The first few months with the baby are really exhausting. Routines change radically, and our schedules must adapt to the baby’s schedules.
If the couple is at home or has the help of family and friends, we can take the opportunity to rest for a while, eat quietly or wash up. But if this is not the case, taking a simple shower can become mission impossible .
And it is that although it is tempting to take advantage of the little time in which the baby sleeps to shower, the truth is that we should not leave him alone without supervision. In addition, it is enough that we put one foot in the shower so that our little one begins to cry and claim us.
If you are a new mom / dad and this situation is familiar to you, here are some ideas that can help you enjoy a bath when you are caring for your baby.
Place him in the hammock or bassinet
I think this is the main resource parents turn to when we need to take a shower.
Placing the baby safely in the hammock or laying him down in the bassinet is undoubtedly the best idea, because there he can continue to sleep peacefully while we wash, or if he is awake he will be calm when he sees and listens to us.
Place him in a play blanket
The blankets, activity mats or gyms are a perfect option for the baby to entertain himself for a while while he discovers the different textures, sounds and colors of the blankets and toys that it contains, while exercising his muscles.
Personally, it has been one of the toys that I have used the most with my babies, and being so easy to transport, it has allowed me to always carry it with me and place it in any room of the house where I was to have them always watched.
Bathing with the baby
Although perhaps by schedule, your baby does not have a bath when you go to shower, it is okay to alternate this routine at any given time and shower or bathe with your baby .
I used the water scarf to shower with my baby when he was very irritated and did not want to stay in the hammock, or simply when I wanted to enjoy an intimate and magical moment between the two.
Bathing with my baby also helped me relax him when he had colic, as skin-to-skin contact calmed him, and was my “salvation” during his first lactation strike. And there is nothing that a warm bath in skin-to-skin contact with mom can’t solve.
Basket of treasures
When the baby already begins to move on his own (crawling or crawling), what he most wants is to explore the world around him with his five senses . But the bathroom is not the best place to feed those exploratory cravings, as it is fraught with potential dangers for a baby.
For this reason, one of my infallible tricks was to prepare a treasure basket with items that would not pose any danger to it and renew it from time to time, so that it would always be a novelty to explore the little piece of the world contained in that basket .
Building games
At around 12-18 months, one of the things that entertains babies the most is simple construction games. Stacking pieces in the shape of a tower, combining them, assembling them, making them fall … is extremely fun, as well as very beneficial for their psychomotor and cognitive development.
So before you get in the shower, spread a few building blocks on the bathroom floor and encourage your baby to build a tall tower. It is sure to be entertained long enough for you to clean up with ease.
Stories
Another entertainment idea that never fails is storytelling. There are many ways to take advantage of this resource: from telling him a story while we shower, imitating the voices of characters or gesturing to capture his attention and keep him entertained for a while, to asking him to be the one to tell us if by age he is already capable, or offer all the stories for babies that we have in the home library (better if they are made of plastic or fabric, to prevent them from deteriorating if they get wet).
Paint and color
If your little one is old enough to color / doodle, you can give him a few sheets of paper and a packet of colored crayons suitable for children.
Another surefire trick is to draw on a blackboard . It has always entertained my kids a lot, so we’ve had multi-class blackboards, both portable chalk, like Montessori-style sand boards, double-sided blackboards with a magnetized back, or even wall-mounted blackboards, which they continue to use a lot. nowadays.
Precautions that we must take while showering in the presence of the baby
Apart from these and other entertainment ideas for the baby to be distracted while we take a bath or shower, it is important to follow these basic recommendations:
- Do not lose sight of the baby while we shower: I wish we could disconnect 100%, but as long as the baby is in our care we cannot lower our guard. It goes without saying that even if there are older children at home we should never leave them in charge of a baby, even if we think it will only take a few minutes.
- If the baby is already crawling or walking, check that the room is safe for him: secure all the drawers and doors of the bathroom furniture so that he cannot open them, protect all the plugs and remove any product that may pose a risk from his reach (jars of gel / shampoo, glass bottles, toiletries …)
- Check that the temperature of the room is adequate , that is to say that it is not too high or there is a high degree of humidity that could suffocate the baby.
When help arrives, you can finally enjoy a relaxed bath, without watches and without having to constantly watch your baby out of the corner of your eye. But in the meantime, these tricks will allow you to take a quick shower every day and face the day with the most charged batteries.
Photos | Pexels, iStock
In Babies and More | How to “survive” the first years of parenting when your children have little age difference: my essential tips, The first shower after childbirth: when and how to wash after giving birth
