Claire Goss, 32, a Massachusetts mother of a 3-month-old son, has confessed in a blog post on Babble.com that she only bathes her baby about once a week.
She writes:
Yep, total confession time: I really don’t bathe my baby. I’m guessing at least half of you cringed reading the above and the other half nodded in solemn approval. I honestly didn’t even realize it was true until today when I spotted his bathtub sitting dejectedly in a corner. “Huh,” I thought, “when was the last time I used THAT?!”
But Goss says her pediatrician is supportive of her move, and that her doctor told her she was bathing her second child (her current infant is her third) so often that it was drying out his skin. There’s even evidence that today’s toddlers may be too clean for their own health — a little bit of bacteria can be good for building up immune systems and keeping asthma, allergies and other conditions at bay. She even cites recommendations from the Mayo Clinic that say infants do not need a full bath every day as long as their diaper area, neck, and face are cleaned. And the American Pediatric Association recommends bathing babies every other day.
Not all mothers and experts are on board with Goss’s strategy, pointing out that bathing can be a soothing experience and an opportunity for mom and child to bond — and that infants can just get too sticky to skip a daily bath. But Goss isn’t swayed. “I aim for once a week. It might not happen. I will confess, it has gone longer than a week. It can be a good 10 days,” Goss told ABC News about the time between her baby’s baths. And what about that clean baby smell? “…If you met my baby and held him, you’d probably think he smells as amazing as I do,” she said.