Bath time

When my little boy was born he was skinny and small, because he was born nearly three weeks early. As a mum I was constantly worried about changing him and bath time, as I was frightened I might not be able to keep hold of him in the bath, or hurt him when holding on to him to bath him.

When he was small I used to use a baby bath to bath him in, with the water half full and a small amount of baby bath so that I did not dry his skin out. Then to wash his hair I would strip him down to just his nappy and wrap him in a towel, then I would lean his head over the bath whilst holding him with my arm hooked around and using my other hand to splash the water to wet his hair. Then I would get the bottle of shampoo and squeeze a small dollop of it onto his head and use the palm of my hand to rub it in. The midwife that taught us about bathing said always make sure you gently do this, because of the soft spot at the back of the head. Then I would use the same hand to splash the water on his head to wash the soap off.

After I had washed his hair, I would lower him into the water holding the top half of his body in the crook of my arm to hold him up right and keep his head above the water. After I had done this I would also make sure that I had washed everywhere, making sure he was completely clean. Once he was completely dry I would put him in a towel and dry him off before putting him in his pjs.

During bath times it is also crucial that their faces are washed. For this I used cooled sterile water and cotton wool, using different pieces of cotton wool to do each eye to avoid infection and different pieces for chin and for head. If he had any milk rash or spots on his face sudocrem is applied to that area as it is fantastic for clearing up rashes and spots, (something that I still do now for his milk rash).  Cotton wool and sterile water is also a brilliant way of getting rid of sticky eyes and is soothing for the baby.

Now we still do the same routine, only my little boy is five months old and goes in a bath chair. These are brilliant when you're baby is older as when they are sat in them you can give them toys in the bath to play with.