Letting your kids skip baths...

[wildernesslodgelover]

I know! I learn something new every day on the DIS

amazing, isn't it? Like I said, I really thought I was going to get attacked. I expected HRS to be knocking on my door at any moment.

 

[KarenB]

My kids are older now, but I usually did not let them skip a bath. I would never think negatively about someone that did. Heck, we feel like it sometimes as an adult! The main reason why I never had my kids skip them was because it was such a huge part of their nightly routine. DH worked long hours and I had two kids 18 months apart. It was a way the get them settled, relaxed, and ready for bed in the evenings when I was alone with them.

Karen

 

[lg3]

I was intrigued by the wording "skip" a bath, as if there was a unspoken standard that if you didn't meet, it would be considered "skipping" that amount. I assume most adults bathe/shower either every day or every other day, but I have never heard of children doing the same. I can see if it is in the heat of summer and there is dirt or sports involved. I think it also depends on the climate you live in. dd4 takes a bath twice a week in the winter plus after swimming in a chlorinated pool to get the chlorine out of her hair. In the summer, probably 3x a week (plus the pool situation) if she has been out sweating.

 

[Kae]

DD is about 3x a week DS 4x in the winter. In the summer it is even less we just throw them in the pool

Kae

 

[wildernesslodgelover]

DD is about 3x a week DS 4x in the winter. In the summer it is even less we just throw them in the pool

Kae

LOL, I was just going to say to Lg3..."WHAT??? Don't you know the pool COUNTS as a bath???

lg3-You are so right...why is it assumed that every other day is "skipping?" I guess because I *do* shower every day, so I am comparing it to an adult schedule. But yeah, next time a friend turns up their nose at me, i will say, "I don't SKIP her baths, she takes one every other day!" I like that!

 

[wildernesslodgelover]

lg3-where did you get that AWESOME monorail thingy in your siggy? I covet it!

 

[jsmith]

I'll be the lone dissenter here and say that I'd never heard of (adults or kids) not bathing/showering every day. I don't have (living) children, but I grew up with a lot of cousins and I know many people with children, and I've never known anyone who doesn't!


Thats funny-but daily bathing-like double beds, SUV's, iced drinks, and a number of other things is an "American" or more specifically north american -common in the united states and canada but not so much in contiental europe-where more than three times a week tends to be considered excessive.

 

[TreslovesWDW]

I give my kids baths or showers every other day. Unless they are real dirty, the 14 year old he may get one evry day cause he is smellier( is that a word...lol) My husband and I shower everyday. When I was a kid every other day was the routine. They do get washed up on the in between days so no one in my house is dirty or smelly.

 

[my2boyzrock]

Every other day in the winter for DS6, unless he has had gym class which is twice/week. DS9 usually gets one everyday because he has gym twice/week and bball practice and games. Now, during the spring/summer, they will typically get one daily.

 

[nicolemomof4cuties]

I have them all bathe every other day and the boys wash their hair each time but the girls wash their hair every other time because it is really dry as is their skin.

 

[5 for WDW]

DS11 showers every night if it is a school night. On Fridays I let him skip it because he doesn't have PE and doesn't get gross at school. If he manages to slip by without a shower on Saturday night I usually make him shower Sunday morning.

Little ones (preschoolers) who don't get gross can probably get by with 4 times a week or so in the winter.

Same here. My boys are 10 and 8 and shower each school night. We also skip Friday and they take one Saturday am or Sunday am.

In the summer they take a shower all 7 nights a week.

DD is 4 and has eczema. She cannot take a bath or shower every night. Usually she gets one every other night. In the summer, she usually gets a shower each night because we are in the pool or at the beach all day.

 

[jenrose66]

I don't think it's gross. Barring something that makes you extremely dirty, a bath every other day for a child is sufficient. That's what I do with my ds who is 18months. He has dry skin and a bath everyday would be too drying.

 

[golfgal]

When the kids were little they got a bath as needed, sometimes every day, other times a couple days/week. Now they are older and take care of their own personal hygiene. DD12 showers every other day for the most part, DS12 showers every day, sometimes twice, including in the morning to go to basketball practice only to sweat and then shower again before school . DS15, well, he is another story totally, IF he showers every 3rd day we are lucky. Just doesn't see the need. He MIGHT wash his hair in the shower too, again, if we are lucky. I WISH he would get a girl friend!!!

 

[sassyat30]

Last winter, when my kids were in daycare, our peditrician recommended that I strip the kids and give them a bath every day when we got home. He believed that it could drastically cut down on the germs brought into the home. I did just that, not only because of the germs, but the kids played hard at daycare. I also liked doing it when we got home because that would be one less thing we had to worry about before bedtime.

Now that I'm a SAHM for a while, the kids get a bath about twice a week. They just aren't sweating and getting grimey. My son has eczema too and I've heard conflicting opinions where some doctors believe an everyday bath helps to keep the skin moisturized if something is use to lock in the moisture afterwards (like Aquaphor).

I sure don't miss giving them a bath every day. The time it takes to give two little ones a bath plus the laundry it generates with towels and wash cloths is amazing.

But, I'm probably not the best person to be asking about this because I recently got blasted here on the DIS by some folks who thought it was nasty that I let my kids pee more than once in their diapers before changing them. Heehee!

In the winter, our kids shower 2-3 times a week. If DS has been at basketball (he's 11) or some other sweaty thing (or just stinks! LOL) he'll take them more often. He has excema, so I try not to have him shower too often, as it irritates his skin.

DD is 6 and she showers a few times a week, too.

In the summer, they usually take a shower every day.

 

[jenrose66]

But, I'm probably not the best person to be asking about this because I recently got blasted here on the DIS by some folks who thought it was nasty that I let my kids pee more than once in their diapers before changing them. Heehee!

I don't see why you'd be blasted for that. How can you know if your ds pees more than once in a diaper. I change my son about every 4 hours unless he gets a smelly diaper of course. Anyway, I'm sure he pees more than once during those stretches...he drinks a lot of water.

 

[matthew&haleysmom]

My DD7 & DS3 take showers or baths everyday except for Fridays. My husband tells me I am obsessed with showers.

 

[waltsgirl]

Skipping tonight!

 

[bookgirl]

I kind of belong to the wash every day set hair can go everyother time but I try to stick them to showers everynight that I have them. The twins are 8 and they seem to be perpetually grimey, they hate shoes, they are boys and lets face it they don't like napkins, toilet paper or toothbrushes. However I have been known to blow it off if I can wash their faces and the is no obvious dirt anywhere else. But I can't stand the wet puppy smell they get. I do count the pool or playing in the hose as cleaning up and will often just hose them down.

My mom was a bathe everyday and complete wipe downs of hands, face and feet if we even played outside. She let us get dirty but we had to be clean if we came in or if we were going anywhere else. My brother is pretty much in the middle with the twins, sometimes he makes them shower everyday and then sometimes I get them and he hasn't made them bathe in 2 days. Must be a guy thing, I think he just waits till they smell . Oh well they are technically his kids, but if they spend the weekend with me there are showers nightly.

 

[Laurabearz]

A little dirt never hurt

 

[Not so Dumbo]

Baths are on an as needed basis.
Usually based upon how much food DD gets in her hair. Once she is in the tub the others follow.

Oh, and yes... the pool counts for us too in the Summer.