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Cindder
02-02-2002, 09:01 AM
What type of "bath tub" is recommended for washing my soon-2-b-born baby? Also, when do you start washing the baby and how often? I have been told that you start right away and once a day, other have said it is not necessary to "bathe" the baby right away, just use wipes...Your help and education is so greatly appreciated!

lmintzer
02-02-2002, 06:16 PM
Hi. What I have heard (and what we did) was that you can sponge bathe a newborn right from birth using soft cotton washcloths or cotton squares and a little bit of mild baby soap. The hospital will probably give you some samples of castille soap which is very mild and good to use on that sensitive, thin skin. We only sponge-bathed our little one every few days for the first few weeks of his life. It is recommended that you refrain from submerging a baby in a tub until the cord stump has fallen off (usually happens bewteen 2-3 weeks after birth) and the circumcision (if a boy and if you do this) has healed. Our little man had his first tub bath at 3 weeks. We typically bathed him two to three times a week for the first few months of his life. We used the Evenflo tub that comes with a little sling (sorry I can't remember the name, but Right Start and Babies R Us carries it). Some people don't like this tub because it is small and babies quickly outgrow it. I, personally, liked having a tub that was small and cozy. It helped my baby feel more secure. The sling feature was great, too. It allowed me to feel more confident that he wasn't going to slip under water. When my son was about 4-5 months old, we switched to a larger baby tub called the "EuroTub". This is a great baby tub as well, albeit much bigger (takes up a lot more space to store). Our baby is 9 months, and we still use the EuroTub. We typically bathe him every other night. Some parents bathe their babies every night, but frankly, it's still quite and ordeal, and too much water and soap dries out his skin. Hope that helps. Congrats. on your future arrival!

Lisa
& Jack, 9 months

suzska
02-03-2002, 12:37 AM
We have the "EuroBath" and have used it ever since my son was about a month old. Before that I would attempt to give him a "sponge" bath with a baby washcloth every few days--which he hated. He use to hate getting a bath period--now he loves it! You could poor a bucket of water on this kid's head and he would love it! For a while we did try to bath him every day, to establish a routine, but he didn't seem to need that as part of his routine to get to sleep every night (and maybe mom got a little lazy), so now we're back to every few days. Since he's not walking yet, he doesn't have the chance to get into things and get really dirty. Also, since my son moves around and splashes so much (he "smacks" the water), I never give him a bath by myself--DH always lends a hand, otherwise there'd be more water on me than in the tub. I fill up the wash basin they gave us at the hospital and poor the water into the tub to fill it part way, then I use the rest of the water in the basin as "rinse" water (which does get poored over my son's head at the end of the bath--LOL!).

Anyway, you use one end of the tub until the child is about 6 months old and able to sit up on their own, then you switch to the other end of the tub. It is a little large. We store it standing up between the crib and a tall dresser. But I think we'll have to find another place for it. My son likes to grab it when he's in the crib and rock the tub back and forth!

Also, I couldn't find the tub at my ToysRUs or the closest BabiesRUs, so I ended up ordering it from them online (before Amazon took over and began charging extra shipping for the tub). But I do think I saw it at Baby Depot after I got mine.

Sorry this got so long!

--Sue B.
SAHM to Evan Jeffrey 03-11-01

Cindder
02-03-2002, 09:31 AM
Thankyou!!

LisaH
02-04-2002, 03:12 PM
Just wanted to echo the advice of the two previous moms. Bathe your baby in the tub once the stump of the umbilical cord falls off and bathe him\her every 2-3 days. We started out with the 3 in 1 tub from First Years (I think). Our son grew out of it at around 7 months, we are now using the Eurotub and love it! We found it at Buy Buy Baby. Its large but perfect for our active and water loving 9 month old.


Good luck,

Lisa

MrsSpeed
03-13-2002, 02:59 AM
We have the Safety First four-in-one tub, and I used that for a while - it comes with the sling, which is handy. However, when I went for an extended trip to visit my parents, I had to improvise and discovered it was much easier to bathe my 3 month old by leaning his shoulders and head back on one of those shell-shaped inflatable bath pillows for grown-ups (you can buy one for about $5). I just lay him in the tub resting on the pillow, and he loves it. I can also put him on his chest on the pillow to wash his back, which is much easier than trying to sit him up to wash his back. I am also glad to not have to deal with putting the tub up each time, since we have very limited space. Anyway, that's what is working for us right now...we'll probably use the tub more later when he can sit up by himself.