How often to bathe kids?

by Roger Sinasohn (Subscribe to Roger Sinasohn's posts) Mar 7th 2008 12:32PM

Categories: Toddlers, Preschoolers, Kids 5-7, Health & Safety

One of the things I love about ParentDish is the questions that sometimes arise from the discussions that go on in the comments. Take, for example, the comments regarding a recent post I did about showering the kids. Just how often do kids need to be bathed? Opinions seem to range from daily to weekly, with no clear consensus on the matter.

We generally shower the kids three times a week -- Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings or the night before. Jared sweats when he sleeps, so he really needs it. Sara is still in pull-ups at night, so she sometimes wakes up smelling of urine. We can't send the kids to school smelling; it's considered neglect and, of course, teachers are mandated reporters.

We settled on thrice a week as being a good compromise between not being over-zealous and not letting them run around all filthy and stinky. We are, however, by no means set on this schedule. If I thought I could get away with doing it less often, I would -- I'm lazy like that. I'd have to convince Rachel, however, and that wouldn't be easy.

So, how often do you bathe your kids? Is there such a thing as too often? I know there is definitely "not often enough", but how infrequent is that? Mostly, I'm wondering about the post-pull-up stage, but I'd be interested in hearing thoughts on all ages.

Comments (14)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Stephanie 3-07-2008 @ 12:46PM

Pull-ups really made my daughter stinky, even during the day when changed often.

Anyway, we bathe every night as part of the bedtime routine. It's a good delineation between evening and bedtime.

queenoqueens 3-07-2008 @ 12:53PM

Every other day at least, or after alot of activity. Basically whenever there's any question of being smelly/dirty/sticky. They do seem to get smellier after they turn 5.

ame s 3-07-2008 @ 1:18PM

My 7 year old daughter takes a bath every other day. My 10 year old daughter showers every morning before school. She would stay in there for 30 minutes if I let her.

Jill 3-07-2008 @ 2:21PM

We have a term at our house called "cleanish". Basically, we bathe them (boys 4& 7) when we remember! If we can't remember when they last took a bath then it must be time!

Actually, in summer they swim daily in a salt water pool (no chlorine, so no chlorine smell or chlorine hair) so I only bathe them about once a week to wash their hair and I frequently do that right at the pool in the showers. In the winter they're in long sleeves, long pants, not getting actual dirt on themselves and with dry skin issues, again we don't bathe them too often. I'd say we aim for 3x week and get in two. However, spring and fall they are outdoors and filthy and they need baths almost daily. So, I think it depends on the child's activity level and types of activities, the length of their hair and even the weather where you are. "Cleanish" is really good enough.

Anita 3-07-2008 @ 3:10PM

In the winter, I bathe 5 and 7 year old about every other day, sometimes skipping if we are too busy. Both of them will stay in the bath (5 year old) or shower (7 year old) for an hour if I'd let them so it's never a short process. They don't really have body odor at this age but neither of them wipe as well as they should after going to the bathroom so I like to know they are clean every couple of days.

In the summer, they may bathe every day since we go to the beach in town and the sand is dirty. Plus, who knows what is living in the lake water. Then the baths are immediately after swimming and very quick since I have to get dinner ready.

There is no way I could bathe my kids in the morning. We barely make it to school as it is. And my daughter has longer, thick hair that takes hours to dry. When I use the attempt to use the hair dryer on it, she acts like I am shooting her.

Rob O. 11-06-2008 @ 5:58PM

Baths are a mandatory part of our 22-month old son's bedtime prep routine, so he gets one every evening. He loves splashing around in the tub so much, I'm convinced that this may be the single best part of his day!

Rob O. 11-06-2008 @ 5:58PM

Baths are a part of our 22-month old son's bedtime prep routine, so he gets one every evening. He loves splashing around in the tub so much, I'm convinced that this may be the single best part of his day!

karen 3-07-2008 @ 7:23PM

my son will be 7 at the end of this month and he just started taking showers a few weeks ago. anyway, he showers every night, except friday nights, that's his break. he showers saturday nights because he has gymnastics on saturdays so he gets sweaty and he has sunday school on, well, sunday.

Sherry 3-07-2008 @ 9:47PM

Mine get a bath every single day unless they are sick and have a fever. I don't always use soap though since it can dry their skin out. It is part of their bedtime ritual and helps mellow them out.

Judy 3-07-2008 @ 10:32PM

Well, since I was the one who started the debate on the other post, I guess I should answer.

We usually bathe our boys (they are 4 on Monday and 2 in 6 weeks, and they bathe together most of the time) 2-3 times a week. They had one Wednesday night, and I was going to give them one tonight but we got a last minute birthday party invite and the younger one fell asleep on the way home, so we'll skip it and give them one tomorrow.

We live in a very warm climate - it was 93F yesterday, and that's not unusual even in January. It can be dusty and dirty though. We often let them play in the kiddie pool or "water the trees" (which of course means play with the hose and spray each other, with some of the water happening to fall in the general direction of the trees, hopefully), and unless they get muddy, I'll just rinse them off before they go inside and change their clothes.

When my daughter was little, sometimes she would get baths every night, sometimes 2x a week.

Some kids DO get stinky, sweaty, grimy and gross, and some never seem to be dirty. Obviously if your kid needs a bath, give them one, but if they aren't dirty, don't sweat it.

And I'm not advocating for weekly bathing, either, but doubt people were really so disgusting and repulsive when that was the norm.

Deviya Cohen 3-08-2008 @ 8:19AM

My daughter who is going to be 21 months old in 3 days takes a bath everyday. We give her afternoon baths or sometimes they are at night. On the weekends we sometimes bathe together. My little one loves her baths/showers. If she misses it during the day she reminds me before I put her to bed. I can go without a bath about 2 days but apparently she can't (hehe).

Laura 3-09-2008 @ 2:19PM

We try for 3x a week as well but don't freak if he doesn't get it. Our friends told us that she was told by a kid's hairdresser that you don't NEED to wash their hair more than once a month.

True or not it makes me grossed out so rather than the 3x a week we do once a week or 3x in 2 weeks. Other than that we just wash body and try and teach him the importance of cleaning and learning to do it himself.

Crystal 3-09-2008 @ 6:15PM

The kid are in the tub EVERY night without fail. Regardless of how tired we all are, they get in the tub nightly. Its party of the bedtime routine, and if it doesnt happen I'm not sure how well they would sleep.
With that said, just because they are in the tub it doesnt mean they get a full scrub down every night.
I do wash my daughters hair every night. She is 18 months and she has this thing about putting food in her hair. Yuck.
They usually just play in a tub of bubbles and then get rinsed and dried off.
About once to twice a week they get a good scrubbing. And of course it also depends on the days activities.

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