Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I figure out shower days with sports/PE days. So this season it is Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday night. Sometimes we have to do Saturday depending on our activities.

Same here. They wash their faces every day (and when puberty hits they wash up to three times a day). We don't wear shoes in the house. I grew up on a farm - there's a reason why farm kids have fewer allergies and stronger immune systems. We didn't bathe every day but did always remove our shoes before entering the house, changed out of school clothes when we came home and washed our hands every time we came in from the barns/fields. If our clothes were really dirty, we'd take them off on the porch.

Unless there's a medical need, changing the pillow case every day is just insane - as is changing the sheets twice a week. Or, maybe you've got more money than sense if it's your housekeeper that's doing it.

This isn't true. I grew up on a farm and didn't bathe daily either, but I have terrible allergies and went through a period in my late 20s were I was sickly all the time.

I give both kids a bath daily. They love their bath time, plus I think it's one of the reasons they rarely get sick.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Twice a week here, and one of the two times is at the pool. My six-year old has been asking to wash her hair more often, because her friends are telling her to, so I'm trying to figure out how to work it into our two-kids, one-(FT working) parent, zero-help, evening routine without encroaching on the other, more important to me, evening priorities (healthy dinner, daily music practice, book reading time).

Gross. If your six year old's friends are complaining, it's bad. Please don't do this to your kids. If you are depressed, get some help. It doesn't take long to bathe kids. A six year old can bathe while you cook supper.

Not the PP but you are a bitch. All you type-A judgy tiger moms are the worst.

I know, right? It's so weird. I just linked to the American Academy of Dermatology above, and those doctors say 6-11 year olds only really need 1-2 baths per week unless there's something else like sports involved. Despite medical/scientific evidence, these moms continue to clutch their judgy pearls. WTF.

Busy single parent, just don't worry about it. Those other priorities you mention are so much more important. Your six year old will be able to give herself showers more often by the time she really needs it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Twice a week here, and one of the two times is at the pool. My six-year old has been asking to wash her hair more often, because her friends are telling her to, so I'm trying to figure out how to work it into our two-kids, one-(FT working) parent, zero-help, evening routine without encroaching on the other, more important to me, evening priorities (healthy dinner, daily music practice, book reading time).

Gross. If your six year old's friends are complaining, it's bad. Please don't do this to your kids. If you are depressed, get some help. It doesn't take long to bathe kids. A six year old can bathe while you cook supper.

Not the PP but you are a bitch. All you type-A judgy tiger moms are the worst.

Anonymous wrote:Twice a week here, and one of the two times is at the pool. My six-year old has been asking to wash her hair more often, because her friends are telling her to, so I'm trying to figure out how to work it into our two-kids, one-(FT working) parent, zero-help, evening routine without encroaching on the other, more important to me, evening priorities (healthy dinner, daily music practice, book reading time).

Gross. If your six year old's friends are complaining, it's bad. Please don't do this to your kids. If you are depressed, get some help. It doesn't take long to bathe kids. A six year old can bathe while you cook supper.

Twice a week here, and one of the two times is at the pool. My six-year old has been asking to wash her hair more often, because her friends are telling her to, so I'm trying to figure out how to work it into our two-kids, one-(FT working) parent, zero-help, evening routine without encroaching on the other, more important to me, evening priorities (healthy dinner, daily music practice, book reading time).

Elementary kids - bathe 3 times a week during the school year, and more in the summer. I am actually shocked that so many people feel so adamant about other people's kids getting clean!

we bathe daily, but shampoo kids only weekly. Also use soap only in pits, butt, inner thighs, feet. Dove soap or something equally mild.

Anonymous wrote:
Really so now we are cutting corners on bathing? Are you anti-bathing parents aware that even parents in developing nations bath their children daily! Please wash your kids daily and stop using the dry skin excuse. We have too many options for lotions and body oils you can even make your own natural body lotion. I do feel bad for your kids teachers. For those who skip out on showers where are you from?

It's really not true that "even parents in developing nations" bathe their children daily. If you're really interested, look up the stats on which developed countries and cultures feel the need to bathe every day.

And check out what the American Academy of Dermatology says: https://www.aad.org/public/skin-hair-nails/skin-care/child-bathing
Kids ages 6-11 do not need a daily bath unless they swim or do sports or get really dirty otherwise.

It's fine if you want to bathe your kids daily. It's a nice ritual. But its also fine and healthy for others of us not to. There's just no need to. For the record, I'm Asian American and not from an undeveloped area.

My 4 y/o has a bath every other day normally, sometimes we go 3 days without depending on the weather and what we've been doing. I myself only wash my hair twice a week, otherwise it gets awful. Her hair is just like mine.

Now during the summer it's daily, at least to wash off the sunscreen. We still only do hair every other day unless we've been swimming. No, she doesn't smell.

pubescent kid, daily.
Elementary age, every other day.
Weekly lice check for younger child also.

Every hairstylist, dermatologist, and scientist I know says absolutely not to shower everyday and if you are sweaty, to just rinse off and not use soap. You are stripping away needed skin oils, good bacteria, drying out your hair, ripping hair follicles, increasing split ends, ruining your nails, increasing skin conditions and rashes, and wasting so much water and ruining our environment.

And to the poster that said all other countries bathe their kids daily you are very much misinformed. I think Brazil, Colombia, and Australia are the only three countries ranked higher. Most European countries bathe their kids twice a week.

I found this online and it is very interesting....

Cleanliness, it turns out, has been one dirty trick. One reason early-20th-century Americans ramped up their weekly baths to daily showers is that marketing companies capitalized on the insecurities of a new class of office drones working in close quarters. As Gizmodo wrote last week, to sell products like "toilet soap" and Listerine to Americans, "the advertising industry had to create pseudoscientific maladies like 'bad breath' and 'body odor.'"

Another teacher here- there are a lot of smelly kids. Maybe you think you're kid is fine, but I promise you they do smell if they're not bathing often.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another vote for every other day, but if they went to the pool or got muddy/dirty from a sport I'll wash again that day.

For the every day posters who are shocked by the rest of us, you know you can wash just their face and private parts with a wash cloth every day if you want - you don't need to wash their whole body.

Really so now we are cutting corners on bathing? Are you anti-bathing parents aware that even parents in developing nations bath their children daily! Please wash your kids daily and stop using the dry skin excuse. We have too many options for lotions and body oils you can even make your own natural body lotion. I do feel bad for your kids teachers. For those who skip out on showers where are you from?

I think I'll take skin care advice from my kids' pediatrician rather than a germaphobe on the internet. My kids bathed every-other-day throughout their childhood - as advised by their pediatrician - although more frequent during summers. And now that they are in middle school they shower daily.

I agree with you. You lose a lot of natural oil with daily bathing, unless it's a quick rinse with water. Shampoos and chemicals probably aren't good for you. Bathing every other day is probably fine, it may even be too much. Recent research has even begun to show the benefits of bacteria on both the skin and in the gut. You can laugh, but they just banned anti-microbial soaps because they help produce super germs. A little dirt isn't bad. I honestly just shower quickly with water each morning and shampoo like once every two weeks. I have short hair and I am a guy. I definitely use deodorant, even though that's probably an endocrine disruptor.

The Atlantic covered this recently.

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/06/i-stopped-showering-and-life-continued/486314/

It's whatever you like, but honestly covering yourself in chemicals probably isn't what nature intended.

Anonymous wrote:I feel like these moms who give their kids daily baths probably just do really quick ones and not throughly was their child's body and hair. It's more like a quick soap down and rinse off.

I personally bath my children every other day and give them a deep, thorough cleaning when I do!

Nope. I have 6 and 8 year old kids who've bathed daily since birth. IF for some reason we have to skip washing their hair, they still clean their bottoms. Otherwise, both thoroughly wash hair and body, and I stand with the 6 year old to supervise. Really, it takes a short time to shower, even with a full wash.