How often do your kids bathe?

[lulalu]

How often do your young elementary aged children bathe? 

My friend was saying they do each night before bed. It surprised me that often! So just wondering if that is the norm. 

[MercyA]

My daughter is 10, but she has always had a bath or shower every day, usually right before bed. I imagine it would be more difficult if she wasn't an only!

[Jyhwkmama]

At least once a day since they were babies. 12 and 15 now and it is an absolute need. Probably could have skipped an occasional night as little kids, but I have cleaning hangups.

[theelfqueen]

Daily.

Except when youngest excezma was flaring, then every other day for him. 

Edited January 25, 2019 by theelfqueen

[Farrar]

Once or maybe twice a week? Unless they had been playing in the woods or something, they usually didn't need it too much. They were never naturally smelly as younger kids.

When they were babies, every night, part of the routine. By elementary school, we did it when we got around to it. By middle school, they needed to shower more and it was a bit of a hassle to make them. Now that they're in high school, they seem to have woken up to the need to be clean and not smelly. Whew.

[itsheresomewhere]

Daily.  

[Noreen Claire]

During winter, once a week plus after any sports practice/game. So, DS2, DS4, & DS6 are 1x/week and DS9 is 2x/week.

During summer, significantly more often, due to swimming in the lake, sunscreen mud, etc.

DS9 will be showering more often soon, due to signs of impending puberty...

[Elizabeth86]

It depends on the ages and the season.  

Babies that aren't eating solids- weekly

Babies eating food - daily

My 2-3 year olds tend to be nasty so daily for them

At 4-7 (7 is my oldest) - currently a 2-3 times per week in the winter

In the summer they all get a bath daily because they are disgusting from being outside all day.  Also, their skin dries out pretty badly in winter, so the less baths the better.

 

Also, when I had 1 or 2, they had baths more often, but having 4 that all need help with baths changes things too. Lol

 

[Moonhawk]

Kinda random.

Right now the 5yo is still reveling in the power of shower over bath so he tries to "sneak" 2 showers a day. If he gets 2, he tries to get 3.

My DD10 on the other hand goes grudgingly, and she's the one who, well, I really keep tabs on. She'd go all week without one if I let her. Not cause she wants to be stinky, she's actually sensitive about that, but she doesn't like getting water in her eyes or having to comb her hair afterwards.

DS8 is extremely spacey on just about everything in the physical realm of existence so I ask him if he's taken a shower while his hair is still wet and he'll say "Oh, I forgot" and start stripping again. So I think he's about 4 times a week? 

In the summer if they go outside they have to go to the shower straight after. 

[moonflower]

I have one kid who has to be bribed/cajoled into a bath every week.  He washes his hair fortnightly.

I have one kid who would take 3 baths a day if I let her. 

The rest are sort of in between 🙂

[Shoeless]

When kiddo was early elementary, about once a week.  Now that he's 10, I am having him shower about 3 times a week and plan to ramp that up to daily over the next few months.  He's not especially dirty, but puberty is juuuuuuuust beginning and sometimes his hair looks really greasy or his feet stink. So, more showers needed!

[maize]

When they want to or when I decide they need to.

Not usually more than once a week. Sometimes less (come to think of it, I'm not sure my six year old has bathed this month...)

If they want to bathe every day that's fine with me, I don't push baths on elementary aged kids though unless they obviously need one.

Skin cells slough off all the time so it's not like a kid who doesn't bathe frequently just collects layers of dirt. We live somewhere with dry air and my kids have sensitive skin--frequent bathing in the winter especially is really not healthy for them.

Even my teens don't get stinky so far, I think they both shower a couple of times a week on average but I don't really keep track.

I think daily bathing is weird unless you are sweaty or filthy. I didn't grow up in the US though, most cultures are not as obsessed with daily bathing as Americans are.

[Scarlett]

44 minutes ago, lulalu said:

How often do your young elementary aged children bathe? 

My friend was saying they do each night before bed. It surprised me that often! So just wondering if that is the norm. 

Every night when he was that age.  I can probably count on one hand the number of times he didn’t get a bath before bed.  

[Junie]

The little ones bathe once a week unless they are especially dirty.  By the teen years they are showering almost daily to more than once daily, depending on the need.

[KungFuPanda]

Below ages 10-11 my kids bathed most nights. I never freaked if someone fell asleep and skipped, but they played outside every day the weather let them and ended up with nature on them. Tree sap and sand were the worst of it. 

My daughter never had a smelly phase. A room smells better after she walks through because she’s partial to citrus scented products.

My son didn’t care how he smelled as a kid. We were very lucky he wasn’t naturally smelly. Now that he’s older we tend to have a bath night and skip two nights. He’s non-ambulatory and baths are an hour long process. He’s not active enough to get sweaty unless it’s really hot, so we don’t do the full spa experience every night. He enjoys it, and will soak in bath salts, but it isn’t necessary every day and he’s exhausted afterwards. 

[lulalu]

12 minutes ago, maize said:

 

I think daily bathing is weird unless you are sweaty or filthy. I didn't grow up in the US though, most cultures are not as obsessed with daily bathing as Americans are.

Maybe that is why I find it weird! I have spent my parenting days outside the US. We have been in the US for 6 months and it all just seems so different than where I have lived. 

[Sneezyone]

Daily showers for my oldest. DS is usually once or twice a week. He’s 5 feet tall now but never really smells. It’s weird. At his age, oldest was fuuuuunky!! I give his head a sniff when I think about it (or he lets me get close enough) and then send him to the shower if it smells sweaty. That’s the only part of him that ever gets odiferous.

Edited January 25, 2019 by Sneezyone

[Selkie]

Mine are older now (one in high school & two in college) and they bathed every day at that age. Still do, too.

[gardenmom5]

bedtime baths is part of unwinding and bedtime routine.  it's not about the "getting clean", but the unwinding before bed. 

[prairiewindmomma]

My young elementary child only bathes twice a week. Her skin is fragile and rash prone. Her face is washed daily and her hands and wrists are washed often throughout the day.

My teen boys, however, sometimes shower twice daily.

[wendyroo]

In the summer everyone gets a bath or shower every day...toddlers and preschoolers often get a quick hose down before nap and another before bed if they spend most of the day outside.

In the winter it is much less often - right now the three youngest (3, 5 and 7 years old) all take two real bathes a week and also go swimming twice a week and then rinse thoroughly in the showers afterward (but no soap).

My almost 10 year old is starting to get stinky, so we have shifted him to taking a shower more or less everyday...though I do "count" his after swimming showers even though there is no soap involved.

Wendy

[rebcoola]

Weekly and when filthy. They did swim almost daily back than.  Now both bathe most days but that’s cause they are sweaty/ stinky from sports and puberty.

[SKL]

Ideally, daily.  Reality, it depends on how much homework etc. they have at night.  Our reality is generally every 1 to 3 nights, and they wash up in the morning if they didn't bathe the night before.

[KrissiK]

Daily. At night before bed.

[Epicurean]

Once a week, if they’re lucky. We keep the heat at 65 most of the time in winter, so it would be easy for them to get a chill. They get cleaner in the summer from swimming and playing outside with the hose etc, but we still don’t bathe them that often.

If they don’t smell and don’t have obvious food or dirt on them, I don’t think it’s a big deal. I guess I’m European in spirit. It just seems like a huge waste of water and electricity, and my feeling is that being too clean isn’t good for your immune system.

[Tap]

Eczema prone kiddos here. A couple times a week, unless they needed it more often for some reason.

Edited January 25, 2019 by Tap

[Carrie12345]

It depends on what’s going on. Mine went out as The Stinky Kid yesterday, insisting it was because I didn’t tell him to shower the night before. Selective hearing is fun.

My 8 and 11yos don’t get very dirty in the winter. Twice a week is perfectly adequate for them.  If they do something fairly sweaty or dirty, they *usually take it upon themselves to get clean. If they’ve just been lounging around for the most part, they'll put it off.

This works out prettty well for us, since we have 6-7 people and a small hot water heater! Those of us who typically shower daily have to make sure there’s plenty of water to go around.

[moonflower]

Also I think shower/bath times make a big difference.  I can shower, wash hair, condition hair, wash face, etc. in 4 minutes.  We lived in an apt my sophomore year of college with a 4 minute hot water limit, so I learned to take Very Fast Showers.

DD13 takes half an hour or until the hot water runs out.  If she is rushing, 15 minutes.

If we all took 4 minute showers it would be super fast!  I can wash a child under 7 in 4 minutes too, but the ones that love baths will stay in for an hour.

[Melissa in Australia]

 

We have limited water - totally dependent on the rain we collect and store from our roof.

every second day. twins share bath water but do not share bath. Ds 15 has a shower every second day or as needed according to what he is doing during the day.

 Dh and I shower daily but we catch our water and make sure that we use less than 9 litres per shower - apart from the every 5 days that I wash my hair. Hip length hair cannot be washed in just 8 litres of water.

[DawnM]

We did every other day until puberty, then it was daily.

[Pawz4me]

8 hours ago, lulalu said:

How often do your young elementary aged children bathe? 

My friend was saying they do each night before bed. It surprised me that often! So just wondering if that is the norm. 

Mostly every other day.

Daily when it was warranted (hot, sticky summer days or if they got particularly dirty/funky for any other reason).

But elementary aged during the winter? Every other day was plenty.

[Momto6inIN]

8 hours ago, Farrar said:

Once or maybe twice a week? Unless they had been playing in the woods or something, they usually didn't need it too much. They were never naturally smelly as younger kids.

When they were babies, every night, part of the routine. By elementary school, we did it when we got around to it. By middle school, they needed to shower more and it was a bit of a hassle to make them. Now that they're in high school, they seem to have woken up to the need to be clean and not smelly. Whew.

 

8 hours ago, Noreen Claire said:

During winter, once a week plus after any sports practice/game. So, DS2, DS4, & DS6 are 1x/week and DS9 is 2x/week.

During summer, significantly more often, due to swimming in the lake, sunscreen mud, etc.

DS9 will be showering more often soon, due to signs of impending puberty...

 

I read the first few responses and started to panic thinking we must be really stinky smelly dirty people,  so posts like these made me feel a lot better about my parenting! Lol

When I had fewer kids I was better at doing a daily or every other day bath, and in the summer I have them rinse the chlorine out of their hair after swimming (pretty much daily) but I figure soap isn't necessary after they just soaked their skin in chlorine for hours. But in the winter they just don't get that smelly during the week so it's once or maybe twice a week tops for the younger girls. My teens shower every day although DD only washes her (very long and almost always worn in a bun) hair every other day or every third day. It was a learning process - not to mention a huge time suck - to get them to go from 30 min showers to 5-10 min showers so now it's not as big a deal for them to shower daily as it once was. And during that learning process ﹰI had to remind them and nag them and argue with them every day, which was a pain. I'm glad it has become a habit for them now. But I can't imagine how much time I'd have to invest in supervising  my elementary kids in bathing every day.

[Bluegoat]

Dd14 showers or bathes every second day, more or less - she takes care of it herself though, so I don't worry about it.

The younger kids, I try and tell them to do it about twice a week, but sometimes it is more like once a week.  UNless they are sick, in which case I can't keep them out of the bath.  Dd2 will go in with anyone else in the bath so maybe more often for her.

Ds9, though, for a long time he was tricky to clean, he was so sensitive about water on his body.  I once had to tell him I just had to scrub his neck because it turned grey.  We also keep his hair quite short because he hates to wash it.

Overall though, I'm not in the daily bath camp.  My dh showers twice a day, long showers both times, ad it actually drives me bananas.  Then he wil complain about the water bill, but he doesn't seem to clue in about my raised eyebrow when he does.

[lmrich]

Daily - we love baths and showers here. Really a hot bath is sometimes the best of a day. 

[alisoncooks]

When they were little, every other day. Now it's daily. Oldest can skip a day, if needed, but youngest really needs to wash her hair daily. 

[lavender's green]

When they need it/get around to it/want it. Getting three little kids fully bathed takes an hour or more, and we just don't always have that kind of time on school days. We have a two hour window to have dinner, homework, family time, unwinding, screens as a reward for good behavior, and bedtime routines. If we try to cram in too much it eats into bed time, and my kids turn into monsters without adequate sleep. It's really sleep vs bathing.

Now, if they're stinky, genuinely dirty (they love to play in creeks), or just really feel like a bath, of course we'll make time for it. 

Anyway, to actually answer the question, 7 year old (who has the tightest school schedule) 1-2 or more times a week. Sometimes he likes to relax in the tub on the weekends. Sometimes he can take a quick shower before school, but that makes mornings more hectic. He's by far the messiest kid. 5 year old is going through a phase where he wants to play in the tub daily. He's in preschool so that's an easy way to while away the afternoon. When he's not in a tub playing phase I insist on once a week. 3 year old likes to strip and play with brother's bathwater but won't actually get in the tub. She's scared of being in water and it makes her throw up. So fun. I have to covertly clean her. "Oops, I spilled bubbles on your foot! I'm going to wipe that up with a washcloth. I'm just going to scrub your leg too. And now your belly! Okay, hold your arm over the tub so I can rinse all those bubbles off! Good girly!" 

[MercyA]

If my daughter's hair didn't get washed daily beginning at age 7 or 8, it was stinky, and we are not outdoorsy people. Some of your kids must have naturally cleaner hair or something! [ETA: Her hormones started to kick in early, so maybe that was part of it?]

Edited January 25, 2019 by MercyA

[HS Mom in NC]

Days they have a sweaty activity and every couple of days after that unless body odor is an issue or they opt to bathe daily.  One of mine has eczema, so the dermatologist explained that daily bathing without it being necessary to address body odor is bad for her skin.

[Xahm]

My goal is to insist on at least once a week, but I also require it if anyone enters the chicken coop or just gets horribly messy. Anyone requesting to bathe before 8 pm also gets to do so, unless they've already bathed that day. Some weeks that means they get 4-5 baths each, frequently it's just the one. We all smell and look fine, except sometimes my 5 year old's hair sometimes doesn't get washed even though the rest of him does. I think he may have gone a month once when I was distracted by pregnancy and the birth of the baby, and it was obviously in need of a washing, but not worse than a teenager after two days would be. There are times in baby-hood that require lots of baths, but that's the only time any of my kids have ever smelled at all. I'm sure we'll enter the world of more frequent bathing in a few years when kids start hitting puberty. 

[Scarlett]

Ds18 has taken 2 showers a day since he was probably 15.  Dss17 just one per day.

Bath time for my ds when he was young was part of a bedtime routine.  So baths were half an hour or so.  But if we had been out late and it needed to be quick I could bath him in 5 minutes flat.  If we were going to be at my mom's or a friend's house late ish I would take his PJs and bath him there so that he could go straight to bed when we got home.  We just did not  skip bathing. 

 

[EKS]

Every night.  I decided that it would be helpful to have a bedtime routine that was consistent.  At some point each of them switched over to taking a shower in the morning.

[Jann in TX]

  DD 17 showers about 2 times per week.  I shower every other day.  Daily showering would ruin our skin!

I've never been in the camp of daily showering... seems like a waste of water to me-- but I remember (in my elementary/Jr. High years) boiling water over a gas stove/heater in order to get a small tub of warm water to 'wash up' in...

 

 

[Bluegoat]

It used to be really common for people to wash out of a basin of some sort - my great-grandmother did, she lived in a big old house but didn't have her own bathroom, it was a sort of institute for women and there were a lot of spinsters.  So great-nana washed every day in a basin.  

I don't hear of people doing that often now, if they can't have a bath or shower often they don't bathe at all.

[Loowit]

My sister always did a daily bath for her kids before bed, so that had been my goal, but the reality was I ended up with once a week.  It never became part of our bedtime routine.  As babies I would bathe them in the sink a couple times a week, or as needed.  But bathtubs were hard on my back because of a previous injury.  So bath time became something DH did when he was home on the weekend.  I did wash them down with washcloths if it was needed in between.

As they have gotten older I tend to leave it up to them.  DD showers once or twice a day depending on what she is doing.  The boys sometimes have to have a gentle reminder if it has been a while.

[maize]

21 minutes ago, Bluegoat said:

It used to be really common for people to wash out of a basin of some sort - my great-grandmother did, she lived in a big old house but didn't have her own bathroom, it was a sort of institute for women and there were a lot of spinsters.  So great-nana washed every day in a basin.  

I don't hear of people doing that often now, if they can't have a bath or shower often they don't bathe at all.

It is still common in other parts of the world.

[Scarlett]

The summer I was 11 we lived in a 4 room house in the middle of a cow pasture.  We had no indoor plumbing.  There was a well and an outhouse.  On the back porch mom put a big wash tub and that is where we bathed.  Every night.  With water we pulled from the well.  Heated water on the stove (gas cookstove I believe).  When fall arrived the tub was brought in to the kitchen.  So I know where my 'bath every night' belief comes from.  🙂

[Petrichor]

I'm in the shower once or twice a week camp. But when kids are stinky from playing (usually happens more in the summer,) they're told to go shower. DS will easily end up taking 10-15 showers a week in the summer.

DD, since either DH or I have to shower her gets a full shower about once a week, sometimes once every week and a half. She hates having her hair washed. But she's potty training, so she'll get bottom-half showers more frequently. I love taking her swimming in part because I can "trick" her into taking a shower in the locker room after swimming.

DS has taken to waking up, showering, and putting his school uniform on. he probably showers a minimum of 5 days a week.

 

[maize]

12 hours ago, happysmileylady said:

 

And, I have heard "most cultures are not as obsessed with daily bathing as Americans are."  I don't want to put down other cultures, but the very little international travel I have done tells me that..............................yes, you are completely right.   I don't think that means the results are automatically positive though.  

 

Our per capita consumption of water and pretty much every other natural resource in the US is nothing to brag about for sure; it would be completely unsustainable on a global scale. It isn't actually sustainable on a national scale. Of course this isn't just bathing, it's also stuff like watering lawns and eating food that is water intensive to produce like beef.

There really is no room for claims of cultural superiority here.

[Scarlett]

I can shower in about 3 minutes if I don't wash my hair.  6 minutes if I wash my hair.  

[maize]

57 minutes ago, happysmileylady said:

It's not about "cultural superiority."  It's about the sense of smell.  It doesn't matter if it's me, my 10 yr old, or someone from another country.  If a person is getting stinky, it's time to clean up.   If my kids come inside covered in mud, they and their clothes get cleaned up, regardless of when the last time they had a bath/shower.   And I don't think it's demonstrating an obsession with bathing to say that if a person has gotten dirty or grimy or is starting to get stinky, it's time for a bath, even if that means daily bathing.

 

You might consider that the idea that human bodies should be odorless is itself a cultural construct.

You embrace this idea as a truth because you belong to a culture that embraces it.

Which is fine; it is both normal and healthy to be comfortable within one's own culture. I'm a bit envious sometimes of people who can live their lives that way.

When comparing cultures however it doesn't work to assume that your culture's truths are universal truths. They aren't, and had you lived your life in a different culture you would find yourself embracing a different set of assumptions as true.

Edited January 25, 2019 by maize