Need advice: How do you bathe your 1 yr old without hurting your back?

[asha]

I am probably the only one with this problem.

If I let him play in the tub by himself, I end up with a back ache by the time I finish the bath, trying to wash him from outside the tub. He is pretty active and wants to run around and play in the tub.

He hates the bath seat and I am not a big fan either (find it hard to wash his bottom when he is sitting).

It should not be soo hard to give the baby a bath. What does everyone do? How do you all bathe your children?

THanks,

[jamsmu]

we don't use the bathseat either. I have a few toys for DS that I take out during bath time. A lot are squirting toys. We set them up on the ledge and squirt each other. They are also great for cleaning the soap off of him. Usually, I wash him first and he "reads" a tub book or plays with bath cups. Then I sit up on the toilet seat (literally 8 inches from the tub) and let him play.

DH fills the bath water with liquid soap and swirls it around to make soap bubbles. This way, its fun for DS to play, and DH feels like his body is getting clean. After, we lather him in baby lotion (we call it massage time) so that the bath doesn't dryout his skin.

Edited to fix grammar.

[ALLEYCAT]

Post back surgery I take him into the shower with me. I can not lean over a tub to play or even rescue him if I had to therefore he either showers with me or DH, usually everyday, or he gets a bath with me or someone else may give him one. I hate that I can not get in the tub with him everyday but we have a tile shower and a seperate tub which holds ALOT of water. He loves to play on the floor of the shower while I get clean and he plays in the soap bubbles and then I pick him up, soap him up and rinse us both off. I hold on very tight to a leg at all times, babys get very slippery and squirmy in the shower!

[mharling]

We have a big tub so one of us takes a bath with Lane. We figure we'd get wet anyway, so we might as well keep our backs from hurting in the process. Lane has a blast!

Mary
Lane - April 2003
Little sister on the way!!! March 2!

[asha]

Yup, so far oneof us gets in the tub with him. We give him a bath every night (thats when we have time for that). However, both of us like to take a shower in the morning, so we are fresh when we head out. This makes us take kinda two baths everyday, which is not really what we want. I give him a bath and DH takes a shower with him.
Still wondering if anyone has any ideas.

[kijip]

Shower?

[deborah_r]

Sorry, I know you are looking for a different solution, but I'm chiming in here with another vote for bathing with him. DH or I always bathe with DS. Actually a couple times I have done it with just DS in the tub and I let him play, but I didn't really soap him that much. It was more for his entertainment. And he wasn't that wild so I wasn't worried, he can move around really well in the tub without falling.