# Bathing Alone



## colsxjack (Dec 9, 2009)

At what age can a child be in the bathtub alone?

Or is it a skill set they need rather than an age?

How about for a short period of time, like to go get something from another room?

How old do you like your child to be, or at what stage of skills do you like your child to be before you leave them in the bath alone for a minute? How about for several minutes? How about to do the majority of the bath alone?


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## philomom (Sep 12, 2004)

Eh, 7 if they can swim some. Maybe with the door propped open a inch so you can hear the splashing, pouring and scrubbing noises.

There's no reason to be over cautious or not give them any privacy, I just like my kids to be safe... so that's what felt right to me.


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## queenjane (May 17, 2004)

I think i started leaving mine for a bit when they were about 3...would try to keep my eye on them, and def an ear out, and check in visually and/or verbally quite often ("you ok in there?" esp if i didnt hear singing/playing etc) I might be in another room but really only 10-20 feet from the actual bathroom.

As they got older and more capable i would provide less direct supervision. Now at age 5, the boys will take baths (either together or alone...seems safer actually when they are not in there together) for quite a long time and im just in the next room. I call out "you ok in there?" every few minutes esp if i dont hear anything but usually there is lots of splashing/ "swimming"/playing going on.

Not sure how i would handle it if i ever lived in a home where the bath was on a second floor....i know i would not feel comfortable with leaving one alone at 3 and going to a different floor but not sure what age i WOULD feel comfortable with that.


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## Chloe'sMama (Oct 14, 2008)

I am still in the room with dd1 at 4.5... she almost always is in the bath with dd2 who is 2.5. I may walk out of the room for a few seconds to get pj's or towels..... but always for less than 30 seconds. If it was just dd1, I still would not feel comfortable leaving for much more. I think 6 or 7 for leaving any extended amount of time.... no real reason though. We will see.


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## GISDiva (Jul 13, 2007)

We started probably around 3. My son constantly sings LOUDLY in the bathtub and our house is small, so it felt OK to me. We did instill that standing in the tub is a big no-no unless we were around and he is really good about that.


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## mamazee (Jan 5, 2003)

Around 3 to 4. The door is open so I can hear what's going on and I can see a bit in. The biggest threat at that age is if they stand up. If they were to fall down and hit their head, they could drown. So that's what I look for before I am not sitting with them the whole time - whether they know not to stand up and don't stand up.


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## crunchy_mommy (Mar 29, 2009)

My DS is 4 and someone still stays within arm's reach. I imagine it will be 2-3 more years before I'm comfortable leaving him unsupervised. He can swim but for some reason I just don't feel it's safe yet... and also he is too short to "step" into the bath & needs to "climb" in so that is another concern I guess.


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## Skippy918 (Jul 15, 2008)

I stay within earshot of DS who is 41/2. He's loud anyway so that helps. I help him get out and dry him off.


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## vermontgirl (Aug 15, 2006)

I think they are all different, but I think mine were both about three but I had the door open and constantly walked by to check on them. Also, shallow water is good.


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## mumkimum (Nov 14, 2006)

For doing something briefly in the next room, or putting away towels in the hallway - stuff like that nearby the bathtub, at 3-4 y/o. I also agree with the above PP's - it's partly about the not standing up in the tub and/or being able to get in and out on their own (or knowing NOT to get in/out on their own if they can't do it safely -- and not fooling around with those things).

My 6 y/o has sometimes taken baths independently without me around (though mostly I'm still at least nearby as above).


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## Asiago (Jul 1, 2009)

Drowning is one concern then there are burns and fracture injuries too.
AAP reccomends full adult supervision until at least age four and Yale medical until age six. I would imagine then it is guaged according to the individual child, children vary as individuals and there are different safety factors I suppose.
My son is 3.5 and I stay next to the tub with him. I have seen him try to retrieve a toy if it falls out of the tub, even kneeling he has slipped and I caught him. At this age they are always trying new skills.
As for burns I recall a friend years ago, as an adult with burn scars on her legs. As a child her mother left she and her brother alone a moment to answer the phone. The older sibling turned on the water.
That is often in the back of my mind. My husband turned our water heater down but it should go down more to 120.
One last comment...last night my son exited the tub and decided to put his foot on the tub instead of outside of it....that could have been an accident waiting to happen as he pushed off. He is trying those types of new skills regularly now.


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## colsxjack (Dec 9, 2009)

Yeah. Our DD will be 4 in the summer. But it will be a while (couple of years) before she can get in and out safely. We have a deep soaker tub.

She does listen quite well to rules, and so probably would not try to get out alone and would call to us.

Actually, she would probably not even accept being in the room by herself longer than a few minutes anyway. She likes our company almost all the time.

She cannot swim at all. Although is comfortable floating a bit and putting her face in the water and blowing bubbles.

We haven't left her in the tub yet. But I was wondering when that would be.

I think that for now I would feel comfortable leaving her to go get a clean towel or something. The linen closet is 15 steps away from the bathroom.

But I wouldn't be comfortable taking a phone call or going downstairs for something.


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## Miss Ess (Sep 16, 2012)

We started at 4, but I am always in the next room, and I leave the door wide open.

I make sure to check on him occasionally, and verbally check on him more frequently. He's usually pretty loud in there so it's pretty easy to tell that he's okay most of the time.


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## Escaping (Nov 13, 2012)

I would also say 3 or 4, but I would be listening and "supervising" from outside the room. I'm not too concerned about burns because our bathroom faucet needs to go through the cold setting to get to the hot setting and even then it takes a minute or two to get the hot... when renovating the bathroom, we also busted into a closet in another room so there is now an access panel to get to the plumbing, so I guess I could also just shut the hot water off really easily if he's in there by himself.

My son is now 1 and he pretty much bathes independently. I'm in there with him 100% of the time, but I just take the first 30 seconds to soap/shampoo him up and the rest of the time is just me sitting next to the tub watching him... he seems to be doing pretty well so I'm sure he'll be ready to bath by himself not long from now.

I never remember my parents watching me have a bath... I think I would be a bit weirded out if I did, but I was a farm kid so I think we were expected to be more rugged and independent, as 6 in farm years is half way to being an adult! lol


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## pumabearclan (Nov 14, 2012)

When my daughter wanted to bathe alone (about 3 yrs) I taught her how to shower. I felt is was safer and that she was more likely to get clean, especially her hair. She did shower alone from then on, and never had a problem. I was always within earshot while she was in the shower and would call to her every 5 minutes or so. She didn't take baths any more after she started showering.


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## BeagleMommy (May 26, 2006)

PumaBearclan, how did you teach her to wash her hair? I really have no idea. I'm still washing my 6 year old daughter's hair for her.


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## pumabearclan (Nov 14, 2012)

Hello BeagleMommy,

Well the first thing we did was discuss getting a short pixie-type haircut. She didn't have any particular desire to have long hair and when she realized that she would be able to be independent with short hair she decided that she wanted a short haircut. She picked out a picture she liked and we went and got a haircut for her. She looked absolutely adorable and received many compliments. Afterwards not only was she able to shower alone but also get herself ready for school/playschool in the morning on her own and it made recreational swimming much easier as well.

As for how to wash the hair, it wasn't much more difficult than washing the rest of her body after the haircut. Sometimes if I checked it it and there was still soap, a dash under the kitchen faucet was enough.

Puma


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## LaughingHyena (May 4, 2004)

A bit older than most fol for us it seems.

My oldest is now 8 and has only in the last year or so started taking baths alone, before that she'd share with DS and I would sit in the room with them. Had they not been quite so prone to arguments & pouring water over the side I may have felt comfortable popping in an out a bit earlier than I did.

DS is 6 1/2 and again only in the last few months have I felt comfortable popping in and out. I still stay on the same floor but often now putting clothes away or whatever in the next room. I still prefer to be in the room when he gets out, he has some bath oil for his excema which makes the tubs a bit slippery, but he's generally now reliable at calling when I'm needed. That has only been fairly recent and without that I felt I needed to be there.


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## erigeron (Oct 29, 2010)

Okay, I will be the oddball. We supervise part of our daughter's baths from the hallway. We draw the bath and get her settled, and when she needs to actually be washed we do that, but when she is in the "playing in the water" phase we retreat to out of her eyeline because otherwise all she wants is for us to pour water, turn the tap on, etc. And she's not quite 2. From our spot in the hall we can easily poke our heads up to check on her in the mirror, or get to her in a moment if we hear a huge splash or clunk or other worrisome noise. When she is "by herself" all she does is splash around, pour water, drink water (ugh, whatever). She does not try to climb out of the tub or turn the water on, we have a rubber mat at the bottom of the tub and she's never been rambunctious enough that we are concerned she will get carried away and slip. She is in general a pretty cautious and non-rambunctious kid. This works for us right now, although obviously if she gets more squirrely and it becomes a problem then we'll change our approach.


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## alaskanmomma (May 25, 2011)

I spend a large part of my 4.5 and 3 year olds bath time in the bathroom with them, but I do go to their room and get pj's put out and ready. The bathroom and bedroom are right by each other, but I can't see the bathtub. I try to make it quick, I get paranoid and have them talk to me the entire time lol. I started doing this probably 6ish months ago.


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## Adaline'sMama (Apr 16, 2010)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *PumaBearclan*
> 
> When my daughter wanted to bathe alone (about 3 yrs) I taught her how to shower. I felt is was safer and that she was more likely to get clean, especially her hair. She did shower alone from then on, and never had a problem. I was always within earshot while she was in the shower and would call to her every 5 minutes or so. She didn't take baths any more after she started showering.


This is what we do too. DD wants to play by herself in the tub, so I tell her she can fill containers, but she cant fill the tub.


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## KaliShanti (Mar 23, 2008)

3 or so. But our house is tiny and unless I closed the door to the bathroom and closed to the door to the room I was in, I can hear the child just fine.


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## queenjane (May 17, 2004)

I never thought showering was safer for a small child. It seems to me the major risk in a tub/shower situation is falling and hitting your head, not drowning. That would be more likely standing up in a shower than in a tub. In fact, only very recently have i allowed my boys to get in and out of the tub themselves without me standing right there helping them (they turned 5 in Jan and in Feb) I'm not opposed to showers but it seems to me a lot more could "go wrong" than in a tub where the child is just sitting playing with toys (unless you have a child that stands up and moves around in the tub, but i discourage mine from doing that. )


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## pumabearclan (Nov 14, 2012)

I suppose the difference for us was that showering was for washing, bathing encouraged playing, especially "mock swimming."

My daughter understood that the shower was not a place to play. It was a place to wash. It was a responsibility and privilige to clean herself.

Maybe with some children this would not work out.

It would also depend upon the shower. With proper gripping amendments to the shower floor, or for a shower floor that is not also a bathtub, slipping is a minor risk.


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