When you begin your baby's bath, there are quite a few things you will want to have handy. Before you undress the baby and put him or her in the tub, you will want to have these things within reach. If you do not, you will need to do without some essentials, or take a wet baby with you to fetch them. You cannot leave a baby alone in a bath.
A handy thing to have is a basket with all your bath essentials. Some things you will want to have at your changing and dressing station part of the time. You can fetch them before you run the bath water or have an extra one just for your bath basket.
Some of the things you want to have nearby for your baby's bath are a towel, a wash cloth, and baby shampoo. Many baby shampoos can also double as a body wash, so that makes it a bit easier to deal with. While any mild shampoo or liquid castile soap is fine for babies, a baby's shampoo will be tear-free, or in other words, it will not sting if it gets in the eyes.
You should have a bath thermometer to test the water. You could make do with your wrist or elbow to test water temperature, but many bath thermometers for babies double as a rubber ducky or some other kind of bath toy, so why not have one? It is also nice to have a collection of bath toys. These can be left near the bath tub. There are net bags you can buy to hold the toys as they air dry over the tub.
If your baby needs to take some kind of medicine, such as acetaminophen or an antibiotic, bring their medicine to the tub. A baby will almost always drip or drool their medicine. By giving them their medicine at the tub, it is super easy to clean up the sticky mess afterwards.
You need to decide where you will be undressing and dressing your baby relative to the tub. If you want to do it right by the tub, you can quarter fold an adult towel to make a nice soft pad to go underneath your baby, and undress or dress him or her on the floor by the bathtub. If this is what you will be doing you will need to remember to bring a clean diaper, diaper ointment, clothes and baby comb with you to the bathroom.
Another approach is to undress your baby at their usual changing station, wrap him or her in a towel, and bring them to the tub. After the bath, you wrap the baby again and go back to your changing station. With this approach you can minimize baby urine getting on you or a clean towel if you merely loosen the tapes on the diaper and keep the diaper on the baby until you get to the tub. If you must deal with a soiled diaper immediately before a bath, you can clean up the baby as you usually would after a soiled diaper and possibly use two baby towels -- one for before bath and one for after the bath.
With a little forethought you can have everything you need for you baby's bath in a convenient place. Under no circumstances should a baby or young child be left alone in the bathtub, even for a moment. Being organized will lessen aggravation and give you more freedom to play and have fun at your baby's bath time.
