Baby bathing safety

It's bath time! While getting your baby clean can be a very special time for both of you, this is also the time when you have to be extremely careful. Here are some basic tips for you to keep in mind:

General

The first, the most essential and the most general rule goes like this:
Constant supervision. Period.
Do not leave your baby even for a minute, just don't do it. If you have to leave the bathroom, wrap your baby in a towel and take with him with you. It's also better to think ahead about all the things you might need during the bathing. If you think this advice a bit over the top, think again – it is proven by sad statistics that a baby can drown in an inch of water, or sometimes even less.

If your baby can already stand or is at least trying to stand up, teach him not to do so in the bathtub, bathtubs are usually extremely slippery.

As for soaps, shampoos and bubble baths, the general rule here is not to overdo it. Being immersed into soap-filled water for too long may have a lot of negative consequences to your baby's skin.

Temperatures

First, take note of the temperature inside your bathroom. It must be comfortably warm, about 75F.

Second, check the temperature of water in the bathtub. Take into account that babies and toddlers mostly prefer way cooler water than grown-ups do. The optimum is about 90-100F.

Finally, if you use a water heater check that the temperature is set to be no more than 120F. Most water heaters are set to about 140F by factory default, that's clearly unacceptable and way too hot for a baby. It can take about 5 seconds for a baby to have burns in a 140F water, remember it.

Quantity of water

Do not over-fill your bathtub with water. Babies up to 6 months usually need no more than 2-3 inches of water. As for older children, the correct level is about the waist of your child when sitting down.

Also, always remember not to leave your baby in the tub with water still running. The water might get too deep if you are not following or the temperature can change unexpectedly.

Bathtub & faucet

One of the dangerous things often overlooked by parents is metallic bath spout. Nevertheless it can give a baby very painful bumps when not covered with a special spout cover. Also, as it was said, bathtubs are extremely slippery, so you might want to use a rubber mat to make it more secure and comfortable.

Never allow your baby to touch facet handles. Even if it is obvious that your little one can't move the handles now – it won't take a lot of time for your child to become capable of that, and as you might have guessed that is a sure way to some quite serious troubles.