Baths and Little Boys

In response to if you have to wash his privates: I have a son who is not potty trained and yes each time he takes a bath or shower(his preference)I always make certain to wash his private areas. For me it takes mere minutes to give him either a bath or shower and I would much rather he actually be clean with soap(we use tear free soap for both hair and body)than to just have him playing around not getting clean.

I always gave them a quick once over with some baby wash (mostly to the diaper area), whether they needed it or not, at the start of the bath and then let them splash around.

I always do a once over with a wash rag and soap. Especially the diaper area

Updated

I always do a once over with a wash rag and soap. Especially the diaper area

I say just water is fine unless you see/smell a real issue. Soap is overused, in my opinion, esp if he's sitting in the tub for a while and playing.

I always went with water splashing around at that age unless we detected a problem. For the most part it worked well, no one made faces or detected an odor.

Granted this was not my mother of the year area but dang, no one died.

Lol! You will do what's required, I'm sure!

Congratulations on your new family member! I'm so happy for you!

My doctor said to be really careful with soap near their privates. I let him splash around and give him the once over with a washcloth. I never wash his privates with soap.

LOL, I think splashing around mostly does the trick. Every once in a while you need to get in there, but only occasionally. "Agitating in a washing machine!" Lol.

A foster son!!! Good for you.

This post made me laugh. Sorry, nothing personal. Just memories of when my kids were Toddlers.

I have a boy and girl.
When they were Toddlers and they HATED baths, they'd "wash" in the sprinklers outside. Our yard is fenced and private. Anyway, on my/their bad days.... URGH, I'd let them go in the sprinklers and I"d wash them out there. I had soap/washcloth on hand and a towel.
Made things more pleasant doing it out there.
LOL!

My son is now 7 and still hates baths. He is like "Pig Pen" from the Charlie Brown cartoon. Urgh. Anyway, well we do have him bathe. Or rather, shower. He likes showers better. Its "faster."
But he's like a slippery seal... and if I didn't stand there at the shower door, he'd just go in make like he's wet, and come out in 2 seconds.
Laughing.
I'm not laughing.
He is.
My son needs a daily bath. He's a boy. He gets sweaty/sticky/dirty from head to toe. And his hair too. And YES he washes his "stuff." Sure. And his hiney. Of course. But he does not RUB it to wash it. He just washes it with soap gently but not soap being IN their privates or concentrated there. And not RUBBING it. Just jostling it around and under the sac. And sure with water/soap on him already from the shower. And rinsing his WHOLE body. Which for him is just, hard because he just hates bathing!

My daughter on the other hand, well it was easy. A girl. She was good about it and careful and knew how to wash herself and her privates. I taught her. She understood. She liked, to be clean. Unlike my "pig pen" Charlie Brown, son.

And okay, some days when they were younger and just me having a BAD day with them, just getting them into water... sans soap, was good enough. They got wet. It at least rinsed them.
OMG, those were the days! LOL
Urgh.
And then they liked to "air dry" as they called it.
Just being naked after bathing and running around. Giggling.
Catching them after a bath, with a towel, was just like trying to catch a fish with your bare hands.
Gawd all those memories make me laugh.
Now.

Lol! That's fine.

They should have tags: "Clean, as necessary!"

My kids always got washed, but we only did bath every other day.

yeah, even if not visibly dirty, i always washed them and their 'stuff' in addition to letting them splash and have fun.
khairete
S.

Anytime I put my kids in the shower/tub, they get washed. With soap. And shampoo. Otherwise, what's the point?
If my 2.5 yo hasn't been outside getting dirty and sweaty, then he gets a bath every other night.
And yes, you have to give his butt and genitals a swipe with a soapy wash cloth. "Agitating in the washing machine" isn't going to actually clean them.

I'd give him showers to get him clean. Baths are for soaking off the stuff and letting them play. Just a little soap in the water to make some bubbles for fun. Then rinse them off with a hand held shower or a large cup.

I have two boys, a 5 year old and a 17 month old. I taught my older one to wash himself when he was around 3. Before that, and with my youngest, I figured just playing was enough.

Lol, this is cute! :) I do agree though that if it's bath time, I would actually go with soap. I also feel that at 2.5 he's ready to start learning how to wash himself, although of course he's not ready to just do it all on his own! So, every time my kids took a bath, we did the whole soap and wash thing. I think it's important to go over the private area with at least a soapy washcloth (or if he's doing it himself a soapy hand will do). That area can get stinky when he's older so get in the habit of washing it now!

I do agree though that kids certainly don't need a bath every night as a general rule. So my opinion is bathe as necessary but a dip in the tub means soap is involved!

If they stayed in and didn't get "dirty" I think just splashing around in the tub is fine. I've never washed my grandson's stuff. I always assumed it was getting clean enough just being in the water.

I have a 5 yr old son and a 3 yr old daughter. Both love their bath times. Both are potty trained.

Our pediatrician has said to be careful of using any soaps near the private areas.

If you are cleaning him well when you change his diaper, then I wouldn't do any heavy duty cleaning near the privates in the bath. I would swipe over the area with a washcloth (not overly soapy), and be careful of crevices...sometimes you do have to gently lift their sack, because stuff can collect around there if you miss it during a diaper change. Otherwise, 'agitating' (LOL) should work fine...especially since the bath water will probably have some soap suds from washing the rest of him.

Also, he's very soon going to move into that age/stage where he can learn to start washing himself. You can start to teach him how to wash now and help him in that process until he gets bigger.

I got in there with some mild baby soap and washed my son, honestly. I figured it was what I was doing with wipes, so why not in the bath. But I remember when I gave my nephew a bath at around that age, my brother said to just make it a bubble bath and that would be enough soap.

So I think either of those options would be fine.

Haha! This post made me laugh.

I will alternate. Some days, just splashing and washing machine agitation. Other days, I will VERY gently pull his little skin down around his peepee area, because I have noticed things in the past not quite getting out of that area from just splashing (ie fuzz from a diaper).

If they have been outside and in sunscreen, bugspray, etc., I will wash the entire body down pretty well.

We use our own homemade soap or california or angel baby so I am comfortable with those being in the tub water for a period of time while they splash around.

Good luck mama!!!

Never did anything other than have them splash. No soap even.

I did use shampoo on their hair. That's it. And of course some shampoo rolled down their back and stuff and made the water a bit soapy.

I don't sweat baths. We do them twice a week maybe. Little kids stay pretty clean; nothing baby wipes can't remove. Paint, etc. Unless it's 100 degrees out, but then we'd swim anyway.

I have a whole grip of boys & only 1 girl, so I was asking this question when I had her! :)

For me, I did a quick wipe down after I did their hair. I always used a washcloth & then a spongy thingy, the kids seemed to like those soft round washy things, not hard like a loofa but the other ones that have a string attached, I got everyone their own color...anyway...I used to have them stand up & I worked my way down starting at the top...& then I would let them do it. It was always more like a teaching them how to do it instead of an embarrassing thing, like great my Mom's washing my junk again, Ha!

I'm sure on days that he's not been playing hard, it would hurt to just let him splash....but if I were you I would get started in the showing him how to do it, even when he's small after you've washed him down soap the rag back up & hand it over & tell him it's his turn. The sooner they start doing it good by themselves let them at it!

I'm middle of the road. I wash hair with shampoo every time. And on days when they've had sunscreen on, I wash off the sunscreen - eg, face, arms, legs. But unless they are really dirty, figure the rest gets clean splashing around.