How To Teach Children To Bathe

Hank Ketcham must have confused kids with dirt monsters when he made the character of Dennis the Menace. One of the cartoon strips of the famous five year old showed him telling his mother one morning, even as she woke him up for school, “I’d a nightmare last night, mom – that I was eatin’ carrots and takin’ a bath at the SAME TIME!” Poor Dennis’ mom never showed him how to have fun in the bathtub or how to play  with little ships and act as if he is leading a sixteenth century war in the sea. Also, there were times when, all covered in soap and bubbles, he would tell his mom “I dunno where I am, mom, look for me.” Jokes apart, it is best to let your children learn by themselves that bath can be fun and not just an exercise in hygiene, though that is of primary importance. Here’s how to teach your children to take a bath all by themselves.

 

Teaching Children About Bath And Hygiene 

Here’s what you need to do in order to teach your child about taking a bath and about basic hygiene:

 

Turn On The Water-Works 

Instead of turning on the hot water yourself, let your child turn it on and let them see for themselves how hot or cold the water is, so that they can gauge their needs. Also, they need to be taught to add cold water to the hot water, to bring it to a comfortable temperature for bath. If the child uses a shower, with temperature settings, teach your child to gauge for himself or herself as to which setting gives them water at the most comfortable temperature.

This Is The Way We Wash Our Hair 

You must also instruct the children to wash their hair all by themselves. You could make them lay down in the water to get to wet the entire head or you could pour a mug of water over their head. Children tend to use more shampoo than they should, so it is up to you to tell them about the right amount to be used. A fun way to teach them how to lather up the shampoo is to ask them to show how a cat would scratch its head with her paws. You can make a game out of it and change the animal every time. When they are done with playing, you could teach them to wash out all the shampoo the same way as they wet their hair; make sure every bit of the shampoo is washed away.

 

Don’t Be A Loofah 

Now that they are done with the hair, it is time to wash the dirt off their bodies! For this give your children a washcloth or loofah and show them how to apply some soap to it. Now, show your children how to wash each part of their bodies – from their face, arms, hands, legs and their bottom and also some areas like the crevices between the toes and the area behind the ears that often goes neglected. Help them out with harder areas like their back or neck. Once soap has been applied all over, be sure that you show them how to rinse all of the soap out of the washcloth.

 

Fun With Water 

This is the part that the children will enjoy most! Let your child have a little bit of fun time in the tub after they have cleaned themselves. They do deserve a reward for being good children and for not trying to avoid a bath and especially if they are taking a bath before bedtime, you had better let them take some time to unwind and work up a good night’s sleep for bedtime.

 

Prepared For The After Bath 

Since they are bound to play with toys and other things inside the bathtub, it is up to you to instruct them to clean up after they are done with the bath. To have some fun after they have washed up, they can play with their toys for a while. When it is time to get out they should be told to pick up the toys and put them in the right place. Get a hanging bag or container for the toys and have your child "put them to bed”. They should also put the soap in the soap dish and hang the washcloth over the side of the tub as well as let the water out of the tub.