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- From: d8b@sgfb.ssd.ray.com (Denise M. Boudria)
- Subject: Re: Baby Bath Frequency (was Re: Starting bedtime rituals (Was: ...)
- Message-ID: <1993Jan27.165827.3737@rayssd.ssd.ray.com>
- Sender: news@rayssd.ssd.ray.com (Administrator)
- Organization: Raytheon Submarine Signal Division
- References: <YJDZJBGXA@linac.fnal.gov> <MfN54mK00WBOE4Q35M@andrew.cmu.edu> <16B6113583.BIOSEE@UKCC.UKY.EDU>
- Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 16:58:27 GMT
- Lines: 87
-
- In article <16B6113583.BIOSEE@UKCC.UKY.EDU> BIOSEE@UKCC.UKY.EDU (Stephanie Edelmann) writes:
- >In article <MfN54mK00WBOE4Q35M@andrew.cmu.edu>
- >Laura McGinnis <lm3a+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
- >
- >>
- >>On 22-Jan-93 in Re: Starting bedtime ritual..
- >>user LIBEMC@BYUVM.BITNET writes:
- >>>Kelley asked if bathing baby every 4-6 days only is normal and
- >>>okay. Well, I bath Emily about that often (she is 5 months),
- >>>mainly because I can't find a good reason to do it more often.
- >>>I wash her bottom off when it is messy, and her face also,
- >>>but only give her a real bath when I feel like playing in the
- >>>bathtub with her. I hope we aren't the only ones who don't
- >>>bathe the baby every day. My ped. said it was okay not to
- >>>bathe her every day, so I don't.
- >>
- >>Our pediatricians recommended NOT bathing the baby every day, since our
- >>kids both have dry skin. So, like Ellen, we make sure the commonly messy
- >>areas are cleaned as needed, then save the bath as a special play time.
- >>We've done this with boths kids & have has little to no bath anxiety
- >>(Mickey got scared once when the pipes rattled while he was in the tub,
- >>but we worked through the fear during the next bath). Infact, we tend
- >>to have the opposite problem - how do you get them out of the tub once
- >>the water's turned cold & their bodies look like raisins?
- >>
- >>The only time Mickey ever needed daily baths was last summer/early fall,
- >>when he started school (on-cmapus daycare). He found the water fountain
- >>on the first day & spent almost every moment of every outside play
- >>period playing with it. Our nightly ritual of play-supper-play-bed
- >>became play-supper-bath-bed with no problems. We figure we'll go back
- >>to this when the weather warms up again & he's outside more (& they've
- >>turned the water fountain back on).
- >>
- >>YMMV.
- >>
- >>Laura
- >
- >Well, I just had to tell you guys how much I appreciated this post. I go
- >around and around with my husband about this. (And of course, I've never
- >thought about talking to the ped about it... :)). My husband feels that
- >our daughter (2.5) should be bathed EVERY night. First, I don't see the
- >need for it. She's a basically clean child, pretty much potty trained,
- >I wipe her with a wet wipe every time she goes potty, and after we eat,
- >when she goes to bed or gets up I wash her face and she brushes her teeth.
- >HE doesn't think that's enough. So, HE thinks that I should bathe her
- >every day, of course HE won't do it. Just like HE won't put her to bed
- >or make her something to eat as long as there is the slightest chance that
- >I'll be home within the next 2-4 hours.
- >
- >So, I've just been ignoring him. (What else am I supposed to do? There are
- >not enough hours in the day to go to school, work full time and do all the
- >things he thinks a wife and mother should do...). But next month, we'll
- >have a ped. appointment - and I'll make sure to ask what she thinks about
- >it. I guess a ped probably has more authority with Daddy.
- >
- >I'm from Germany, by the way, and when we were kids, we never bathed
- >or took a shower every day. We would take a bath every Saturday and we'd
- >wash from head to toes on the other days of the week. I don't think it
- >hurt anything.
- >
- >Sorry, if I sound a little mad in this post. Just before I went back to
- >school to do some more work (10PM) he made me give Tat a bath. Oh, by the
- >way, anybody want to know why he doesn't do it? I guess, it's a sign of the
- >times. He wants to make sure that he'll never be accused of sexually abusing
- >his child....- greatest excuse in the world. Hope I'm not giving any Daddy
- >out there ideas....
- >
- >Stephanie
- >
- >PS: Now I feel better.
-
- Stephanie,
-
- I sympathize with your situation but my husband and I have an agreement that
- there are "no" Mommy or Daddy jobs. If he wants to give the kid a bath, and
- I don't then he should do it (on occasion this does happen). Generally he
- gets a bath twice a week, on Wednesday's (usually) when Dad's in school and
- on Sunday. The Sunday bath is the "big" bath, Mommy actually gets in there
- and scrubs him (he's six). After bath time he gets his nails clipped, ears
- cleaned and a general check to make sure problem spots are OK (he has a problem
- with Plantar's warts). Sometimes we bathe him more often depending on what
- he has gotten into that day. As the weather gets warmer, his baths get more
- frequent until they are just about every day in the summer. Oh, and he gets
- a hair wash with every bath, I don't believe in a bath without it since he
- has very thick hair and sweats a lot. Hope this helps,
-
- Denise
-