Before my first child was born, one of the many, many things we purchased was an infant bathtub. We also got some totally adorable hooded bath towels. Is there anything cuter? No, there is not. I imagined, consistent with Instagram videos, that bath time would be a relaxing time to wind down at the end of the day. The books indicated that it was an important part of a bedtime routine.
The first time we bathed my daughter, two weeks into her life, it involved three adults and more screaming (from the baby, and the adults) than I care to remember. It took weeks to work up the courage to do it again.
In my house, baby and toddler bath time has ranged from terror to joy. And in those moments of terror we wonder: Is this necessary? How often should one actually bathe a child? Do they really need a bath at all? Let’s look at the data.
Some Caveats:
- I’m going to focus here on the pre-adolescent stage. If you have an adolescent or a teenager, they need a bath (or, probably, a shower) at least once a day.
- There are some skin conditions for which baths may be helpful (or not). For example, at least one small randomized trial in kids suggested that frequent bathing (followed by moisturizer application) could help treat atopic dermatitis. More generally, if your child has skin issues, it’s best to ask a dermatologist about baths.
Does my newborn need a bath?
Let’s start at the very beginning. It used to be common to wash the baby immediately — like, within the first few minutes, perhaps even before it was handed off to Mom. There is now some pushback against this for two reasons. First, there is an increasing trend toward immediate skin-to-skin contact and toward leaving Mom and baby alone for a couple of hours right after birth. One of the benefits of skin-to-skin contact seems to be increased breastfeeding success. Perhaps for this reason, breastfeeding success also seems to be increased by delaying the bath past the first few hours. Since there is no actual reason to give the baby a bath, pretty much any reason to delay is a good one. Often, your baby will be bathed later at the hospital, if for no other reason than to show you how to do it.
Once you’re home with your baby, there isn’t much guidance as to how frequently they need a bath, if ever. Infants will sometimes get milk balled up in their fists or between their adorable leg folds, and it can be a good idea to wipe that off (it will smell). But this is very much dealer’s choice: bathe if you want, delay if you wish.
Does my toddler need a bath?
Toddlers (and older babies) differ from infants because they go out in the world and do things. Sometimes, dirty things. In light of this, two central points about baths.
First, sometimes your child is actively dirty. Like, they spent the afternoon rolling in the mud, or they had a sufficiently bad poop explosion that their entire back is coated and … well, you get the picture. In these situations, it is a good idea to bathe them. A similar logic extends to days when a child has been covered in bug spray or sunscreen. Basically, there are some days when you just need a bath.
But, second: dirt in all forms is not the enemy. If your kid goes to sleep with a grass stain on their elbow or soil under their fingernails, that’s fine. In fact, exposure to dirt and germs is part of how we develop a healthy immune system. Beyond that, too much bathing can lead to irritated, dry skin.
The question, to me, is what the right cadence is for a regular, not-mud-oriented bath. Should it be every night, every other night, once a week …?
There is no strongly data-based answer to this. Dermatologists recommend something on the order of two to three times a week. Once a week might be enough. The only general consensus is that you do not need to bathe your child every day. But it isn’t that there is a great study showing that bathing every day is bad, just that there is no reason to think you would need to, and biological knowledge about skin suggests that daily bathing could remove oils that keep skin from drying out.
There are some times as a parent — and they can be very freeing — when the answer from the science is “it really doesn’t matter that much.” This is one of those times!
Of course, if data doesn’t answer the question, how can you possibly decide? Here are a few options:
- Let your child choose. Bathe them less if they do not like it.
- Think of the bath as part of the bedtime routine, and work it in at a regular cadence. With my older kid, we were rigid about the idea that there was a set bedtime routine but didn’t want to bathe her every day. We were terrified about deviations from the routine, though, so we instituted “bath night” and “wiping night,” where “wiping” just meant putting a wet washcloth on her face to pretend the routine was the same. (I am realizing how insane this sounds as I write it, but it’s the truth.)
- Embrace chaos! Bathe whenever you find the time, or when your kid is very dirty.
How dangerous is it for my kid to drink bathwater?
Obviously the bathwater that comes directly out of the bath tap is no different from any other tap water. So there are really four additions to the bath that we might worry about. Let’s review.
1. Soap
Honestly, your kid doesn’t need a lot of soap on them anyway, but in small doses it’s okay to eat soap. It doesn’t taste good, but it isn’t toxic.
2. Mold
Do you have rubber duckies in your bath? Or any plastic toys? Do you see little black marks or smudges around the area where the water comes out of them?
Here is the thing: if you were to cut open that rubber ducky, what you would find is that the inside is coated in a layer of flaky black mold. (In the service of helping you, I cut open one of ours and, well, here you go on pictures.) This kind of mold develops in many places where water just sits — parts of your electric toothbrush, for example. It’s super-gross.
So, we can establish that this idea is disgusting. It’s also extremely difficult to avoid if you have toys — basically, the mold develops when things stay wet, and it’s very hard to completely dry your rubber duck and toys even if you remember to drain the bathtub after use. Your choice is, pretty much, toys and mold, or no toys and no mold. Kids like toys. Is the mold dangerous?
Probably not, no. If your child swallows too much of it, it could in principle make them nauseous or vomit. This is both unlikely in terms of volume, and also self-limiting. If you see a lot of mold floating around in the bath, it is probably a signal that you want to replace the toys. But even swallowing a small amount of mold is not likely to be an issue.
The exception is if a child is immunocompromised or has a mold allergy. In that case, you want to be more careful. The easiest/only way to do this is not to have bath toys of this type. Get some bath crayons.
3. Pee
Drinking a small amount of urine is fine. Actually, drinking your own urine has been promoted historically as a cure for a variety of different illnesses. It isn’t! Please do not drink your urine on purpose, but in small, diluted amounts, it isn’t dangerous.
4. Poop
If your child poops in the tub, take them out. But you might still worry that a partial wiping has left poop on them, and that gets into the water and so on. Eating a lot of poop can make you quite sick, but in small amounts it isn’t toxic. Poison control centers tend to indicate that you should call if a child eats more than a mouthful of feces. The circumstances that would lead to this through bathwater seem remote.
The bottom line
- Your infant should be bathed when you feel like it.
- There is also no data-based answer for how often you should bathe your toddler. A few times a week is fine, more if they seem particularly dirty.
- Drinking bathwater probably isn’t preferred hydration, but the dangers of it are minimal. It’s gross, but it isn’t the hill I would die on.
- In terms of safety, bathtub drowning is a significant risk for babies and small children. Babies or little kids should not be left alone in the bath, period.
- The world of parenting has many fears and stresses. Some good news is that, mostly, baths should not be one of them.
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