OT- Bathing & hairwashing (topic came up on other post)

[tmarquez]

I was reading the post about the child that won't wash her hair and it was splitting off into a discussion about bathing too. I was shocked to read that it seems like many people don't even take a shower on a daily basis. All of my family members, every overnight guest we've ever had, and all my DD's friends shower daily. Is there really alot of of people that don't?

I mean back when I was in school, there were definately a few kids that didn't...and it was obvious...and they were kind of outcasts because of it (teasted, etc.).

I'm just really surprised.

 

[Suzanna1973]

There is a child in my daycare who only gets a bath once a week. And to top it all off...his mother only bathes once a week and she works in the medical field!!!!

We have talked to her several times and she lies and says that she did bathe him(his filthy body states otherwise.) We have taken it upon ourselves to bathe him every other day. He tells his mother when he gets picked up and she never comments. I guess she figures she's saving money on soap and shampoo!

 

[dodukes]

Thats kinda gross. That poor kid and then for her to lie about it. I too remember a kid in my class in elementary that just plain stunk! I think everybody i know takes a shower or bath daily. In my dbf's family there seems to be a problem with his brother not bathing the kids daily and they play just liek any others, i think that is just plain disgusting. Barring being really sick that you cant get out of bed ad you skip taht day, i really cant see any other excuse for not bathing daily. The ony thing i can think of is severe cases of eczema and psoriases were doctors recomend that you dont bather daily but then for those theres special cleansers like cetaphil.

 

[badblackpug]

I shower daily, but I do not wash my hair daily. I have super thick, coarse hair that takes forever to wash and dry. In addition it is colored, so my stylist recommends not washing my hair daily. I was my hair every 2-3 days.

 

[PA Princess]

The ony thing i can think of is severe cases of eczema and psoriases were doctors recomend that you dont bather daily but then for those theres special cleansers like cetaphil.

Yep, for us dd6 has a severe case of eczena and our ped told us absolutely not to bathe her every day...every other and at the height of winter maybe every 3 days. She is young, so body odor is not a real issue for her at this point. Plus, she has very dry hair (goes with the eczema) so her hair is never greasy or anything. We emphasize body cleanliness in other ways with her other than bathing every day.

I dare so, however, that this is a very American notion of cleansing. I know in college when my friends and I traveled abroad for a semester that no one in the various host families which each had in the countries we each traveled to (England, France, German, Austria) showered ever day, and they really thought it was very wasteful on our part that we wanted to.

 

[hebbynan]

I only wash my hair every other day. If I wash it daily, it gets extremely oily and even a tinge of green at the roots. But I do put it up and still shower every day. Not because I really need too, but I just feel better going to sleep after a shower. As for my boys, DS3 and DS7, in the summer, it's baths or showers every night. But in the winter, it's only every other night. The nights that they don't get a full blown bath, I fill the sink with water and we sink wash all the "major" areas. Their poor little skin gets so raw and dry in the winter and honestly, unless it's a gym day at school, they don't come home all that dirty.

 

[kayc86]

I have three kids who cant bath every day.the 2 little ones DD4 months and DS 21 months do have bad eczema and it gets worse if they bath everyday.My oldest DS 7 is in a wheelchair and at this point is too big for me to shower on my own so i have to wait till DH to get home from work and on days that im not running out the door for work myself.he is showered 3 times a week but he is washed down from head to toe every day.When we do get our bathroom redone with a roll in shower he will be showered everyday.my kids never look or smell dirty in any way.I think that if a child is starting to smell then it has been longer then a day or two that they have taken a bath.

 

[luvmy3jewels]

I'm another mom with children that have excema. Our ped and allergists have told us that bathing dries out their skin and recommended limiting baths to every other day. So we follow Drs. orders, unless the kids have been outside playing all day and are really filthy.

Dh and I both bathe at least once a day (sometimes I even take a shower in the morning and a bath for relaxation purposes at night). I'm sure when the kids get a little older and (hopefully) outgrow their skin issues they will want to bathe daily as well.

 

[SandrainNC]

My kids are every other day too, unless they just get filthy from playing, eating, etc. I was having to give my youngest baths every day because of his cranial band, but it is off now (yipee!!!) so I can go back to every other. He has eczema too but I had no choice because his head sweated under that thing and the band had to be cleaned every day. My DH and I shower and wash our hair every single day. My hair is oily, so I have to wash it every day. Even if I am sick, I have to get in the shower because it drives me crazy not to.

Sandra

 

[pperfectmom]

While I do think it is bad to go for too long without bathing, I think Americans are overly obsessed with cleanliness. There is no need whatsoever for a child to bathe every day. The have no hormones making b.o. and if they don't get dirty, what's the point. We bathe our two every other day in the summer unless they get really nasty outside or itchy from grass and a couple times a week in the winter. As for me, my hair is so dry I only wash it twice a week and in the winter my skin is awful so I deliberately try NOT to shower every day. In the summer I do manage to shower most days because I get pretty dirty in the yard and garden and just feel better after a cool shower.

 

[Beth E. (NJ)]

I would love it for my kids to shower every night. But both have thick hair that takes a long time to dry. The older 1 is now more interested in showering and she will probably start doing it every night and blow drying her hair. Right now it's probably every other night.

Of course during the summer, when they don't have school, it is easier to shower daily. Plus they are more likely to be sweaty.

When my older 1 was at sleepaway camp they did shower daily because of all the activities they had each day. Of course that shower was for 3 to 5 minutes per child.

 

[va32h]

I shower every day, but my children do not bathe every day. They don't get dirty every day, and they don't stink. They do wash their hands several times a day, wash faces daily and brush their teeth twice a day.

 

[tmarquez]

Yep, for us dd6 has a severe case of eczena and our ped told us absolutely not to bathe her every day...every other and at the height of winter maybe every 3 days. She is young, so body odor is not a real issue for her at this point. Plus, she has very dry hair (goes with the eczema) so her hair is never greasy or anything. We emphasize body cleanliness in other ways with her other than bathing every day.

I dare so, however, that this is a very American notion of cleansing. I know in college when my friends and I traveled abroad for a semester that no one in the various host families which each had in the countries we each traveled to (England, France, German, Austria) showered ever day, and they really thought it was very wasteful on our part that we wanted to.

That makes sense...about your DD...and I totally understand that there are conditions where it would not be good for a person with skin issues to bathe daily. I was really wondering about people with no skin issues.

We had an exchange student from Austria when I was in high school. He didn't shower either when he first came...but ugh...he stunk up our house. Finally my brother had a talk with him...and he started showering everyday. He didn't know he was smelling up the whole house...he was used to the odor I guess.

 

[My2Cinderellas]

As long as you look and smell clean, it doesn't really matter how often you bathe/shower. I used to be a shower every day person, but now can't do that, especially in the winter. my skin has changed as I've aged and especially in the winter a daily shower is too drying. My girls shower 2-3 times a week, more often in the summer. Once they hit puberty and start to really stink, that will affect things too.

A daily "birdy bath" with a washcloth and a sinkful of water takes care of any problem areas without making my skin so dry.

 

[tmarquez]

My DD is 4 and she gets dirty EVERY day. Maybe because we live in FL and the weather is mostly always warm but she plays outside at school and at home every day unless for some reason it rains the whole day, which is rare.

She plays in the dirt, gets sweaty, rolls in the grass, catches lizards, tries on make-up, gets sticky, swims in a chlorinated pool, and who knows what else...probably things I don't even want to think about! I couldn't imagine her going to bed without a shower each night.

Also...even though she's only 4 and doesn't have a body odor...all the kids I know (including DD) do have an odor if they don't bath...they certainly don't smell clean.

 

[Chris]

I was reading the post about the child that won't wash her hair and it was splitting off into a discussion about bathing too. I was shocked to read that it seems like many people don't even take a shower on a daily basis. All of my family members, every overnight guest we've ever had, and all my DD's friends shower daily. Is there really alot of of people that don't?

I mean back when I was in school, there were definately a few kids that didn't...and it was obvious...and they were kind of outcasts because of it (teasted, etc.).

I'm just really surprised.

We shower daily here too.
Sometimes the boys take them at night because w/7 showers someone is bound to have cold water!

 

[addicted_to_WDW]

We shower daily here.

I have ultra oily hair and if I don't wash it every day it is nasty. I could probably live without showering daily, but I couldn't live with an oily, itchy head.

DH works in construction. He's a dirty, smelly mess when he gets home so into the shower he goes.

DS is 13 and I have no problems getting him to shower daily. When he was a bit younger he'd get in the shower for 15 minutes every day and not use soap or shampoo. I had to threaten to give him a bath myself in order to get him to actually wash himself while he was showering. Like many here, when he was little (say under 7 or 8), he got every other day baths in the winter and daily ones in the summer.

 

[jessica52877]

In the winter I tend to shower every other day, summer it is everyday. But we have a pool, play outside, garden and I definately need it! Being in the house almost all winter very seldomly do I shower 2 days in a row.

DS4 I bath about every 3 days in the winter, summer it is pretty much everyday also.

DH showers everyday, but he stinks from work and his hair get oily. Every once in a while he'll skip a day on his day off, maybe once a month, if we are staying home.

Last night 3 neighbor kids were over swimming, 2 different families, and all said, "Now, I don't have to take a shower right?" The funniest part is both parents said they didn't have to! I feel so gross after swimming with chlorine! I can't imagine not bathing and the kids were running around before that!

 

[jenjersnap]

My kids get bathed about twice a week in winter, three times in summer. They certainly do not smell bad.

 

[girli565]

In my house we usually shower daily in the summer but when winter and cooler (in Miami that's temperatures in the 60's and 70's) we shower maybe every other day. I'm a teacher at a school that's a hurricane shelter so we have no windows in our classes and no sunshine at all so our rooms are as cold as meat lockers. There are days even in the summer and spring when I may shower every other day because I don't even need it from being in the meat locker class all day. Those days I suffice with a warm wet washcloth to run over the "major" areas.