Parenting My Toddler.com - Parenting Toddlers made slightly less difficult.

Bathing a toddler is important ingredient in keeping your child clean and healthy. This article will focus on steps and precautions that we follow when bathing our toddler that you can use with your own child. Once your child hits the toddler years and is mobile, they tend to become much dirtier and messier and bathing them is increasingly important. Giving your child a bath can also be a part of their nighttime routine and help settle them down before going to bed. For reference, we use our adult bathtub to bath our child. Bathing Steps:

Water temperature is very important. If the water is too hot or cold and uncomfortable for your toddler, they will not be happy. We use warm (not hot) water.

The water should not be too deep. A couple of inches of water are usually plenty. Also, having some toys available for the toddler to play with in the tub helps keep them happy and calm.

To scrub your child, use a kid friendly liquid soap or body wash squeezed onto a wet washcloth. Use the soaped washcloth to wash their body and then rinse off the excess soap. We use either a cup or the rinsed washcloth to rinse the soap off our toddler.

Critical areas to always wash are your child’s face, hands, and bottom. Cleaning their face and hands gets rid of germs and dirt. Washing their bottom reduces the chances of diaper rash.

Save washing their bottom for last and once you use the washcloth on their bottom or other privates, set it aside and don’t use it again until you wash it. We take two washcloths to bath so we have one to use after the bottom scrub.

To wash your toddler’s hair, use a children’s shampoo that won’t sting their eyes. To start, tilt their head back and pour water over their head to wet the hair. Then work the shampoo in the wet hair. You probably need to use less shampoo than you think. Finally, tilt their head back, shield their eyes with your hand and rinse the shampoo out by pouring water over their head again. Have a dry towel handy to wipe away water and shampoo that gets in their face or eyes.

Once your toddler is washed up, take them out of the tub and dry them off with a towel. Be sure to thoroughly dry the diaper area before putting on their diaper to help prevent diaper rash.

Precautions:

Do not turn your back on a toddler in the tub. A child can drown very quickly in only a small amount of water. If you need to, bring the phone into the bathroom if you need to answer calls so you don’t leave them alone in the tub.

Only use an adult sized bathtub to give your toddler baths if the child can easily and steadily sit by themselves without support. Use an infant tub until this point.

Even when sitting a bathtub can be a slippery place. You may want to consider a no slip mat or some other method of keeping your child from slipping in the tub.

Do not let your toddler stand in the tub. Again, the tub is a very slippery place and a standing toddler is likely to fall.

If you tub is arranged where there is a chance your child could hit their head on the spout you may want to investigate spout covers to protect them.

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To make bathing your toddler more fun, give them a mist spray bottle filled with water to play with. Your toddler will turn bath time into fun time as they spray you, them, and everything around. The reason to choose a misting bottle is that they don’t make much mess or wet your carpet if your bathroom is carpeted. Make sure the bottle was empty new and not an old bottle with cleaner or other chemical as you don’t want to expose your child. Other Suggested Articles: Quick Tip #1 Get on your toddler’s level Quick Tip #3 Get your toddler to follow you 36 Great Parenting Quotes about Toddlers and Infants Amusing parenting quotes

In the business world there is a social concept of the glass ceiling. The glass ceiling usually refers to women struggling to crack into the upper echelons of corporate management due to male discrimination based on gender. On the flipside, I am a man and I think I have experienced a glass ceiling for males. This glass ceiling for males is not being taken seriously as a caregiver for toddlers and infants. I am currently a stay at home dad who is actively parenting a toddler and infant. It seems like no matter what I do, some women who don’t know me don’t take me seriously being able to care for my children. When I am out with one of the kids without my wife, the looks I get from women seem to say “Oh how cute! He must be giving his wife a much needed break.” While this may be true, I still don’t feel like I get credit for being able to take care of a child without the help of the mother. Let me give you an example. Our youngest was in the NICU after birth for because she was born prematurely and my wife was on bed rest for a couple of months in the hospital prior to giving birth. I had a nurse that knew my wife had been hospitalized for a couple of months and that we had a toddler at home that I had been taking care of by myself. When I came in to take shift caring for our newborn, she looked at me and asked if I could handle it and if I had ever changed a diaper before. So for all the dads out there who have felt this glass ceiling, let’s raise awareness of the male glass ceiling and get the credit for the job we do as parents. Ok, let’s not take it too seriously… Other Suggested Articles: Toddler Milestones Calculator Monthly milestones for you child 36 Great Parenting Quotes about Toddlers and Infants Amusing parenting quotes Quick Tip #1 Get on your toddler’s level