Product Spotlight 01/06: Bath Time

wanderlustsoul

This is a great time to, you know, SPOTLIGHT some PRODUCTS about bathtime, but it would also be great for STM+ to share your methods, tips, and techniques. There are so many other momentous things to plan for meticulously and you may then find yourself with a squirming 3-day old baby over a sink not entirely sure what to do! 

So! Adorable baby towels and teensy washcloths? Soaps and shampoos that won't irritate that silky skin? Baby-holders/mini-baths for the bathtubs? Solutions for shower-only households? And looking ahead to older babies, what toys do you have in the bath with them? But more broadly, technique-oriented, how often do you really bathe a newborn? A 6-month old? A 1-year-old? Where do you do it (bath, separate baby bathtub, shower, sink)? How do you do it without that wriggly little peanut flinging themselves into the water? Do you get in there with them? Please share!

Prior and Upcoming Product Spotlights

wanderlustsoul

DS got his 1st bath ever at 4 or 5 days old.

Products: 

- Angelcare Soft Touch Bath Support - we used this for him and loved it. It made it so easy to give him a bath! 
- Canadians - I love petit lem wash cloths. 
- We used muslin blankets to dry after the bath when he was a tiny newborn as it is so much softer on their skin.
- We have 3 towels but my favourite was a random one from Amazon and then one a friend gifted me. Get one as big as possible so it can transition when they're bigger. 
- As a newborn, they don't really need products. Once my DS got eczema, we started using Mustela bath oil in the bath to keep his skin hydrated. 

Routine:

- DS has/had bad eczema so he gets baths every single night. He used the Angel Care bath support then the bath seat. Once he outgrew those, he is in the regular tub with a non-slip mat. I think at the beginning, he got a bath every other night but it quickly became nightly around 4 months as he LOVES baths so much. The bath makes him so happy so it's part of our bedtime routine. And I don't mind as they're easy (for now...). 

- Mustela and La Roche Posay products are my favourite, especially with eczema. Only ones that worked for us actually and we tried so many. 

- At the beginning, my H got into the bath with him as it was easier and they did that for a while. 

- Toys we love: wee gallery bath books (they change colours) and toys that don't squirt (squirty ones can get mold).

daisy528

My favorite bath product are the Noodle and Boo body wipes. These smell SO good, and are great for those first few months when dealing with the “neck cheese” babies get. I also love the Noodle and Boo baby wash and shampoo. So gentle, and literally the smell is amazing. We use the Puj insert for bath time in our kitchen sink, and move to the tub once baby can sit up consistently on their own. Once in the tub, I just use a laundry basket to keep the baby in one general spot, and it gives the baby something to lean back against. 

marikkita12

I’m the exception in that I hate bath time lol. We don’t bathe the baby every day and on cleaning days, I got in the shower, washed the baby and handed him to my husband. At 4 years old, DS still showers with me. We got a shower head that has the little hose attachment but both can be on at the same time so nobody gets cold. We will do the same with this chickie. We just used J&J because I like the smell and we don’t have skin issues. Hoping it’s the same for her. 

bntfroggie

We use babyganics soap for littles.  We tried the puj and it was an epic failure in our sinks so we have a little hard tub and as soon as they can sit up they are in the real bath.  Now that they have long hair I use a detangler and the wet brush.

tiggywiggles

I have always used the laundry sink 🤷‍♀️
We also deal with alot of sensitive skin.  We buy bar soap from a local artisan using 2 ingredients.  Works well for skin, and my babies are always bald until like 2.  

jessd0117

We used one of those summer infant bath seats, but when she was really little we would lay a towel under it on our kitchen counter and kind of sponge bathe her between full bath days. She’s always had eczema so we were instructed to limit baths to a couple a week, though it’s much much better now, so we used those Aveeno baby oat bath packets to mix in the water and rotated between SO many different kinds of moisturizers. We ended up landing on CeraVe lotion and a prescription topical for when she gets pronounced dry patches that are tough to clear. My favorite scent has always been Johnson & Johnson but it just didn’t agree with her skin 

canucklehead123

Our little guy had/has bad eczema as well (luckily this winter has not been very cold so far so the eczema has been kept at bay)!!  We tried so many products (and so many trips to the doctor LOL - our poor GP was like "it's still just eczema...") before finally figuring out a routine that worked for him.  We swear by the Aveeno baby creamy wash, and the Aveeno nighttime eczema balm for bad days.  We use the Aveeno baby daily unscented lotion for every day moisture still.  Of course for really bad flare ups we usually have to use the steroid cream for a day or two to get it under control but the flareups don't seem to be as bad now that DS is a little older.

When DS was tiny we had an infant tub that had a little built in seat that worked really well, we'd just pop it up on the counter and bathe him - we'll be using that again.  We moved into the regular bath around 8 months I think. 

We also use The Honest Company's lavendar bubble bath wahoo!!  I was thinking of trying to make (or perhaps purchase LOL) some soap playdoh for a fun bath-time treat as well. 

becks_726

We used an evolving fisher price bath until DD was sitting solidly. The only bit I didn’t use was the infant sling. 

We also dealt with eczema and found the aveeno balm to be immensely helpful, along with not too frequent baths. She still gets patches of it when we slack on the cream. 

Not brand loyal on soaps. Never seemed to make a difference. 

If you like squirty toys, the hape  ones that open up are good for not developing mould. 

navete

We used the Schnuggle baby bath from the get-go and will probably so the same this time around. It’s supposed to be for newborns to 12 months, but we found it a little clumsy at the newborn stage. In fact, I remember my MiL gripping about what a stupid tub it was 😆. But we only did a couple
 short baths a week plus the odd time after a really messy diaper, so not enough of a hassle to buy a new product. Also, I remember thinking it helped him develop his core muscles and sit up on his own sooner than we expected. Anyway, I loved it starting around 2 months, especially when we started giving him nightly baths as part of a bedtime routine. As for products, we mostly used just warm water and a washcloth until he started walking and actually getting “dirty” during the day. Now we use Honest bubble bath and Babo Botanicals shampoo/wash; no particular preference for the brands, just what we happened to try and they work just fine.

As a side note, we asked for no bath at the hospital because of all the purported benefits of delaying the first bath. But both MH and I thought he was so smelly that we asked the nurses to bathe him the next day 😅. We had also noticed there was a big warning on our door about an unbathed baby and all the nurses handled him like he had cooties, so we were a bit embarrassed lol. The bath itself seemed really unpleasant though and I hated seeing the nurse wash him with such a clinical approach. So we’ll try the delayed bath again, but this time I’ll give baby a nice warm washcloth wipe down myself if he/she is stinky.

DuchessOfCambridge

We did nothing fancy bc our kids did not have sensitive skin beyond normal baby sensitive. We used the Boon bathtub and Johnson’s body wash. I don’t understand the purpose of washcloths so we don’t use them 😂 I do like the dermFrida scrubber though! It’s for cradle cap technically but I used it for full body. Always do sink baths when they’re tiny, and I have gotten to a point where I have showered with both kids bc it was easier for DH to hand me a baby, me to wash, then hand back for H to dress