Bathing with baby - how?

We need to start getting J (15 weeks) a bit happier in the bath as he looks pretty scared when he's in the water still! We've only been bathing him once a week which I'm sure is one of the reasons he's not that comfortable with it yet so we will start to bath him more often. This morning, H went in the bath with him and it was fairly successful but I wondered if any of you had any tips for bathing with your baby and/or making helping them enjoying bath time?

I give him lots of big smiles when he's in the water, sing songs, do some gentle splashing and don't keep him in for too long. We realised today we need a bath mat in so that he doesn't slip on the bottom when H is holding him under the arms.

Thanks,

Katy

I used to love bathing with my little ones.  I specifically did it with no 1 to help us both relax and help him latch on better.  So if you're breastfeeding, it might be worth trying to feed him in the bath?

 

We haven't had that much water in the bath and I think if i was feeding him, I'd be holding him out of the water. Guess I could run it deeper? Thanks for the idea.

Can you borrow a tummy tub to try? Sarah is much happier in that than she ever was in the bath - she has now started splashing around in there and trying to stand up in it! She is always leaning forward trying to drink the water too!

I bathed with t for months from the very beginning. He hait for quite a while but gradually learned to love it, and now at 2 he loves having a bath (I stopped getting in with him when he was confidently sitting unaided) I used to hold him on my lap so the bath was quite deep. We didn't keep him in there to long at the beginning, and from about 3 months we bathed him every night and still do. A bath mat is invaluable. Once he was about 6 months we brought some bath toys, but just used to do splashig etc before that. H always sat at the side of the bath and washed his hair while I held him, and used to hide behind the side of the bath and jump out when he was a bit bigger. It will get easier the more you do it. Hth.

I've always taken a bath with my babies.  But instead of holding them under the arms, I lie on my back and lie them on my tummy on their backs.  Great for skin to skin and really calms them down.  Need to fill the bath deep enough so that it comes up to their tummies when lying down.

I bought one of those sponge things that lie on the floor of the bath, then baby lies on that.  It's really helped and I can use it either if bathing George myself or if in the bath with him.  He is really starting to enjoy baths now (we bath him most nights) and quite often has a little splash about.

I fill the bath quite deep and let her float on her back and just hold her underneath - only problem is she just constantly clambers over me to get to my boobs and settles down for a feed i have to get out the bath to give her a wash cos she won't stop feeding otherwise!

Zoe hated baths until she started swimming lessons at 11 weeks.  The one thing we found was that she was much happier with warmer water than recommended.

One of us used to bath with her because we found it much easier.  Generally I'd fill the bath as if for a normal bath and then she would lie on me. 

Some great suggestions - thank you, will try them out.

Dinx - do you have a link to the sponge thing you mentioned?

We also do a slightly warmer and deeper bath as N prefers that.

We have a bath insert which he seems to like