Eli is 10mo old. Here's the semi-unintuitive stuff we've learned with regards to bathing.
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- Babies are already clean. Eli doesn't really get that dirty, especially earlier on when he wasn't eating anything besides milk. Before he could sit up, he didn't so much like the bath, so we started doing it rather infrequently upon need, a little less than once per week. He gets dirty mostly around his diaper and mouth, which gets cleaned continually from baby wipes.
- Get in the bath. Since being able to sit up, Eli has loved baths. However, he doesn't really like being anywhere by himself. Getting in the bath with him solves the problem and can extend bathing for a long time.
- Fill the tub up only a few inches. When you get in the bath, you have a tendency to default to fill it up higher. But the higher you fill it up, the more unwieldy the baby becomes. If you keep it only a few inches, they can have fun and be stable at the same time. The problem is it gets cold quickly, which brings me to my next point.
- Separate the bath into two sections. If you get in the bath, you can position yourself in such a way where the water is divided into two sections with your body being the separator. Then you can sit near the faucet and turn on the hot water to a drip. The results are you get to be in hot water and your baby can be in warm water, and you can regulate how warm it gets while remaining comfortable. You also get to guard the faucet, which can be dangerous.
- Water bottles. Water bottles make great bath toys. Eli likes to chew on them and likes how the water flows over his hands when you pour them out. They also can serve as parent bath toys. If you get cold in the few inches of water, you can get a bigger bottle and keep pouring it on you from the hot water section. You can also use the bottle to wash off soap from the baby's hair.
- Toy wall. Eli likes to rotate bath toys. One activity that keeps him interested and busy is to take the bath toys and line them up on the side of the bath, making a toy wall. He will pull them down, and then you can line them up again.
- Toy biting. Eli also likes to bite toys. But he likes it even more when his parents bite them. He loves grabbing them from our mouth and then putting them back in. Fun.
