Baby Squared

Our daughter (11 months today!) loves to brush brush, too. She's had a toothbrush for a while now (also has few teeth) but likes to do what we're doing, and we figured we'd strike while the iron is hot.

Glad to see the bath has made a comeback - might I suggest letting them loose in the regular tub? That looks like awful tight quarters in the baby tub! I hope you're starting to feel better - and thanks for bringing the whole PBFD (post breastfeeding depression) thing to my attention. I had no idea and we're about to start winding down BF, too, so I'm glad I have the warning. Hang in there!

Hi Jane,

My girls are 10 months old and we've just recently started bathing them every night (we use the same little tub you have after you recommended it on one of your posts - LOVE IT!) as their bedtime ritual. I was against it for the longest time (hello? twins? I'm not bathing them both each and every night!!) but now that we do it, bedtime has become so easy. We give them a bath, do the "brush brush brush" routine on their 2 little toofies and send them off the bed with a bottle. It's like magic. No crying. (well, usually). I'm curious - how do your girls do at bedtime? I always look to you to get an idea of what to expect as my girls get older. Do you guys have a routine? Do you let them cry? etc. Love your blog. Please don't ever stop. ;-)

We bathe both girls (14 months) every night, unless we don't feel like it.  Generally, though, they're pretty messy eaters so it's straight from the high chairs to a nice warm bath.  They love it, but we have to slather them with Cetaphil afterwards because the nightly bath is pretty drying.  All in all, it's a part of our routine and a routine is important to all of us.  FWIW, we have let them loose in the "big tub", with assistance of a bath mat.  "Sit down, please" is now a regular part of our lexicon!

our little guy is only 11 months and he gets a bath every other to every third night. he has excema pretty bad and a daily bath seems to make it worse. I use one of those little finger brushes on him now, although I'm having trouble getting to every day. He has 6 teeth already so I really need to get on it. Oh and as far as big tub goes, I've had him in the big tub for about 3 weeks and he's all over the place, trying to stand and crawl and it freaks me out. I think I'll find that little inflateable tub you have, looks much safer.

We were doing a bath every night, but then found that was making our daughter's skin way too dry. In fact, every other night is a bit much.

we bath the twins (14 months) about every other night as part of the nightly ritual.  And like a previous poster, we too have the same little tub (purchased on your recommendation!)  We just recently purchased 2 things to start transitioning them to the "big tub".

Infant & Toddler Bath System - www.onestepahead.com/.../product.jsp

AND

www.onestepahead.com/.../product.jsp

In concept, great ideas.  In reality, um..caused a TOTAL meltdown!

Yeah, its all about ritual and routine at this age.  We've just added "Sesame Street" to the nightly ritual.  We bathe, then watch 1/2 hour of Sesame Street with the lights down low.  The kids just love Big Bird (BigBig) and like thier cuddle with mommy and daddy time.

And finally, my kids too love to brush brush brush.  But, darn it, it is totally impossible to take those tooth brushes away!  

My twins are now three, but I don't think we ever did the baths every night - way too much wok.  They get wiped clean in the areas that get dirty (bottoms, faces and hands) several times a day anyway - so what's the point?  Brushing teeth is a good ritual to start your bedtime wind down and it really doesn't matter what your routine is, as long as it's calming and *consistent* - can't say enough about consistancy.  Now that we have 2 three-year-olds we've found that in the winter months, with less outdoor play and more dry air, 3 times a week is enough for baths.  In the summer it's more often, depending on what we did that day.

Our 19 month old girls are lucky if they get a bath twice a week! But really, they don't seem to need more than that - it's not like they get smelly at this age. Like Julie said, cleaning bottoms, faces and hands throughout the day is the critical part.

Love the hair sculptures!

Take care of yourself and make that appointment with "Dr. Lilly".

Michael's got 6 teeth at 13 months and he likes brushing too.  Mostly he likes biting on the brush while copious amounts of drool runs out.  When you first wrote about the bath thing, Michael was still loving his bath.  Now, not so much.  Okay, so this lasts about a month or two?  I don't bathe him every day, especially not in the winter.  In the summer he's a lot sweatier at the end of the day.  Every other day (or other other day sometimes).

We have always bathed Coby once a week--more frequently if he needs it (which is rare). Interestingly, in our family, bath time means showering with Daddy, which Coby (and Daddy) _love_. I have a tough time holding a slippery baby in the shower, but it seems to be good male bonding time. I think (in a year!) I have bathed Coby a grand total of 4 times. :)

Those four times, however, have involved a lot of "splash-a-splash-a-splash," as we call it here, and speaking of, we also refer to dental hygiene as "brush-a-brush-a-brush." Coby's got a rubber baby toothbrush (that is more like a teething toy than anything), and he loves "brushing" with Mommy and Daddy!

Our paediatrician told us that our 10-month old has excema and so we should increase from a bath every 2 or 3 days to every day. I was surprised because I thought daily baths were drying but apparently as long as you moisturise, daily is better. grr... much more work. We just go right in the big tub with him. We use an unscented baby wash and unscented moisturiser. But I think the biggest difference was the unscented diapers.

We've been letting him play with an electric toothbrush for a few weeks. It's double-duty hygiene and teething relief.

we are solo every other night bathers here. (the babies. believe me, my hair doesn't get washed near as often as theirs). they are 15 months and have been in the big tub with a soft spongy thing as a buffer since almost the beginning. they take separate baths b/c the one time we decided to try joint bath, our girl went right for the penis. of course. didn't think about that. so to make our boy's bath-time experience, assault-free, we went back to individual baths. they do brush their teeth every night (as do i). bath-jammies-brush-read-bed or jammies-brush-read-bed. that's the routine. i was afraid to cut the nighttime bottle but at 12 months they took it like champs. i thought they needed a sippy transition but they basically scoffed and said not to insult them. ;)

BTW, those red PJs are adorable...

I just read something in one of the 200 magazines I get regarding bathing babies, and they indicated that unless it is a very messy day - food in the hair, strawberry residue behind the ear - then daily bathing is unnessary. They don't sweat like older kids, thus the smell issue is not a factor. And as some others have pointed out, it can dry out the skin especially during the winter. We are an every other day at most baby bathing family. Most of the time it is every three days if we have managed to keep the oatmeal out of Cooper's hair. It does have conditioning properties anyway, right?

That picture in the tub with the shampoo sculpted hair is ridiculously cute. Those two each have the most joyous, adorable laughing smiles ever.  Ever!

They are so big, so cute, and so happy!  

We do give S. a bath every night, but he doesn't really seem to care when we dispense with it (like if we've been out all afternoon and it's bedtime by the time we get home).  I have noticed some dry skin on the little guy, so overbathing may be to blame.

marlie's totally into her toothbrush.  we have one for the night routine (which, yea right, we only remember half the time) and one for the toy box.  as for daily bathing, that's whack american hyperhygiene...i only support it if your house uses recycled rain water :)

We do a bath every night.  Ritual more than need.  But what is that inflatable thing in the bathtub?  Is that to conserve water?

I was so glad to hear about the sudden bath time drama, after one day at the beach the twins (11 months) started screaming everytime I put them in the bath. Up until then they loved it. Now I just put down a basin of water with baby soap, and wash them whilst they flood the lounge, and then bring in the second basin of clean water to rinse them off. No screaming, and they love it.

I always bath them together, and we bath most days, and I uses the drying time to check them for marks, rashes and other oddies, I then massage them one by one with a cream or baby oil from top to toe, whilst the other one roams around commando (and loving it), and once we are pajama'ed up, they know bedtime routine starts.

I just let them play with their toothbrushes whilst I brush my teeth and they try and copy me, Ava has no teeth whilst Cayden has two top and bottom in front. Thank you for putting my mind at ease on the bathing issue.

I love this pic!