Another hygene question:

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This might sound a little stupid, but how often do children need to bathe? I make sure to get them in the tub at least once a week. My husband HAS to have a shower every morning, but I only really take them on days where I have somewhere to go. (which HAS backfired a couple of times, I am a stay at home mom, and have gone 2 weeks and realized "oh my goodness, I haven't showered in 2 weeks!" I guess once a week sounds good to me?)

Part of the bathing thing is cultural, I know, but my 8 year old (aspie) said something to me this morning while he was getting dressed that made me think that once a week might not be enough to "fit in" at school. I don't want him to conform, and most of the time I feel like daily showers (unless you are a very physical person/very sweaty person) are a tad excessive. For the cultural thing we live in the USA, east coast area.

He said "I think my brain might work differently that other people's brains, did you know they actually like taking a bath every night?" (he takes 3 hour baths, it's too cold out of the water, then too cold in the water so he will just huddle in a ball to get warm and refuses to see the reason in getting out, dry and clothed to get warm again. I just don't get his reasoning here. haha)

My NT daughter (age 10) takes a shower and my Aspie son (age 9) takes a bath almost every day. They sometimes skip days and as long as I know that they weren't outside playing all day and are dirty, then I don't force them. If I tell my son that he HAS to take a bath, he usually complains but as soon as he is in the tub he wants to stay there for an hour. He loves to play in the tub. If it's around dinner time and he doesn't want to get out I bring his food and sit it on the end of the tub and he eats it while he is in the tub. Some people may thinks thats crazy but it avoids a fight and meltdown just because it's time for him to eat. I take one every day because it makes me feel good and the only time that I didn't was when they were babies and I was a stay at home mom, and I would just "forget". There just wasn't enough time in the day to remember to take one.

He needs quicker baths more often. Brush teeth at least twice a day. Daily for the armpits, and between the legs. Shampoo head every two days minimum for smooth shiney hair. Once week should be ok for the thorough scrubbing of everything.

Sounds like us, Detren. ( my son is PDD of some kind, speech, body, etc, and I'm ASd'd/Asperger).

I only shower when go out; the way this backfires on me tho' is that I dread unexpected callers and last-minute "needing to go out for something" occasions, also it means that going out ( the three, or four, times a week that we do on average)takes more preparation, is more effort.

My 8 year old son doesn't go to school, just to weekly karate and fencing classes, ( wed and sat) for which he gets at least a "half-clean", mainly feet and bottom, and ears. And a toe and finger nail check, cut and clean when necessary. He brushes his teeth and hair every evening before bed. Feet get done in a basin once or twice a week and he takes at least half an hour over it.

Actual baths have been rare since moving here because in winter it is cold, but when he does, perhaps once a month, have a full scale bath, he spends hours over it too, with toys and underwater action adventures. But he doesn't want to have them more often. And he refuses showers completely.

I absolutely do not want him to ever be accused of "smelling", because i was, aged 12, and it was excruciating, just because i didn't use deodorant really, because my mother didn't, ( though she started to when I did as a result of the remarks at school ! ), but we also only washed our hair once a week in my family.

So i make sure he has clean knickers and bum, clean teeth, etc whenever he goes out. But the big daily routine.. forget it.

I almost never wash my hair; once I got over the hair-follicle "withdrawal" symptoms ( increased sebum/oil production as a result of shampoo use), i discovered don't need to wash hair to keep it shiny, just brush and/or massage well/frequently ( like in olden times before shampoo was invented for unhealthy hair conditions) , eat reasonably, and occasionally a good soak in hottish water to remove "dust"/superficial dirt. Same with my son.

IMO, it's best to get him used to the idea of taking a bath at least every other day.........when he gets older and begins to perspire more, this will indeed be a necessity !

Every other day or every 3rd day is fair for a pre-pubescent child. I would say at least every other day for a teenager. Before that, there just isn't the oil production to necessitate or protect from daily water immersion. My son has eczema and so we do every other day during school and we skip a couple days on vacations.

I started bathing every day sometime during my teen years, when my hair started to need it.

Most American families seem to have their children bathe nightly.

My children both bathe twice a week, on "bath nights." It is a routine they are used to. However, as my son's body starts to change, I can see him needing to this more. Another bridge we will cross when we come to it, I guess.

BTW, my children also shower after swimming. We have had issues with rashes from the chemicals in the pool, and they seem to enjoy the warm shower after a cold swim. But I have to be careful with my son, because he won't wash, he'll just rinse, so I can NOT let that substitute for bath night.

Our son is nine and has very short hair and we don't see any reason to insist he bathes more than once every two or three days, unless he's been playing outside or doing something really sweaty. He hates showers and does not take showers, but he generally likes baths and will sit in them for an hour sometimes, reading books over the side of the tub or listening to music or playing or whatever. He _hates_ being cold (which sucks for him 'cause we're about to move to New England) and doesn't want to get out of the water because of that, but then when he's out he times me on how fast I can wrap the towel around him, and then he'll stand there shivering and dripping and whining he's cold. I tell him "Then hurry up and get dried off and get into your pajamas and you'll warm up!" but instead he curls up in a ball on his bed, still wrapped in a damp towel, until he "air dries." Then he'll get up and put on pjs.

Hair washing is still a pain because he doesn't like to put his head in the water (leaning back), but he doesn't want a shower, either. He still can't swim and refuses to put his face/head in or under water. Flips out about water in his eyes, never mind shampoo. Thank god he _wants_ to keep his hair short, like his dad. He'd never groom it if it was longer.

to Sinagua:
In the winter I put the towels in the dryer. That way, they can get out of their bath into a warm towel.

Ooh, I used to LOVE diving into the laundry straight out of the dryer as a kid! I'd throw myself on my parents' bed and have my mother dump the whole load on top of me before she folded everything. It was heavenly!

I'll try that!

Same with my son. So the rare times I wash his hair we do it the way i used to when was young, tipped FORWARD over the basin, or kneeling over a plastic bowl on floor, and i hold his forehead at same time as lifting water into his hair with flannel. It works alright. He feels more in control of it, as I think i must have done too as child which is why got used to doing it like that.

He hates getting wet altogether, unless totally in it and peaceful, with plenty of time to adapt to it. Which is WHY faster shorter bathing doesn't work.

The cold bit too. I rub him hard and fast with towel, and it's over soon. But I know i am like that too, completely overwhelmed by cold, so it doesn't seem exaggerated to me.

About frequency; I think another thing that may count here is diet. I remember 18 years ago when all i had been eating for several ( at least 6) years was take-aways, refined carbos, burgers, pizzas, chocolate bars, crisps, salty fatty snacks, and almost no liquids except coffee with milk and sugar or cola/syrups/squashes, and alcohol, and my feet began to smell so much i had to wash them at least once a day, quite often twice. Fruit and veg and salad almost never passed my lips for many years.

According to some black africans who still eat little or no dairy white people stink of rancid butter, because of the dairy we eat so much of i suppose.
Anyway I think body smell, and sweat, and oil production depend on diet aswell as age. The better you eat the less you'll need to wash.

Also we live in countryside, but i remember that in cities everything got filthy in less than 24 hours, skin, nostrils, nails, hair, etc. Here it's cleaner.

True, people from other cultures do smell different because of thier diet. If you are used to everyone smelling one way, and a person smells different because of thier diet, it is very noticeable.

Thus it is reasonable to expect that what you eat changes how you smell.
Eating lots of junk food, ( fatty, salty, flavoured, processed, coloured, etc) and almost no fresh fruit or veg, will almost inevitably increase body smell. The body is like the environment; the pollutants have to go somewhere! And the skin IS a huge elimination organ.

It is also a huge defence organ, which is why our society's obsession with stripping away its protective, anti-bacterial oils, ( from hair aswell), only to then replace the oils with face creams and conditioners, and use anti-bacterial cleaners and wipes all over the place is not only silly, and counter productive, but also bad for the environment, ( think of all that soapy water, all that water, those plastic bottles of shampoo, face cream, cleaners, and etc).

My 9 y/o AS DD loves her baths and takes them nightly. It is actually in the school contract that they have to bathe daily. I think it's dumb because younger children simply don't need to bathe so often. My 4 and 5 y/o bathe every 2-3 days, depending on if they've been playing outside a lot, etc. They both have eczema and very dry skin because they're African American. I bathe the baby about twice a week- he's 4 months.

My oldest needs to bather every day IMO. She gets a bit ripe if she misses a day. She doesn't need deodorant or anything, she just sweats bad- it's genetic for sure. Me, I can't stand not showering at least once a day. I can't stand my hair to be greasy at all and it's very fine, so it gets greasy easily. I often shower twice a day if I've been busy, sweating, working outside, etc. a My husband- also AS like DD and me, wouldn't shower more than once a week if I didn't make such a fuss over it. He works from home and his hygiene has gone out the door since he stopped going in to the office. I'm very anal retentive about cleanliness and have a very sensitive sense of smell which makes me even more anal. LOL!

My 9 y/o AS DD loves her baths and takes them nightly. It is actually in the school contract that they have to bathe daily. I think it's dumb because younger children simply don't need to bathe so often. My 4 and 5 y/o bathe every 2-3 days, depending on if they've been playing outside a lot, etc. They both have eczema and very dry skin because they're African American. I bathe the baby about twice a week- he's 4 months.

My oldest needs to bather every day IMO. She gets a bit ripe if she misses a day. She doesn't need deodorant or anything, she just sweats bad- it's genetic for sure. Me, I can't stand not showering at least once a day. I can't stand my hair to be greasy at all and it's very fine, so it gets greasy easily. I often shower twice a day if I've been busy, sweating, working outside, etc. a My husband- also AS like DD and me, wouldn't shower more than once a week if I didn't make such a fuss over it. He works from home and his hygiene has gone out the door since he stopped going in to the office. I'm very anal retentive about cleanliness and have a very sensitive sense of smell which makes me even more anal. LOL!

I take a shower every 3-4 days. I don't take one before I go out like some here. I do take one when I get back though.