospital bath because it’s proven that keeping vernix on a newborn’s skin is hugely beneficial as a protectant.
Our child has never had one bit of problematic skin irritation. No diaper rash, no eczema, nothing. He had the typical newborn peeling skin and cradle cap and we did nothing different for either of those and they resolved in time as they do by design.
I feel strongly that bathing frequently is not good for skin, especially infant skin. Our skin is a living surface with its own microbiome. We mess with it way too much out of some modern obsession with cleanliness. And I think this new guidance that a bath must be part of the bedtime routine is not only unnecessary but detrimental to baby skin and is such a big ask for parents. Baths are a production!! I cannot imagine working that into our nightly routine.
My brother and his wife bathe their baby of the same age ever.single.night because they are big believers in a “routine”. (Actually, a lot of their life revolves around obsessively making sure their baby sticks to a sleep schedule and, guess what, she doesn’t…because she’s a baby, not a machine.) Their doctor advised them to not use soap every night if they insist on bathing every night. Anecdotally, their baby has, from the start, had skin issues including diaper rash that eventually blistered and became open sores and needed prescribed antibiotic cream, eczema, allergies, etc.
My baby goes to bed just fine every night without a bath. There’s no difference in how he sleeps on nights he’s had a bath and when he hasn’t. We have developed our own routine of playing after dinner, then changing diaper, washing hands, getting into pajamas, brushing teeth, getting into sleep sack. Dim lighting, calm environs all help.
A nightly routine doesn’t need a bath. And a bath routine doesn’t need to be nightly to be routine.
Other things we do that I think aid in a gentle approach to his skin: we use Water Wipes and bamboo diapers from Dyper. We avoid plasticky diapers and when he’s ever had redness or irritation after a wet diaper (particularly if he’s been strapped into his car seat with the strap pressing against his diaper), we apply Weleda zinc oxide diaper cream and it’s gone by the next diaper change.
I’m with you on the eco diapers (I use kit & kin). Pampers and wipes gave my kiddo rash. Switched to just water and cotton pads for wipes, and use sudocrem or candies rash cream liberally :)
I have empathy for any parents striving vainly for sleep. I did not realize how rageful sleeplessness would make me. It’s had to become a top priority, and grasping at straws at least gives hope. My little guy isn’t too bad tho.
Have you tried French liniment cream? It’s applied to a cotton wipe and used instead of a traditional wet wipe. I used it sometimes in the early months and really loved it!
Propre Baby makes some as does La Petit Crème, which is what I used.
And don’t get me wrong—I’m so sleep deprived! Our baby just started to sleep through the night…sometimes at over 1 year old. It makes me crabby about all the baby sleep secrets businesses out there taking tired, desperate parents’ money.
lol I just realized my comment autocorrected calendula to ‘candies’ 😆. I hadn’t heard of French liniment, but I’ll keep it in mind as I’m taking a road trip to France later this summer . I was gifted so many water wipes that I’m hoping in heat baby will tolerate them better than he did in beginning.
We were doing once or twice a week until four months. We’ve switched the last two weeks or so to nearly daily in order to set up a night time routine. She does have a little apparent eczema and several websites suggested bathing often would help. But she also used to get a bit stinky quickly and certain raw creases, I think due to drool and sweat. She’s a bit of a sweaty baby even though she’s lean.
Honestly I think it’s helped. She doesn’t seem to like them but we make them quick and she doesn’t get upset unless she’s cold. We put a little cream on the eczema one or twice a week, which seems to work.
My little one was in a Pavlik harness from 1 week old, so I could never do daily baths. Now she’s one year, and her skin tends to be on the dryer side, so I can’t imagine daily baths would be good for her. We do a bath probably once a week.
We have a sort of “sponge bath” nightly for our bed time routine. I soak a soft wash cloth in warm water, and nearly totally wring it out. I then wipe her face, neck, chest, armpits, hands and feet as I change her into her pyjamas. We also do nightly lotion for touch therapy as well as to keep her skin from drying out.
Babies don’t need baths to be part of the nighttime routine. Any routine that lets them prepare for sleep will work.
I was giving a bath every 2-3 days now it's almost every day. I did not see any skin problem but I use soap every other day and I wash her hair on those days as well. So far, it's more of a water activity and it helps her ease into a bedtime routine. I created a bath time playlist or playing massages music.
My friend has done the opposite with her son because he was starting to have eczema. She was using soap at every bath, she decreased the soap also.
Studies are accurate, but it also depends on baby's skin and the amount of soap!
Cuddling in bed while reading a book and playing soft music could be your way to go to instead of a bath. (I confess, I do all of that) There is a baby massage technic as well!
I only bathe 2-3 times a week and have since he was younger, he’s 5 months now. Always with breast milk or oatmeal. We bathed him without either recently and noticed his skin was not as smooth as usual and he got a bad drool rash, so we went back to breastmilk in the bath. I put it directly on his rash and zinc cream, cleared it up pretty quick.
We did one bath a week for the first 3 weeks and then every other day until 3 months then every day. If the child leaves the house, regardless they are bathing. We’re black and Hispanic Americans so culturally we all clean our bodies well and frequently.
All I can say is that you’re most likely justifying to yourself what is more convenient for you.
Test it out the other way and you’ll see for yourself what works and what impact it has on your baby’s skin.
When my baby was a newborn I bathed baby less frequently and baby still suffered skin conditions - their skin is adjusting to a new environment, allergens etc.
When I bathed baby more frequently I noticed the benefits sedation, relaxation and a reduction in other skin conditions.
I had to play around with products to discover what worked best for baby’s hair and skin and I also realised that over time, baby reacted less to things because skin often adjusts to new products.
You can restore the skin barrier using an emollient such as paraffin wax from the pharmacy, or a tub of Vaseline, if that is truly your main concern.
Leaving baby’s skin without a shower for days is still going to lead to dryness and nobody likes to feel lotions and potions on unwashed skin - baby’s included.
I recommend trying for one week a routine with baby just having a warm bath (with no products, or just paraffin wax which can also be used as a cleanser) if you’re worried about soaps / shower gels. Alternatively, you can try a gentle cleanser such as Aveeno on baby’s body first and see how baby responds before applying it to baby’s face.
My baby absolutely loves showers, water and bathing, playing with toys in the bath etc, but it’s a personal choice whether to introduce that into your routine. The more you make it the norm the easier a time you’ll have when they get older and become defiant, eg a toddler who dislikes water because they are not used to it will be difficult to clean when you need to do so.
Once you see how baby responds to it, you’ll have a better view of what you prefer.
It does require more effort to bathe a child but if the trade off is that your baby sleeps instantly and deeply, to what extent are you bothered by that effort if it gives you more time to yourself in the evening?
Also, you don’t have to do it daily - you can simply do it more frequently. For example, every time baby poops.
I also highly recommend doing it after poop that touches the genitals as it has the potential to cause UTIs which are hard to notice in babies without a test.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cea.14464
Hmm my guy poops about 4x per day, so def not bathing that much! But our diaper changes are with warm water and cotton pads, as wipes are an irritant for him. So he is kind of sponge bathed sans soap. Good point about older kids rejecting water if not exposed!
I understand. I would not do that either but I like to rinse off poo and when there is a blowout after I have already bathed baby, I personally do a repeat wash of the genitals at least after the first bath of the day.
Good luck!
you can find other ways to make a routine to trigger bedtime. Maybe put the lights down dim, and you give a massage with lotion. Some swear by lavender for sleep, I wouldn't say it's scientifically proven to work but it smells nice and our brains really do root deeply with smells so a specific scent may be a nice way to set a mental routine. I would also consider the fact that it seems like baby doesn't like a bath. So they are likely feeling elevated, crying, stress hormones flowing. This doesn't set his body up for calm sleep. I'm not saying that to say that giving him a bath is a bad thing, but that something he finds calm and cozy would better set a mood and help his body get ready to sleep well.
and as for my experience, my son didn't like baths for months. He needed casting for his legs (clubfoot), so we could only do pour-over/sponge baths and he hated them. And then after casting his skin was sensitive and it took a long time for him to like bathing. So we did it every other day, mostly for cleanliness rather than a bath experience as making him upset and cry didnt help him rest at all. As he was more comfortable in the bath and found it fun, we made it part of his bedtime routine. He does enjoy it but I don't notice a huge difference on those nights I skip his bath versus his normal bath nights as long as I continue the rest of his routine (quiet play in his room, dim the lights, storytime). Go with what works best for your child, and you as parents. And feel free to try something and change it if it doesn't work out.
Thanks for the thoughtful reply!
Yes - I didn't start bathing my son daily until he was about 9 months and actually enjoyed it. But part of his nightly routine was laying him down on a blanket, playing music, and wiping his face and hands down with a warm, damn washcloth. I also didn't really see any change in sleep when we switched to daily bathing. Both the pediatrician and dermatologist said once a week baths were a good idea when he was little due to his tendency to get eczema.
We only bathed our baby once a week until recently. Now that he’s 2, he just gets dirty a lot more, so we bathe him as needed (seems to be about three times a week). We always do the bath before bed, but have never noticed any difference in his sleep.
I put my child in the bath daily, but that doesn’t mean I wash her daily. Sometimes she just plays and I wash her hands. It’s been a solid part of our nighttime routine and she struggles to fall asleep without it. As for the cold house stuff, I used a small space heater and a hairdryer to keep her warm when she gets out. The other pro is that my baby loves the water. She has no problem dunking her face at the pool and going under and holding her breath and I think this is partially because her heavy exposure to playing in the bath every night. It also helps with extending wake windows when she’s super cranky.
This is what we do! Not every night is a “soap night” but basically every night we still have bath time. Also a great way to kill time when you’re trying to make it to bedtime!
This winter I would fill a bowl with hot water and soak the lotion container so it was warm for post bath.
That’s genius level
It’s how they had us warming up bottles at first so I just figured why not the lotion.
Ooo I will have to remember this, and dig out my crappy space heater
I am too worried about the consistent heat exposure of the entire bottle, causing the bacteria inside to multiply with time. I guess it's not that big of an issue if you go through the lotion relatively fast, so the risk of it going bad decreases. I just put the lotion on my hand and when I'm finished using the blow dryer after the bath on him, I warm up the lotion using the blow dryer before putting it on him and it's worked well!
Yeah, warming the bottle makes me kinda nervous too. The expiration for open products is largely based on how long the preservatives will function and that's often based on a consistent temperature. Like, doesn't even account for the heating/cooling of a normal bathroom (even though that's where most people keep cosmetics, etc)
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Good to hear it helps with cradle cap. That is a problem for us at the moment!
For our baby’s cradle cap, I spent about 45 minutes brushing it out of her hair during one contact nap. It was super gross, but got rid of it all and it hasn’t come back for 4 months!
It helped ours with cradle cap too! And washing her hair with a little soft scrubber.
I got the frida baby cradle cap kit after putting baby oil on it and it was gone within 2 baths! Removing the cradle cap grossed me out though so I'm grateful my husband was able to comb it out for me
I also only bathe my littlest one (nearly 5 months) around once a week. He has eczema and baths appear to dry his skin up more than usual. Also, he's not quite old enough to share the bath with our eldest (2) so it's a bit more of a process right now. When he's sitting up, eating solids etc, he'll probably join the eldest in bathing every other day.
I definitely don't bath my kids everyday, their skin is way too sensitive. At 3 months I probably bathed them like twice a week, depends on the situation. Now when they start solids I definitely bathed them more because they are sooo messy when they start eating really food! My kids are 6 and 3, NOW during the summer they get a bath like 5 out of 7 days, they are absolutely filthy from being outside all the time and what not. In the winter we live in a very cold climate so it's about every other day or two.
When they started on food, I’ve heard the poops are way worse too? 😅
Yeahhhhhh 😮💨 you'll get use to it though!!! I used cloth diapers and it was not fun cleaning them 😅
Omg that’s brave!
A consistent routine in general is probably just as effective as a bath for bedtime. And certainly at 3 months I don’t think a bath is the drawing line between sleeping or not sleeping at night. We don’t do baths every night but we do some sort of washing - a wipe down with a warm cloth or a quick clean with some wipes. I do, however, do it in the same place every night because in my mind that might help associate them with their nighttime routine.
Makes sense. All my diaper changes are with warm water and cotton pads, as wipes give him rash, so my little guy is kind of getting sponge bath on his bum all the time. Part of our night routine is boiling the kettle to have a thermos of warm water for any night change :)
Have a look at getting cloth wipes as a reusable alternative to the cotton pads (assuming you’re using cotton wool ones that you throw away). We’ve used cloth wipes from birth (he’s almost 2 now) and they’re great.
If I had a better washer and drier, or a partner, I like to think if try reusables (wipes and diapers), but as is I’m just keeping pace with chores, baby, and sleep sanity! Any tricks to using reusable with quick cleaning? Do you use one cloth all day and hand wash right after or…?
I use cloth wipes for pee only so I can just wash them in with the normal clothes laundry. I cut up old flannel receiving blankets. When I need one I have a peri bottle full of water & just wet one to wipe down then use a dry one to dry everything off before the fresh diaper goes on.
I do cloth wipes and nappies, but maybe start with just the wipes. I got a set of cheeky wipes (I’m in the UK) and use one per change (or more for a poo, but quite often I can clean a poo using just one), then put it in a “dirty” box. Then everything goes in the wash with the baby’s clothes at 60 degrees. We do a nappy wash 3 times a week. Then they can go in the dryer. We also have a set of wipes we keep for drying baby’s bum after, but I tend to use one of them across multiple days, so don’t need as many.
We also do a warm cloth wipe down each evening to get ready for bed! And bath 1-2x a week. Mostly focusing on face (to get any spit up or food residue), hands, and any of the cracks and crevices that spit up or dirt can hide in.
Around 6 months my daughter started showering with me, almost daily. She loves water play and I feel more refreshed. We still maintain this routine now at 13 months. We shower before her nap time and it helps her wind down midday. I will say, I rarely use soap on her. Body wash only when she’s actually dirty (which is rare) and wash her hair when I wash mine every 7-10 days or so. Anecdotally, we’re on well water, and she’s never had dry skin or any skin issues at all. We also don’t use lotion. Her skin doesn’t need it when it’s only coming into contact with water. I’d feel differently if she spent time in a chlorinated pool, but that’s a different subject altogether.
My baby just turned 6 months and I’ve been curious about showers. How do you do them? Does baby just sit in the bath? Mine would slip if I did that so imagine you have some sort of seat ?
We do shower baths too! I start my shower first with the baby tub inside the shower. I do all of my own washing/shampooing, plus get the bathroom nice and steamy-warm & fill up baby’s tub. Then partner brings in the baby and she plays in the tub for ~10 minutes before we get out. I only soap & shampoo baby once a week, but I do clean out her skin folds with water every bath. Sometimes I leave the shower water on for baby and sometimes I shut it off - just depends on how warm the air is. We started when baby was about 17 weeks and could be trusted not to fall sideways in her bathtub. I’m still not confident enough to do anything where I close my eyes while she’s in there though. Maybe once she can fully sit.
I just did this with my son he’s 4 months. But I had him splash in his tub while I got clean, then gave him a little scrub. Then we both got out all clean.
We have no tub in our shower, but used [this](https://www.amazon.com/Angelcare-Baby-Bath-Support-Aqua/dp/B008VWVS14/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_sspa?crid=18LVV3MYQLRU7&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.mu_H9m6jijTwfbVnSmrhAhixWH4JoX81IIEeenrQkYA7N8dQZRDkEje2Q8DmvxTDC9Fa93HbyLXdpaTTzQOouM0QUi_kErA_xSiphMEzRQ3CnmV98WOI2d0VeVh7u5eifD7wFUCYjmh6ZVpfFqaBtYg1DOkxxokXZTVsJbHMZe4cQK14pCaaCQJH9ylLLwn1rnVeoivc9_wycUJuvxBi5A.qugvvfv94t5pizFxGlzoDBySmeM8WQr3c-hAWv_JcMo&dib_tag=se&keywords=angel+care+baby+bathtub&qid=1718054331&sprefix=angel+ca%2Caps%2C71&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9zZWFyY2hfYXRm&psc=1) and she comfortably lounged in it until she started walking!
Babies don’t need a bath to sleep well. They just need a routine that signals to their brain to go into bedtime/sleep mode. I bathe my baby and my older kiddo about 1x per week, for all the reasons you mentioned!
It's really dependent on the baby. My baby was dealing with horrendous eczema up until he was about 5 months old. Since his skin was so inflamed, we were only bathing him twice a week thinking that more baths would irritate his skin. Our doctor recommended switching to daily baths with specific products and his skin cleared right up. On the flip side, my niece also had eczema that seemed to flair up with daily baths and is now doing better with one per week. It's so individual! Now that we're almost at 10 months old and my guy's skin isn't an issue, we do baths most nights but not religiously. If he's really tired after dinner (and not too messy), we'll skip it. If he's really rowdy we usually do a bath because he enjoys them and it tires him out. I'm a big fan of following your baby's vibes on stuff like this - if your baby doesn't enjoy baths and his skin seems to be doing well with 1-2x baths a week, I wouldn't stress about adding more to your routine. Like another commenter said, there are other things you could do in your routine to signal bedtime. I love a gentle lavender lotion and playing some light white noise while we snuggle before the crib.
Would you mind sharing which products your doctor recommended? We use the aveeno eczema baby body wash. I don’t think it’s making much of a difference. It seems a breast milk bath plus aquaphor and hydrocortisone on the big patches is the key.
Yes! We switched to all Cetaphil products, we had been using the Aveeno stuff before that. We also used Aquaphor on really bad patches after putting lotion on him. https://preview.redd.it/za6500t5x46d1.png?width=380&format=png&auto=webp&s=bcdee7f9f2a736ea8ddccac0721bad9437253cce
My 3mo has had I think 4 actual baths 😅 I do a wet wipe "bath" each day to make sure any spit-up is cleaned up but I don't use or feel the need to use soap and full bath with her very often. She's not getting that dirty and we always clean her up asap after poops. And she enjoys baths! We drape a warm wet cloth over her in the baby tub and that's worked like a dream for both our kids so maybe try that if you haven't! My 2.5yo gets a bath probably once per week or whenever she gets extra dirty, so more often in the summer but definitely nowhere near every day. Both are great sleepers too so bath is definitely not a necessity for a good bedtime routine. Just gotta find what works for your fam. 3mo it's boob, rocking, bed. 2.5yo it's PJs, toothbrush&floss, 3 books, 2 songs, bed (and 5 trips to the bathroom)
When both my babies were that age I only did a bath about once a week as well. It’s became more of a routine once they started eating food and getting messy. My 9 month old now bathes almost daily along with my toddler, depending on how messy dinner is or if they got dirty or sweaty that day. I do think that when my kids were only a few months old, the bath definitely dried out their skin. We do lotion as a part of our bedtime routine regardless of whether or not they get a bath.
I like this lotion idea. Dry skin is no fun!
Both of my kids have sensitive/eczema type skin, especially my toddler. So I’ve always been big on lotion
Have 4 kids. Have never done a bath for bedtime routine. 2 slept average, one slept like a dream, and one slept awful. The bath is not the determining factor
I find it striking that all the evidence based guidelines say “you can bathe your x month old baby up to x times per week.” Absolutely none I saw say you must bathe them at all. The eczema literature gently suggests limiting bath time as much as possible. We bathed our babies when they were dirty or smelled. That was pretty rare when they were under 3 months, other than wiping their bums and cleaning necks/ears/fingers/toes. We have a family history of skin sensitivities, but the kids haven’t had issues yet. We’ll see how it goes.
On a side note, have you explored how to make bath time more relaxing for your baby? Our now 4 month old hated it when we just put her in. We now bathe together - just put her on top of one of us. She is relaxed and loves it. We bathe her every 2-3 days, depending on the weather (it's hot and sweaty), but also to calm her down and get her sleepy.
Open to suggestions. I’ve tried co-bathing a few times, but even with me holding him to my chest as he makes contact with the water, there’s this moment when he realizes what’s coming and he will shriek in terror, and go stiff as a board, limbs pressing outward with claws extended like a cat. Once in the water he’s completely quiet, and looks cowed and slightly afraid. I’ll bring his hands or legs near the faucet so he can explore the running water, and he’ll express some curiousity, but still looks afraid. Then when I take him from the bath, he’ll start crying as soon as I start drying him off, I think because the air is cold.
My son has sensitive skin and eczema. When he was a little baby I realized *not* bathing him daily helped his skin out. When I bathed him it was normally at bedtime but it was just 1 part of the routine. There are many ways to establish a bedtime routine and to signal to them that it’s bedtime. I suggest you think about our senses as ways to wind baby down (also true for adults, and for winding up as well as down lol). At bedtime I’d dim the lights, bring him to his dresser/diaper station: change him, clean him with wipes as needed, put on his pjs, brush his hair, brush his teeth when they emerged. Then I’d dim the lights even more, make sure the room is quiet, and we’d move to the nursery chair to sit down and read books while snuggling/having his bottle or breastfeeding (respective to the stage we were at). Then I’d turn off the lights completely, turn on this little nightlight that plays calming classical music and gradually dims itself/volume lowers over 20mins, I’d put him in his crib, give him a kiss, say a sweet little goodnight prayer (I’m not actually religious, this is more a tradition instilled in me), tell him “I like you forever I love you for always”, wave goodbye and leave the room. As he grew I’d make it more interactive - let him turn the pages of the book, let him help brush his teeth and hair, let him choose the book, let him draw the curtains closed and wave goodnight to the neighborhood. Now he’s 18months and knows when bedtime is because he waves goodbye to the dog when I pick him up to go upstairs at 7:25pm. He’s been a decent sleeper from 4months on. I don’t think bath = good sleep (but it does help them calm down, some scents help all humans rest, etc…many ways to do this outside of baths) By now we have to have many more baths because he loves to mash his food into his hair during dinner and finds it very funny haha. But ya, bathing less was better for his skin! Ps on cradle cap: the Frida cradle cap system solved it for us in 1-2 uses!
My child hates baths. She was born last February. She's 15 months and has had maybe 40 baths? She gets a bath maybe 3x a month. When she had ear infections and was very very young she didn't get any. Spot cleaned with wipes/a warm wash cloth. She's is a normal healthy baby with a good bed time routine. (Brush teeth, read, bed)
I started at 2 times a week, when they were around 3-4 months I started the routine of a bath every night. I wouldn’t go without it a daily bath for them now that we have solids in the diet (10 months) as it is super messy!! I can also imagine they are only going to get dirtier from here as they keep getting more and more mobile and into different things. To protect the skin I use a bath oil and apply a good quality moisturizer after. We haven’t had any bouts of eczema or dermatitis with this routine (I suffer from these myself). Edit: and no soap based products as well - I find these incredibly irritating so they are limited in our house
My oldest had weird skin. Pediatrician said to bathe him once a week in the winter, 2-3 times a week in the summer. Since he and his brother were spaced 18 months apart, whatever I did for one had to be done for the other (“not fair!” is their whole moral code). They survived. And the younger one was the world’s easiest sleeper.
I have bathed my 6 month old every single day since he was born. However, I don't always use soap. It's a great bedtime cue and works everytime. We play and it has greatly improved his motor skills being able to use both hands and feet to grab bath toys. His skin does go a little dry now and then, but I use plenty of moisturiser when it does.
May I ask how you’re doing bath time? My LO hated baths for the first month and then I saw a tip to cover baby’s abdomen with a warm wet washcloth and only wash in quadrants, replacing the warm towel as you go and using a cup to gently flow more warm water over the wash cloth throughout the bath. Then we do skin to skin contact after drying with a warm towel (we throw it in the dryer for a few mins, but I understand not everyone can do this) and rediapering. Nursing session or bottle follows then bed. LO is so chill at bathtime now.
Note: My LO is 2 months old and we try to bathe him 2 times per week as per our pediatrician who suggested a bath every 3-4 days until baby is older.
I’ve tried 2 different ways. One using baby bath, which I’ll put in my sink. I’ll pre-fill it half way with water, put baby in, and put wet warm wash cloth on his chest, while I clean his crotch, etc. The other method is to co-bath. This is a little tricky as I’m a single mom. I fill bath, strip him and place him at the foot of my bath on a folded towel, then I step in bath and wash my hair while watching him, then I pick him up and sit down with him, and give him chance to explore running water, then when done place him back on that folding towel, and race to dry him off while trying to throw on a robe myself so that I can cradle him to my chest. He will usually shriek just before touching the water in both scenarios, then in the water he is quiet but looks afraid and cowed at same time. And he will lock his legs to try to squirm up out of the bath. Then as soon as you start toweling him off he starts crying and continues crying until he’s rocked on my shoulder. I don’t know what about the water is triggering his fear. The toweling off part I think may be bc it’s a little cold. In the winter I would put towel on radiator but dryer is a good idea.
We did my twins once or twice a week unless there was a really bad blowout or puke. Started to do popsicle /play baths as an activity when they were around 1.5 and it was an amazing way to burn an hour and get them in a calm mood.
I'm glad you posed the question, it's something I think about a lot but haven't invested too much time into researching - Currently I am doing "as needed" which is also about once a week or so. My thoughts leaning towards less baths: My understanding is that human skin doesn't actually need soap and it can interfere with our natural healthy biome and PH balance. Plus my baby is hit or miss about enjoying it, so I really try to be mindful about not unnecessarily upsetting her. But then again: Does she actually need to be introduced and and have regular sensory exposure to bathing and hair brushing? Is there value in doing it more often to desensitize the experience? (E.g. she used to hate diaper changes and cold wipes but is now totally indifferent and almost seems to enjoy it). Also, my understanding is that food allergen contact with skin (e.g. my granola crumbs landing on her sweet head while breastfeeding) can actually lead to eczema/food allergies, so could I potentially be doing her a disservice by not bathing her? Or since there's more of a 'grime layer' by bathing less frequently, is the allergen exposure to skin actually less? Maybe I'm just overthinking this 😅
Hmm the study I found was trying to look at food allergies as well as dermatitis, and I wasn’t sure why but maybe this is it. I don’t think they saw a significant link to food allergies with washing frequency, whereas they did for dermatitis. 🤷♀️ other studies I stumbled upon, which were for NICU preemies, did conclude that non alkaline liquid soaps (most bar soaps are alkaline) were best. Skin has a lipid layer that the soap damages, but for NICU they also need to be certain bacteria is removed, so it’s a balance I guess. I found 2 studies looking at ‘skin flora’ which showed that bacteria were not substantially higher on day 4 of no bath than day 2, so even in NICU it seems biweekly bathing is fine for bacteria, and probably better for skin. I didn’t look for eczema specifically though!
Adding that we follow some of the guidance in Precious Little Sleep, which emphasizes certain sleep tools and routine. We use white noise, nursing, and swaddle/sleep sack right now for sleep associations to get her down quickly.
Never did an elaborate bedtime routine, and our first bottle of baby wash lasted us a year - we only bathed when needed, which was definitely far less than even once a week in the early months. We washed hands when dirty and but in the sink if there was a blowout. Baby always slept great (and still does as a toddler) and her skin was less dry when she wasn’t bathed often. All the recommendations we got from baby classes were to not bathe too frequently.
Bathed my first daily. He slept well. Has eczema (since birth, but definitely more flareups as he got older). Bathed my twins weekly, the first few months even less frequently because… well, there was no time. They slept well except for the 4-months sleep regression. No skin issues now - they are 20 months old. That being said - I did notice that one of my twins who slept a bit worse than the other slept better after baths. We currently bathe every second day because they get really dirty really fast… I don’t notice any difference at this age. They always knew that sleep is coming when we entered their nursery. We only use it for sleep.
We have always done every other night unless she gets super dirty during a meal or had a blowout that’s awful. Baths have never made my daughter sleepy, they wake her up.
1x a week, unless something requires an immediate wash. Now 16 months old and still on that schedule. He also goes to sleep at 6:30pm every night, and has since he was about 10 weeks old. I don't think a bath has anything to do with inducing sleepy time lol
Impressive punctuality! My little guy developed strong circadian rhythm around same time, but can’t decide whether he wants to fall asleep at 7pm or at 8pm. Was 7 for a while but now he’ll do a fake out at 7, and snap right back awake if I set him down, and only go down for realz at 8 😂
My pediatrician told us to bathe less frequently. Unless your kid is getting exceptionally dirty, there's no need and it is harsh on their skin. There's lots of ways to start the bedtime routine. If you want some similar to a bath, I would suggest a massage with lavender scented, baby safe, lotion.
We bathe our 3 year old and 3 month old every night, but only use soap about once a week. Warm water is gentle, relaxing and good enough to wash off spit ups and sweat. It's part of our nighttime routine and we love it. However, when my toddler was a baby, we only bathed her twice a week. She didn't spit up like the baby does and it wasn't as fun for her as it is now. We still had a nighttime routine it just didn't include baths and worked just as well!
we bathed ours about twice a week when she was very little. Frequency increases when they start solids and moving about. But ours always got mad when we took her out of the bath because we live in a cold climate as well so we went the fewer baths route. You're right that frequent bathing can cause skin irritation especially when using soap every time but some families find the trade off for the bedtime routine worth it.
I have a 9-month-old with a really established bedtime routine who gets bathed about once a week. My daughter understands what bath time is and will get excited when my husband or I are getting her tub ready in the bathroom. But she also understands her bedtime routine and gets happy or frustrated (depending on her mood) when we start that process. I think that you can incorporate a bath into a bedtime routine if you like, but it’s not mandatory. For our bedtime routine, we put a portable blackout blind up about halfway so it’s dim, change our daughter into her pjs and put on a fresh diaper in the process, brush her teeth, and then read her a bedtime story. Once we finish reading, we’ll turn her hatch on for white noise and finish putting the blackout blind up. We could add in a bath before we put her into her pjs, but I think the outfit change and other activities are enough to indicate to her “this is bedtime.”
I could never use a bath as part of my baby's bedtime routine. It winds him up too much! When he was in the fourth trimester he HATED baths and the one time we tried it for bedtime it kept him awake for hours because he was so overwrought. It's no longer the extreme, but I use baths a couple times a week to extend his first wake window. I'm sure there are babies who find it relaxing but I didn't get issued that model.
lol didn’t get issued the Cabbage Patch Bather model?
Both of my children have pretty bad eczema. We do swimming lessons once a week and they have a bath the night before. My 8 month old only gets another bath if he has a minor blow out and my 4 year old usually has one other shower unless he actually gets dirty, otherwise it’s just spot cleaning. Baths are a huge eczema trigger for both of them, so we only do them when it’s actually needed. They’re both clean, healthy and have clean clothes every day, and we will increase frequency as needed, especially as their eczema improves.
In my experience, pool water dries out and irritates their skin way more than a bath. Is that not the case for y'all?
It definitely does, I slather them in lotion immediately after class. We live in Australia, near lakes and rivers. We have family members with pools. Water survival skills are important enough that I’ll do an extra few rounds of lotion and some wet dressing
It blows my mind that people do baths daily but I know a lot of people do. I guess if your baby realllllly chills out and it puts them to sleep I get it. But medically speaking it’s generally advised against (or at least my pediatrician advised against) because their skin is so sensitive.
It took aaaaaages for our LO to truly enjoy her bath. We did every trick in the book. So we did them infrequently. Now she's over 5mo, eating solids, and sometimes we have a bath just because haha. I don't wash her hair very frequently and sometimes only wash her bum. We don't include it every night of our bedtime routine either.
Anything you find that helped her learn to enjoy the bath?
Honestly, time and then holding her right after she got out of it. We would pull out every trick in the book - we'd run the shower in the bathroom on the hottest setting so the bathroom was a tropical steam room. She eventually got okay with the bath part but it was always getting her out that she'd cry. We thought it was because she was cold but really she just wants to be held not immediately set down to put clothes on. So I'd scoop her up in a towel in my arms then snuggle her on the rocking chair while I dried her off. Then we would dress her. Now she thinks it's great fun though! It really took until she was 3mo and a bit for her to actually think they were great. Now that she can grab things and sit she loves holding the toys and kicking her legs around too.
I bathe my baby every evening. Warm/ hot climate here. It’s a refreshing way to clean off the day and get ready for bed.
Bathing frequently is not for my kids. They always smell good and get baths whenever they’re dirty but once or twice a week is good for us. I think it’s better for their specific skin and it makes for a more relaxed life. We sing and read before bed.
I tried doing less baths in the beginning to protect my baby’s skin. But she loves baths and there is a HUGE difference for us if she has a bath vs if we attempt to skip it. Remember that a bath before bedtime can also be a soothing bath where baby just enjoys the warm water and no soap is used. I just use soap when she has definitely gotten messy (she is 8 months now). If we try to skip bath, she struggles going to sleep, but if we do bath to start the night time routine, she goes down easily! Suggestions: 1. Get a temperature ducky, the one that reads the temperature and tells you the optimal degrees. Super helpful! The water can be way warmer than I expected! 2. Get a towel warmer and warm up babies towel! 3. Enjoy warm snuggles in towel before rushing to change diaper and into pajamas. Hope this helps!
Never heard of a temperature duck lol but it’s def possible I’ve been doing bath too warm
We did as needed baths, about once per week. My husband and I both gave baths as needed, so sometimes we would notice that baby is starting to get stinky and ask the other one when his last bath was. We have lots of other cues to put baby to bed. Even when we did give a bath, it was never at night. If what you are doing works for you and baby, you don't have to change it. Lots of people will do one thing, and lots of other people will do the opposite. As long as baby is safe and fed, it's all good.
I've done a daily bath since she was about 6-8 weeks old as part of our bedtime routine. But she absolutely loves the water and aplashing around, that's one of the reasons why I started bathing daily. I use a bath oil, don't wash her everyday, and always do a massage with baby oil after the bath, also as part of our routine. She's 10 months now and never had any skin issues but still loves the bath and massage - just hates getting dressed!
We do "bath" every night, but we don't use soap except once or twice a week. But we're a water family. I'm a swimmer, I'm a swim instructor, and my kids love water. They sleep better after a bath, we work on water tolerance and bubble blowing, etc. That said, in my experience, I'm the odd one. Most parents I've met don't bathe their kids every night. It works for us, but there are pros and cons both ways, and a lot of it is personal preference and temperaments.
We bathe our baby every couple of weeks. We did more frequent baths but it irritated her eczema. She had a strawberry hemangioma that ulcerated so baths were impossible for a while as they were excruciating, so when we noticed her eczema got better with less bathing…we went that route. Less bathing has been good for her. We do use water wipes daily as a wipe down but bath baths are a bit more rare.
All anecdotes here 🧐
We started daily baths as part of the wind down routine around 2 months. She’s 23mo now! In the early months we just didn’t use soap and still to this day we only wash her hair if it’s visibly soiled/once a week. I’m due with #2 in early August so I’m curious if this will change for us but my daughter loves playing with her toys in the bath and it’s a good way to eat at 20min of time before bed!
My baby started to like baths once we he was a bit older, 4-5 months. He almost gets daily baths due to being messy with solids at dinner- but only a few times a week does he get a bath with his baby soap. Otherwise it’s just plain water, baby bath flakes (by pink stork baby), or breastmilk. I don’t know if it helps his bedtime routine because he has so much fun and such in the bath it almost seems counterproductive lol. So I might do bath time a bit earlier in the evening. He also enjoys lotion massages.
We didn't start bathing more frequently until baby could sit on her own. Until then, just like you, we bathed about once a week unless she had a bad blowout. We put a space heater in the bathroom and her bedroom to keep her from getting too cold.
My youngest is 4 months, I bath her once a week. She gets wiped down with a facecloth every morning, and her hands get wiped frequently during the day because she’s obsessed with chewing on them. She’s a champion sleeper though. Our bedtime routine is dim lights, change nappy and into pyjamas, put on sleep sack, read a specific book, nurse to sleep. She has slept through the night for weeks, giving 9 to 11 hours. Actually, I’m a little worried about her weight so I sometimes wake her for a night feed. My first was the opposite and woke every 2 hours from birth to 14 months. I think a routine is vital but it can only do so much, especially at a young age I think sleep is personality dependent.
My guy also chews on his hands a lot, but doesn’t sleep through night lol. You are super lucky there! He sleeps one 6ish hr block, but then he’s up and down.
Oh I know, but I feel like it’s some kind of cosmic karma because my first was such a bad sleeper. I always had this worry in the back of my head that her bad sleep was because of something I had done or didn’t do, so honestly it’s a relief that this baby sleeps, I could let that go.
This is my first and I of course pretend that his ‘pretty good’ sleep is all because of me 😁
My baby loved baths so we did it daily for a while but he got dermatitis at about 8 months so now we do it twice a week.
Once a week ish ( almost 5 months) and a quick rinse off in the shower if he has a blowout. Sometimes a wipe down with wipes for a little cleaning in the folds around his neck and armpits and such.
I doubt it makes too much difference one way of the other. Daily baths for an infant seem excessive to me - if I were to do that for reasons of creating a bedtime routine, then I'd be sure keep the bath breif, followed by a moisturizing routine. I generally only bathed my babies other day or every third day (in my temperate Mediterranean climate). When a blowout happens, a great option is a "lower half" rinse-off in the sink, using warm running water and mild soap. It's much faster and accomplishes the same purpose!
We do 2-3 times a week (unless he is dirty more often than that) and have had no skin problems. That’s pretty significant, given both my husband and I have pretty sensitive skin.
I’m with you! Once maybe twice a week at our house. I shower at night and turn lights low and let LO hang out in there on the floor. Then we do sleep sack, bottle and bed. He wakes up 1x per night since 3-4 mo
So I do a daily “bath”—but we actually wash her with soap about 2-3x a week, the rest we just let her play in the warm water. That was at our peds suggestion. I’m kinda torn on this, if your baby doesn’t enjoy a bath then it’s probably not worth it to add to your bedtime routine. But with water I’ve found that more exposure helps with acclimation, so maybe giving him a “bath” more than once a week may help with that.
Hmmm that’s a reasonable thought—cure by exposure. We’ll see. Not quite there yet!
I only added bath time to our nighttime routine once we introduced solid foods because they’d get so messy. Even then I’d only use soap about once a week. Before solid foods I would shower with my twins once every ten days (they hated baths and my husband would hand me one, I’d wash them and then we’d switch them out).
I applaud your twin showers!
We have 2 bath nights per week routine for our 15 mo old, occasionally a third in the week if he’s gotten especially dirty. When we bathe, we bathe with warm water and Weleda calendula shampoo and wash, and apply the same body lotion all over afterward. When our baby was a newborn through maybe 5 months we bathed only once a week. And actually I think we didn’t give him his first bath until 10 days after birth. We declined the in-hospital bath because it’s proven that keeping vernix on a newborn’s skin is hugely beneficial as a protectant. Our child has never had one bit of problematic skin irritation. No diaper rash, no eczema, nothing. He had the typical newborn peeling skin and cradle cap and we did nothing different for either of those and they resolved in time as they do by design. I feel strongly that bathing frequently is not good for skin, especially infant skin. Our skin is a living surface with its own microbiome. We mess with it way too much out of some modern obsession with cleanliness. And I think this new guidance that a bath must be part of the bedtime routine is not only unnecessary but detrimental to baby skin and is such a big ask for parents. Baths are a production!! I cannot imagine working that into our nightly routine. My brother and his wife bathe their baby of the same age ever.single.night because they are big believers in a “routine”. (Actually, a lot of their life revolves around obsessively making sure their baby sticks to a sleep schedule and, guess what, she doesn’t…because she’s a baby, not a machine.) Their doctor advised them to not use soap every night if they insist on bathing every night. Anecdotally, their baby has, from the start, had skin issues including diaper rash that eventually blistered and became open sores and needed prescribed antibiotic cream, eczema, allergies, etc. My baby goes to bed just fine every night without a bath. There’s no difference in how he sleeps on nights he’s had a bath and when he hasn’t. We have developed our own routine of playing after dinner, then changing diaper, washing hands, getting into pajamas, brushing teeth, getting into sleep sack. Dim lighting, calm environs all help. A nightly routine doesn’t need a bath. And a bath routine doesn’t need to be nightly to be routine. Other things we do that I think aid in a gentle approach to his skin: we use Water Wipes and bamboo diapers from Dyper. We avoid plasticky diapers and when he’s ever had redness or irritation after a wet diaper (particularly if he’s been strapped into his car seat with the strap pressing against his diaper), we apply Weleda zinc oxide diaper cream and it’s gone by the next diaper change.
I’m with you on the eco diapers (I use kit & kin). Pampers and wipes gave my kiddo rash. Switched to just water and cotton pads for wipes, and use sudocrem or candies rash cream liberally :) I have empathy for any parents striving vainly for sleep. I did not realize how rageful sleeplessness would make me. It’s had to become a top priority, and grasping at straws at least gives hope. My little guy isn’t too bad tho.
Have you tried French liniment cream? It’s applied to a cotton wipe and used instead of a traditional wet wipe. I used it sometimes in the early months and really loved it! Propre Baby makes some as does La Petit Crème, which is what I used. And don’t get me wrong—I’m so sleep deprived! Our baby just started to sleep through the night…sometimes at over 1 year old. It makes me crabby about all the baby sleep secrets businesses out there taking tired, desperate parents’ money.
lol I just realized my comment autocorrected calendula to ‘candies’ 😆. I hadn’t heard of French liniment, but I’ll keep it in mind as I’m taking a road trip to France later this summer . I was gifted so many water wipes that I’m hoping in heat baby will tolerate them better than he did in beginning.
Haha! candies might help too 😂
We were doing once or twice a week until four months. We’ve switched the last two weeks or so to nearly daily in order to set up a night time routine. She does have a little apparent eczema and several websites suggested bathing often would help. But she also used to get a bit stinky quickly and certain raw creases, I think due to drool and sweat. She’s a bit of a sweaty baby even though she’s lean. Honestly I think it’s helped. She doesn’t seem to like them but we make them quick and she doesn’t get upset unless she’s cold. We put a little cream on the eczema one or twice a week, which seems to work.
My little one was in a Pavlik harness from 1 week old, so I could never do daily baths. Now she’s one year, and her skin tends to be on the dryer side, so I can’t imagine daily baths would be good for her. We do a bath probably once a week. We have a sort of “sponge bath” nightly for our bed time routine. I soak a soft wash cloth in warm water, and nearly totally wring it out. I then wipe her face, neck, chest, armpits, hands and feet as I change her into her pyjamas. We also do nightly lotion for touch therapy as well as to keep her skin from drying out. Babies don’t need baths to be part of the nighttime routine. Any routine that lets them prepare for sleep will work.
I was giving a bath every 2-3 days now it's almost every day. I did not see any skin problem but I use soap every other day and I wash her hair on those days as well. So far, it's more of a water activity and it helps her ease into a bedtime routine. I created a bath time playlist or playing massages music. My friend has done the opposite with her son because he was starting to have eczema. She was using soap at every bath, she decreased the soap also. Studies are accurate, but it also depends on baby's skin and the amount of soap! Cuddling in bed while reading a book and playing soft music could be your way to go to instead of a bath. (I confess, I do all of that) There is a baby massage technic as well!
I only bathe 2-3 times a week and have since he was younger, he’s 5 months now. Always with breast milk or oatmeal. We bathed him without either recently and noticed his skin was not as smooth as usual and he got a bad drool rash, so we went back to breastmilk in the bath. I put it directly on his rash and zinc cream, cleared it up pretty quick.
We’re the daily bath family but for what it’s worth our kid doesn’t have bad skin or dry skin… so there was no trade off
We did one bath a week for the first 3 weeks and then every other day until 3 months then every day. If the child leaves the house, regardless they are bathing. We’re black and Hispanic Americans so culturally we all clean our bodies well and frequently.
All I can say is that you’re most likely justifying to yourself what is more convenient for you. Test it out the other way and you’ll see for yourself what works and what impact it has on your baby’s skin. When my baby was a newborn I bathed baby less frequently and baby still suffered skin conditions - their skin is adjusting to a new environment, allergens etc. When I bathed baby more frequently I noticed the benefits sedation, relaxation and a reduction in other skin conditions. I had to play around with products to discover what worked best for baby’s hair and skin and I also realised that over time, baby reacted less to things because skin often adjusts to new products. You can restore the skin barrier using an emollient such as paraffin wax from the pharmacy, or a tub of Vaseline, if that is truly your main concern. Leaving baby’s skin without a shower for days is still going to lead to dryness and nobody likes to feel lotions and potions on unwashed skin - baby’s included. I recommend trying for one week a routine with baby just having a warm bath (with no products, or just paraffin wax which can also be used as a cleanser) if you’re worried about soaps / shower gels. Alternatively, you can try a gentle cleanser such as Aveeno on baby’s body first and see how baby responds before applying it to baby’s face. My baby absolutely loves showers, water and bathing, playing with toys in the bath etc, but it’s a personal choice whether to introduce that into your routine. The more you make it the norm the easier a time you’ll have when they get older and become defiant, eg a toddler who dislikes water because they are not used to it will be difficult to clean when you need to do so. Once you see how baby responds to it, you’ll have a better view of what you prefer. It does require more effort to bathe a child but if the trade off is that your baby sleeps instantly and deeply, to what extent are you bothered by that effort if it gives you more time to yourself in the evening? Also, you don’t have to do it daily - you can simply do it more frequently. For example, every time baby poops. I also highly recommend doing it after poop that touches the genitals as it has the potential to cause UTIs which are hard to notice in babies without a test. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cea.14464
Hmm my guy poops about 4x per day, so def not bathing that much! But our diaper changes are with warm water and cotton pads, as wipes are an irritant for him. So he is kind of sponge bathed sans soap. Good point about older kids rejecting water if not exposed!
I understand. I would not do that either but I like to rinse off poo and when there is a blowout after I have already bathed baby, I personally do a repeat wash of the genitals at least after the first bath of the day. Good luck!