From time immemorial in Rus', women gave birth in a bathhouse (and not only commoners, but also noblewomen, princesses and even queens).
By the way, modern medicine, as often happens, has confirmed that our ancestors had many reasons for this. There is a lot of warm water in the bathhouse, the right air temperature (which is suitable not only for the mother in labor, but also for the newborn baby), and hot steam kills pathogenic microbes. And from birth, the bathhouse accompanies a person all his life - the bathhouse soars, the bathhouse rules, the bathhouse will fix everything, people say.
At what age can a child go to the bathhouse?
The healing effect of bath procedures is achieved due to the temperature difference, as well as due to the moist, hot air of the steam room.
All these conditions are well tolerated by most adult bath-goers, but children must first be prepared for visiting the sauna and steam room. If you want to introduce your child to the bathhouse, then you should wait until he reaches 3 years of age. The body of a newborn baby is characterized by imperfect thermoregulation - it quickly overheats and reacts negatively to high temperatures. This feature persists in children until about one and a half years old: at this time, parents should take care that the child is not hot or cold, and use water at 37-38°C for hygiene procedures. After one and a half years, you can begin to gradually harden the child, but this should not be done in a bathhouse. In addition, children under three years of age have not yet developed sweat glands, so visiting the steam room may not be safe for them. All pediatricians agree that from the age of three, visiting a bathhouse is absolutely safe, and before this age you can harden your baby using air baths and wet rubdowns. The most famous children's doctor, the famous doctor Evgeniy Komarovsky, shares the same opinion.
A child over three years old can visit the bathhouse with their parents, but the time spent in the steam room should be limited to a few minutes. In this case, the temperature in the steam room should not exceed 40°C, and the baby’s condition must be carefully monitored. After warming up, you can pour cool water over the child’s hands and feet, and then continue hygiene procedures in the shower or wash room.
Is it possible to wash a child in a bath?
A modern bathhouse is a multifunctional building, often equipped not only with a steam room and a wash room, but also with a separate shower room. If your bathhouse is like this, then you can fearlessly take your children with you and wash them in the bathhouse.
During hygiene procedures, it is necessary to ensure the safety of children:
- Protect the stove and other heating devices;
- Place non-slip mats on the floor and shelves;
- Monitor the air temperature in the room;
- Control the time spent in the steam room.
If you use a special baby bath to bathe your baby, then it must be installed and fixed on a flat surface at a low level. Fill the bath with water yourself and check its temperature with a thermometer. Choose products for washing your baby’s hair and body based on his skin type and the pediatrician’s recommendations. If the baby is in the bathhouse for the first time, then it is advisable for parents to hold him in their arms so that the child can quickly adapt to the new environment and feel safe. Take with you an inflatable ring, a hat or your baby’s favorite toys, and bathing will turn into pleasant entertainment.
If the bathhouse is located at a distance from living quarters, then after washing, dress the baby in warm clothes, or wrap him in a blanket or blanket. A towel made of natural linen or cotton will help quickly remove moisture from your child's skin.
Is it possible for children to take a steam bath?
The Russian bath and Finnish sauna have a powerful healing effect: visiting a steam room and steaming with brooms is often used as a therapeutic and prophylactic procedure to help prevent or cure colds in children. However, parents must remember an important rule - only completely healthy children can visit the bathhouse! Contraindications to bath procedures are also:
- Heat;
- Presence of skin rash;
- Diseases of the blood, kidneys and thyroid gland;
- Frequent nosebleeds;
- Manifestations of vegetative-vascular dystonia.
Before your first visit to the bathhouse, you must consult your doctor and get his approval for this procedure.
Children as young as five years old can steam with brooms, of course, with the help of their parents. And even in this case, the procedure should be carried out at the child’s request: if the baby refuses to take a steam bath, do not insist on the procedure. In this case, simply having the child in the steam room will have a beneficial effect: the aroma of steamed brooms and herbs acts as an inhalation and helps to heal the body.
For children, it is better to choose brooms with small soft leaves - the best option would be a traditional birch or linden broom. Rinse thoroughly, and then steam the broom in hot water, and before use, be sure to shake off excess moisture. You can also heat a wet broom on a heater for a short time.
You need to steam your baby gently and not intensely: pay special attention to the baby’s legs and arms, and just gently stroke the surface of the back and abdomen with a broom. During the procedure, carefully monitor the child’s well-being and mood, and at the slightest fatigue, weakness or malaise, immediately take him out into the fresh air or into a cool room.
A bathhouse can become a therapeutic remedy for a baby
Like an adult, a child can benefit from visiting a bath not only in the long term, but also immediately. The steam room will help cure:
- Cold;
- Bronchitis;
- ARVI;
- Runny nose;
- Pharyngitis and laryngitis.
And vice versa: children who suffer from fever or breathing problems (with adenoids, pneumonia) may experience serious discomfort. In this case, visiting the steam room, like any other hardening water procedures, is better to postpone until a more favorable time.
How to prepare your baby for a sauna or steam room?
Warming up in a steam room and steaming with brooms is the final stage of hygiene procedures in a bathhouse or sauna. To ensure that your stay in the steam room brings maximum benefits, wash your baby first and make the water for rinsing the body a little colder than the child’s usual temperature.
The first entry into the steam room should be short and not exceed one minute. Adaptation to the heat of the sauna may take several months: during this time, the duration of stay in the steam room should not be increased, and one visit to the steam room will be enough. When the child’s body adapts to temperature stress, you can visit the bathhouse once a week, and spend no more than three minutes in the steam room.
Before visiting the bathhouse, the baby needs to be given something to drink, but the last meal should be no later than 2 hours before the water procedures. It is recommended to take berry juice, tea without sugar or a decoction of herbs with you to the bathhouse - this way you will prevent dehydration of the child’s body and you can give him a tasty healthy drink.
What is better - a bathhouse or a sauna?
It is believed that the dry air of a Finnish sauna is easier to tolerate for adults, but high temperatures are undesirable for children. Therefore, it is better to accustom a child to a bath with visits to a traditional Russian steam room. At the same time, you should not overheat the room, and before bathing procedures it is advisable to thoroughly ventilate the steam room. In the steam room, it is necessary to maintain the temperature no higher than 50°C, monitoring it using thermometer readings.
Children over seven years old can visit the sauna with their parents, independently choosing the time they spend in it, but the period of adaptation to high temperatures should also not be forgotten.
Selection of herbs for a bath
Infusions of various herbs can be used in the steam room. Leaves of sage, aromatic mint and eucalyptus, as well as dry thyme are used to disinfect the air. To stimulate breathing, dry oak, linden, birch, oregano and thyme leaves are used. To calm children, use thyme, dry chamomile, fresh pine needles and birch buds. All ingredients must be mixed in equal proportions.
For a tonic effect, completely different herbs are needed. Mix one proportion of dry poplar buds, one dry bison leaves and two tansy petals.
Precautions in the bath
The special microclimate of baths and saunas can have both a healing effect and cause harm to the child’s body if the simple rules of behavior in the bath are neglected. The most important commandment for parents is not to leave their children in the bathhouse unattended, and to constantly monitor their appearance and well-being. Bathing procedures must be stopped immediately if you notice at least one of the following signs:
- The child's face suddenly turned pale or red;
- The baby's nasolabial triangle has acquired a bluish tint;
- The child's hands and feet became cold;
- The child has nausea or vomiting;
- The baby becomes lethargic or complains of dizziness.
All these changes are a consequence of overheating of the body, so the main thing in this situation is to take the baby out into the fresh air and try to cool his skin. The best way to eliminate overheating is a cold compress from a damp towel placed on the child's forehead. Also pour cold water over the arms and legs, provide the baby with peace and seek help from a pediatrician.
To prevent possible injury, do not allow children to:
- Run and jump;
- Open hot and cold water taps independently;
- Climb onto high shelves;
- Turn on heating devices;
- Open windows and doors to the room.
In case of injuries or deterioration in the health of bathhouse visitors, keep a first aid kit in the room, which should include:
- Ammonia;
- Hydrogen peroxide;
- Iodine or any other antiseptic drug;
- Bandages and cotton wool.
How to combine the incompatible: a bath with a child and your own pleasure
If a mother devotes herself completely to her baby, this is commendable.
But don't completely forget about yourself. Women's health resources are not unlimited, even if they are spent for good purposes. They need to be replenished. This means that in the bathhouse you should not only hover around your baby like an eagle hovering over an eaglet, but also personally receive the benefits and pleasure from soaring.
Come to Shuvalovskoye Compound
The cottage and bath complex “Shuvalovskoe Podvorye”
in St. Petersburg offers cottages with steam rooms for rent to families and large companies. Here you can spend from 3 hours to several days. You can enter the steam room one by one:
- While it is not yet warmed up, mothers and children go;
- Then – dads taste the real heat;
- Then mothers recover their nerves while fathers look after their sleeping babies.
Our cottages are spacious and can accommodate up to 20 or more people.
The upper floor has cozy bedrooms. Older children can spend time on the playground under the supervision of an animator, while adults are busy with themselves - relaxing in a mode that is comfortable for them. Visitors are served by professional bath attendants and massage therapists.
How to harden a child in a bath?
For many parents, visiting the bathhouse is inseparable from the process of hardening their babies. Indeed, in a warm, heated bathhouse, the effects of cold are tolerated much more easily. You can start hardening procedures from the age of five, and the best start to hardening will be foot baths. Fill two basins or buckets with warm and cool water and alternately dip your baby's feet in them. Complete the procedure with colder water, and then thoroughly dry your baby’s feet.
You should start hardening only after consulting a pediatrician, and when performing the procedure, you must strictly adhere to the doctor’s recommendations. If in the summer your child swims in open water or visits a pool, then he will easily and painlessly adapt to hardening baths. When carrying out hardening procedures, it is important to observe regularity and gradually lower the water temperature.
We hope our article has given a clear answer to your question - is it possible to bathe a child in a bathhouse, and you can instill in your children another healthy habit! Visiting the bathhouse for children helps them strengthen the body's defenses and be less likely to get colds. Follow our advice, and your children will enjoy and benefit from going to the bathhouse with you!
Swimming in the summer in the village and in the country
In summer you could swim outside in water heated by the sun. In this painting by Vladimir Gusev, a baby splashes in a galvanized steel bathtub while his mother hangs out the washed clothes.
Vladimir Sergeevich Gusev (born 1957) Bathing
Kopytseva Maya Kuzminichna (1924-2005) Bathing. 1960s
Tatyana Anatolyevna Kalyn (Mikhneva) (born 1969) Happiness in its purest form
Tatyana Anatolyevna Kalyn (Mikhneva) (born 1969) Happiness in its purest form II.
Andrey Gavrilovich Lysenko (1916-2000) “Bathing a child”
Arkady Aleksandrovich Plastov (Russia, 1893-1972) “Hot afternoon” 1960s
Maria Vladimirovna Savchenkova (Russia, 1917) “Afternoon in a manger”
