Bathing Too Often in Dry Climate?

We're in Utah as well and my son (19m) has had bouts of eczema. We bathe him everyday, but only use soap every other day. I also didn't have luck with Eucerin or Aquafor so we use the Gold Bond Ultimate Healing and it is AMAZING! I pat him dry then put lotion on even before the diaper goes on. I agree with doing it all in the bathroom since the air in there is still moist. We haven't had any eczema problems since October.

We're in VA. We alternate between baths and good wipe downs/spongebaths. When the skin gets really dry, like now, we use a kid friendly lotion.

M.

We live in MT and I always put baking soda (a good size scoop with one of the bath toys/cups) in the bathwater to help with my daughter's skin. When she was littler she got dry spots on her arms, and I remembered that my mom used to put baking soda in my baths, so started doing that and the patches when away. She also doesn't really like lotion, but sometime's I just make sure to slather her with some body butter when she starts to look dry or itches.

I'm in Utah. We moved here from a wet climate and my daughter developde exima a month later. On dematologists advice we bath her every other day.
Tips: Don't make the water too warm it dries out skin
Lather them with lotion w/in 3 min of the tub. The dermatologist said to use Eucerin
We use Aveno moisturizing baby wash.

My 20 month old and 5 month old get baths everynight and we live in Colorado... very dry!
Both also have eczema so we make the baths short and sweet. We do let the oldest play a bit, but nothing more than 10 minutes and water level is really low- just enough to cover her bum a bit.
As soon as they get out we dry them well and get lotion all over them. We do this while in the bathroom so they stay warm and have moisture in the air. We use a very thick cream like Cetaphil or aquaphor and that seems to work well. I have also used baby oil on them (after they are out of the water), but that can get messy, however it did work!
There skin issues are the same, even if they don't bath, so we opt to bath. I just can't understand not cleaning them everyday- grosses me out, but that is just a personal thing of mine.
I think as long as you get lotion on them right away, it should all be good.

I'm on board with Busymom. Lots of water, soap optional. I throw my kids in the tub whenever I think they need it, or whenever they want to play with the tub toys. But they only get soaped when they need it to de-gunk and de-grungify! Follow up with liberal amounts of lotion... It moisturizes, and can smell really great, too!

good luck!

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Hi Becca!
I'm about 2 hours from you in Mountain View, Wyoming and my 11 month old gets a bath every night as part of her bedtime routine. I just be sure to use plenty of lotion right afterwards. She had eczema when she was born but we don't have a problem with it anymore even with a bath every day.
Have fun!

We bathe everyday. Our oldest has severe eczema, and his doctors told us to bathe for 10 minutes, 15 at the most and use a mild soap at the very end and get him out immediately after soap. We towel dry just enough to not be dripping and then use Vanicream all over. You can ask for that at any pharmacy, over the counter. We rarely have to use the steroids, etc. if we are faithful with this. I do it for all my kids, and my other two kids have the softest skin I've ever seen. My daughter (19 mos.) especially loves the daily rub downs. I use either Dove or Ivory, both unscented, with all the kids. The other products we like are Gentle Naturals Baby eczema wash and lotion. I particularly like the lotion when I see a diaper rash coming on because it takes it right away. GL! Have fun with baths!

I read an article a while back in Parents magazine (possibly Parenting magazine, I get both) that talked about how we over bathe our kids. Since young kids haven't gone through puberty and don't really stink from sweating, I found the article a relief, and almost like permission to stop bathing my kids so often. I bathe my kids once or twice a week. Of course I'll bathe them more often if they're out playing in the dirt, but if they don't seem dirty, I don't bathe them.

I live in Idaho, and all my boys have had problems with excema which is severely dry skin. The dermatologist told me to bathe them every day, or even twice a day until their rashed went away. But I had to use something to lock in the moisture. Like vaseline or crisco. Yes, crisco. It's sounds weird but it's a million times cheaper than vaseline and it works. I would bathe them every day and then rub them down with crisco, kinda like you would with baby lotion. Then I had a steroid cream to put on their rashes, but you don't need that unless they get rashy.

i used to bathe my 2 year old every night.but because of the dry climate and everything i guess he developed ezcema. the doc said we had to reduce his bath times down to 2 times a week and load him up with eucerin lotion as well as regular lotion afterwards. the rest of the week we wipe him down with a wet wash cloth and lotion up! good luck!

I don't know how people can bathe their kids every day. Maybe it's because my kids stay in for an hour! And they get hyped up by baths, so bedtime routine isn't the right time for our family to get clean.

My first and third sons have dry skin. My oldest had eczema on his face, and it looks like my baby will, too.

I pretty much just bathe them when they need it. For my older boys (6 and 3 1/2), it's about twice a week, and whenever the baby starts to smell like rotten milk. I just do it "as-needed" and keep them to a minimum.

I use raw virgin coconut oil on the skin, keep well hydrated, bathe daily, but not soap daily. The woman who uses Baking soda is onto something. In my research on the web I have come across that serveral times. it helps the Ph balance of the skin. You can even put a little in your water when you drink it. If eczema is a fungal issue, this will help greatly.

We're also in UT, my kids usually bathe/shower every day and are fine. Most of them even have sensitive skin and/or eczema, and they don't have any problems with the frequent bathing. Like others mentioned, the soap can be the issue. With my eczema kids we use Dove instead of regular soap, and make sure we use a good lotion/cream, and reactions during the winter have been minimal!

My son has eczema(and we live in the mtn's of Colorado) and we have been to countless doctors about dry skin issues. As surprising as it sounds, all the doctors have told us to bathe him daily! Luke warm water, and let them be in it until they start to get pruney. The key is though, as soon as you take them out, just pat them dry and then before leaving the bathroom slather and RUB IN lotion all over their body, and then put their clothes/pj's on(all without leaving the steamy bathroom). This keeps the water in their skin that they absorbed in the bath. The best lotion I have found is called CeraVe and it can be found OTC at Walgreens. This alone has allowed my son to be off all prescription medications for his eczema. I hope that helps!

I'm in Montana and we are VERY dry here. I have big problems with my son getting too dry when I bathe him. He will get so dry that he itches himself really hard and even makes himself bleed sometimes. Lotion helps a little, but not all the time. He is 4 years old so he is pretty messy. If he really needs a bath, but it's too soon I will use a washcloth or sponge and just do a quick wash with some moisturizing soap and then follow that up with lotion. It seems to get much worse when he soaks in the water for very long. The other thing that works is....just before they're about to get out of the bath, rub some baby oil all over, then just towel dry them off. The oil helps keep their skin from drying out, but it's less messy than trying to put in on after the bath. Good luck!

I'm in Utah, Bathe my daughter almost every day. sometimes we skip a day here and there--we use a hydrating shower wash not bars of soap, on a poof (I don't know the right term...the round fake loufa things...lol) it helps to exfoliate the dead skin cells, cleans and starts the hydration process. I then buy Gold Bond Ultimate lotion for winter time. I get mine at Sam's club it has 2 16.8 oz bottles in the pack for about $9 if I remember right. I lotion her up after the bath and usually again when we get ready for bed if bath time wasn't just before bed. I really like the Gold Bond, my skin dries out so quickly we were using Eucerin (sp?) but I don't like how oily it feels.
also making sure we all get plenty of water and keep hydrated helps so much.

We have a 2 year old out here in Colorado. We have always bathed her every other day. There are those days when you have to do a back to back bath day due to massive blow outs or play dates at the park. I would find a great natural lotion, we use Origins, and bathe when you feel they need one. Good luck.

I've used the method of only using soap once a week. They can play in the water as often as they want to clean up, but not with soap since it dries out the skin so much, and half the time isn't necessary. You could also use lotion or some kind of baby oil to moisturize the skin.

Everyone says less is netter in these dry climes, but I disagree. I bathe my baby every single day, and I have since he was brought home from the hospital. He loves to play in the bath too. Afterwards, I lotion and oil him up with a massage. He loves that too. He has never had a single skin problem. I am also a product junkie, so he gets lotioned up a lot. I am currently in love with the lotion made by Original Sprout - it's fantastic.