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
Re: Product Spotlight 01/06: Bath Time
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).
*Live, Love, Laugh, Learn*
DD1 - BFP 7/23/15 (EDD 3/31/16). "We believe in you rainbow" DOB 4/2/16
DD2 - BFP 2/9/18 (EDD 10/19/18). "Grow baby grow!" DOB 10/24/18
BFP 11/16/20 (EDD 7/31/21). "Round 3 FIGHT!"
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.
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.
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.