A New Bathing Ritual

How we make sponge bathing a toddler with a broken leg a special time.

I never thought I would be writing a post on something like this!  A fellow parent in the hospital suggested we make a point of creating a great sponge bathing experience, and with so many weeks of it ahead of us, something special was required.

Since arriving home from the hospital, a new little bathing ritual has developed which is worth sharing I think...

Having candles seems to really mark the occasion.  It brings a sense of "event".  So we light the candles after singing a little song to call the light fairies.  It is the same one we sing at our Steiner/Waldorf play group to summon the light fairies to the candle for story time.

"Light fairy, 

please come when we call you, 

and the light fairy came, 

bringing light from the sun" 

Because we want to have the candles close by and they are rather subject to being knocked over, we are using little led light candles for our bathing ritual at the moment.

A large glass bowl of not-too-hot water with some lovely bubble bath.  Our little girl likes to "make it fluffy"  by swirling it with her fingers - all by herself of course.

When sponge bathing it isn't as easy to rinse, so any product used is more likely to remain on her skin. We make an effort to choose something that doesn't irritate and won't strip her skin's protective layer.  Our choice for natural, simple bath care is ecostore.

We have used it exclusively since she was born.  She loves the bubble bath, especially so when daddy supercharges the bubbles.  Of course we love the sleepy time bath for rather obvious reasons, but the lavender and geranium fragrance fills the bathroom with such a delicious scent.  I sneakily use it too :)

Together with some soft fluffy towels and a stack of wash cloths, we keep a basket of bathing goodies packed, including bubble bath, moisturiser, nappy balm and baby soap.

We need at least one washcloth each as someone likes to collect them :)  

Underneath is hidden a plastic sheet to protect the floor.

and so the fun begins...

She loves to wring out the cloths and stick them to herself - is this a universal child thing?

She also loves to fling a dripping wet cloth about.  The more water that lands on us the better!   We wrap her cast in a thick towel to avoid it getting wet :)

We often sing songs in the bath and we do the same during our sponge bath ritual too, choosing seasonal songs to intersperse with the regular favourites.  At the moment there is a rain theme;  Incy wincy spider, I hear thunder, mitten weather...

I'm not sure what it is about singing, but it really does help in the bathing process!

After bathing we massage her with baby moisturiser.  She loves it.  She likes to apply it and we massage it in.  This is such a nice thing to do together.  Often we combine the massage with "this little piggy went to market" and "round and round the garden like a teddy bear" for some instant giggles.

The amount of time we spend on this depends on the temperature and her mood!

A little girl who was potty trained, sadly, had to go back to nappies - with mummy struggling to lift, carry and maneuver her with her heavy cast.

To make nappies a little more bearable we found a deliciously healing and protective balm is just the thing.  At nappy time she goes straight to the basket for what she calls her "poo cream".   So cute.

At the end of the ritual we sing goodbye to the light fairies, and blow out the candles.

"fire fairies 

thank you for 

your golden glow" 

So there you have it, our new bathing ritual.   I am really enjoying this time, it is something to look forward to and she is finding it fun too.  Washing her hair will be another story, but will cross that bridge when we get to it!

You can also check out our summer bathing idea here.

xx

This is not a sponsored post by ecostore.  I simply love their range and truly believe in it and what they are doing.   I wrote asking their permission for me to include their products in my post.  They sent me a copy of  their new book Eco-man.  Such a great read and so interesting to hear more about their philosophy.  Also some items I hadn't tried yet - thanks so much.