
Public Service Announcement 📣 YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BATH YOUR BABY EVERY DAY!
-I should probably preface this advice by saying: we are a family who cares about cleanliness over at The Sleep Chief HQ! I promise! 😄
But so many parents we speak to in our practice feel they have to keep a bath in their every day bedtime routine no matter how the day has gone. And it just isn’t true.
In fact, sometimes a bath can mean your baby will then sleep worse at night than if you’d omitted it. So let me explain the scenarios when it’s best NOT to bath…
Your little one has started childcare and isn’t napping well
POV: Your little one has started nursery or childminders and they are having catnaps or missing naps all together 😱 stay strong!But your best option in this scenario is to pick them up as early as your schedule allows, fast-track your bedtime routine and use their last bit of energy to FEED well. Rather than them spending that energy in the bath and then nodding off afterwards without taking any milk.Sound familiar?!Bathing takes energy from our babies and even a short bath can be tiring for young babies. And when there is a finite amount of energy in their tank, we want to use it wisely.
You’re dropping a nap
Your baby may be going from 3 naps to 2 naps, or from 2 naps to 1, but when they are first dropping a nap, they will be extremely tired towards the end of their day – around when they would have normally been napping.

So again, it’s about thinking: how can we make this last part of the day as gentle and non-stimulating for your baby as possible? So making sure that you prioritise their energy for eating solids and feeding well because ultimately, without that calorie intake your little one is likely to wake overnight genuinely hungry.
When time is limited...
It’s not worth pushing your baby’s bedtime later in order to prioritise them having a bath. Seriously, prioritise their awake window instead!
The longer your little one is awake over and above what’s optimal for their age, the more likely it is that they will be creeping into “overtired” territory. And therefore: much more difficult to settle and with a stronger possibility of night wakes AND early rising. 🙅 I know it feels comfortable and familiar to stay with what you do every day and often parents feel scared to potentially rock the boat and deviate in any way from what they always do.
However, my advice with the types of scenarios mentioned is to do a quick flannel-down instead and prioritise that early night or regular bedtime. Managing your baby's level of tiredness and optimising their daytime calorie intake are the actual needle-movers 👌
Grab our free Extending Naps Guide below and let’s get those long, predictable naps happening on the daily:
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