The bath is a two-hand job
A bath is optional on a bad day. Drowning is not. If you are going to do it, do it like a person who has read the boring page.
Only enough warm water to wash. You do not fill a tub and call it an experience. Do not top it up while the baby is in it.
If you are using a sink, run cold water through the tap before you switch it off, so the next drip is not hot metal. Carry water in jugs if you are away from the tap. Temperature is 37 to 38 degrees.
A thermometer is better. Wrist or elbow if you do not have one. Comfortably warm, not hot.
Your hands are a worse judge than you think after you have been washing dishes.
Face first, while they are still dressed. Cotton or a soft cloth, lukewarm, squeezed out. Eyes from the inner corner out, a clean bit of cloth each wipe.
Then the rest of the face. Do not poke ears or nose. Nappy off last.
In the water, one arm cradles head and shoulders, the other supports the body. Feet first. You do not let go to reach the washer.
If you need the washer, it was already in your hand. Wash neck and body, then the creases. Genitals and bottom last, front to back.
Hair once or twice a week is plenty, after the body so the head is not cold and wet the whole time. Water and a cloth. Shampoo is not required.
You can also do hair before the bath while they are wrapped.
The sentence to memorise. A child can drown in a few seconds in very shallow water. You never leave, not for a bath seat, not for a cradle, not because an older child is keen to help.
Phone rings, you take the baby out. The phone is not the emergency. The water is.
Out, head and neck supported, onto a towel. On the floor if you can, so there is no fall. On a change table, one hand always on them.
Pat dry, including armpits, groin, chin, neck, behind ears. Dry skin can have an unperfumed moisturiser. Thick barrier cream such as zinc on the nappy area if you are using it.
No talcum powder. No cornstarch powder. Nappy on, clothes on, baby into a cot or bassinet that is actually safe.
Then empty the bath and take the plug out. A forgotten inch of water is still water.
It takes practice. Do the first ones with another adult if your grip feels wrong. Relax is the instruction, and it is easier to relax when the temperature is already right and the phone is in another room.
Source: Raising Children Network