How to Bathe Baby After a Blowout (And Other Messy Disasters!)

Image : Disney Baby

I love giving my babies baths. It’s a peaceful end to the day, they love splashing around, and there’s nothing like tucking a clean sleepy baby into bed. But sometimes bath time isn’t so much an end-of-day ritual as an emergency situation after a diaper blowout or a self-feeding lesson gone wrong.

In that moment, what you need is a bath that gets them clean (and keeps you from getting soaked!) ASAP.

Here’s how I handle those emergency bath times (and I’ve dealt with several in just the last two weeks):

1. Undress them in the bath tub Since their clothes are likely really messy, I like to keep everything contained. I lay my baby down in the empty full-size bathtub and undress her there so I’m not getting the mess anywhere else.

2. Grab a towel and baby soap Before you start the water, grab a towel, some baby soap, and a clean diaper while your hands are free.

3. Use a baby tub to speed things up When you’re trying to get a big mess cleaned up, you don’t want it spreading all over the adult bath tub or to wait for the whole tub to fill up. I find using a baby tub makes things much faster because I can fill it up in just a minute or two and it’s much easier to clean out afterward than the big bath tub.

4. Throw the baby clothing directly into the wash Spray some stain remover in with the clothing to keep it from getting ruined and run it as soon as possible to keep the stains from setting.

5. Enjoy the fact that you have a clean baby when you weren’t expecting it! While a bath may not have been on the agenda, it’s nice to have a super fresh baby to cuddle with after the fact.

And if your baby is a bath-lover like mine, she’ll probably see it as an extra bonus too!