Baby Bathing Tips: How Often Should You Bathe A Baby?
- February 18, 2014
- by Melissa Lawrence
Giving your newborn a bath can seem pretty scary at first, but it doesn’t need to be an intimidating experience! OK, confession time—I didn’t bathe my first-born or my daughters for nearly a week after bringing them home from the hospital because I was just too intimidated and scared to try it. I usually just received help from my mother with that because I simply didn’t want to even attempt it, as I had small babies (none were over 7 lbs—and my girls were in the 5 lb range!) and I didn’t want to risk anything. Mommas, this is a totally normal feeling; like you’ll see in my sponge bath demo video, it’s not such a traumatic experience once you do it a few times and get used to it. Once your baby’s umbilical cord falls off, then you can move toward using an infant tub, which I also cover in another demo video. You’ll get the hang of it!
When did you first bathe your baby at home? Comment below!
What should I know about bathing a baby?
First of all, you really don’t need to worry about bathing your baby every day. In fact, some doctors say that bathing your baby several times per week is more than enough. As for me, I actually did end up starting to bathe my babies daily, just because it seemed to soothe them. I also couldn’t get enough of that clean baby smell—so yummy, fresh and sweet! A lot of times when my babies woke up in the morning, they would have really mucky eyes and nose, so I found that bathing them took care of that. I dealt with some serious mucky eyes issues all the time; so much in fact that I ended up making a video about it to help other parents who are dealing with it.
I always did the bath after the baby’s morning feeding, because my little ones would always be too hungry and would SCREAM if I even tried to bathe them first thing in the morning. I also couldn’t do it at night because I was always either busy with my other kids or just too tired from the day.
In a nutshell, I would generally feed the baby first thing in the morning, burp him or her, and then bathe the baby and dress him or her in a onesie or a side-snap T-shirt. After the bath, the baby would then be ready—or just about ready—for a morning nap. Bathing can be helpful with soothing babies, but try not to be too upset if your baby cries during his or her bath. One of my babies screamed—and I mean, SCREAMED—while their diapers were changed, and it drove me emotionally crazy. Some babies simply just don’t like baths because they aren’t quite used to it, so they feel uncomfortable. However, your baby will probably enjoy feeling nice and clean after the bath, so you may notice some relaxation after the bath.
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