Bath traditions are one of the national symbols of our country. Many families today, like many centuries ago, regularly visit the bathhouse, because this is a place where not only the body is cleansed, but also the soul is renewed. And when a child appears, parents wonder at what age they can take him with them.
- 1.1 Is it possible for a small child to take a steam bath
1.1.1 Video: 10-month-old baby in the bathhouse for the first time
- 1.2.1 Video: Komarovsky about a bathhouse for children
- 2 Medical contraindications for visiting the bathhouse
2.1 Is it possible to steam when you cough?
2.1.1 Video: are baths and honey effective for coughs (E. Komarovsky)
At what age can you go to the steam room?
Features of visiting the bathhouse depending on age:
- If a woman went to the bathhouse during pregnancy, the child can be taken with her to the steam room from 3 months. Before doing this, you need to consult your pediatrician.
- If the mother has not visited the bathhouse, the baby cannot go to the steam room before he reaches 8 months of age.
During bath procedures, the body is exposed to high temperatures. Under their influence, blood vessels dilate, breathing and heart rate increase. It is worth considering that babies’ hearts beat faster than adults’. For this reason, the load on the heart muscle increases. Thermoregulation is fully established only by the age of 3 years.
Children for whom bathing is contraindicated
It is known that the steam room has a beneficial effect on the body. Can children go to the bathhouse? Yes, if there are no contraindications.
Regardless of age, children should not visit the steam room:
- in the postoperative period;
- with heart pathologies (congenital and acquired);
- with kidney (urinary tract) diseases of moderate and severe forms;
- with unstable blood pressure;
- prone to nosebleeds;
- with blood clotting disorders;
- epileptics, asthmatics;
- with oncological diseases (including benign formations);
- with skin irritation (rashes, redness, peeling) of an infectious and allergic nature;
- during exacerbation of any chronic diseases.
The basic rule for parents: only absolutely healthy children can visit the bathhouse. Is it possible to go to the bathhouse if you have a cold? Children are strictly not allowed: if a cold has caused an increase in body temperature, cough, or runny nose, the bath is contraindicated. Here's why: due to the expansion of the bronchi and trachea under the influence of steam, purulent mucus accumulated in the nasopharynx can descend into the lower respiratory tract or clog them, which will lead to complications after the disease. For the same reason, even a child’s cold cannot be treated in a bathhouse.
Indications and contraindications
The bathhouse is allowed to everyone if there are no contraindications. Bath procedures help to quickly cope with the symptoms of colds. Therefore, you can take your child to the steam room if you have a cough or runny nose. Under the influence of hot steam, a kind of inhalation occurs, which helps to cleanse the upper respiratory tract, but cough and runny nose cannot be treated only with the help of bath procedures. Bath procedures have a beneficial effect on the respiratory system:
- By moisturizing the mucous membrane, the number of coughs is reduced.
- When visiting a steam room, the bronchi and blood vessels dilate. Rich steam softens the throat, which is irritated by coughing.
- Liquid mucus begins to be actively produced, a wet cough begins, in which sputum effectively leaves the lungs and bronchi.
The bathhouse will be especially useful for children with certain pathologies:
- Unstable emotional background.
- Chronic diseases of the nasopharynx.
- Inflammation of the upper respiratory tract.
- Respiratory diseases.
We must not forget that children's bodies work differently. It is important to take into account a number of features so as not to harm the baby’s health.
Contraindications to visiting the bathhouse:
- restoration of the body after serious illnesses and operations;
- increased body temperature, blood pressure;
- the presence of skin rashes, open wounds, ulcers;
- pathological changes in the nervous system;
- presence of psychological disorders;
- frequent nosebleeds;
- low or high blood clotting;
- heart disease;
- malignant or benign neoplasms;
- metabolic disorders;
- asthmatic manifestations;
- epilepsy, psychopathy.
You cannot take your child to the bathhouse without his or her desire. Before visiting the steam room, it is recommended to ask him about his general condition and possible discomfort.
Which children are especially benefited from a bath?
The bathhouse has a beneficial effect on the body, so all children can visit the steam room unless it is directly contraindicated for them due to health reasons.
And the bathhouse is especially useful for children who:
- prone to viral and colds: influenza, acute respiratory infections, ARVI;
- chronically suffer from diseases of the nasopharynx: enlarged tonsils, tonsils, adenoids;
- have had bronchitis or pneumonia, or other diseases of the lungs and respiratory tract;
- characterized by emotional and mental instability.
From regular visits to the bathhouse, children's immunity increases, they suffer from colds less often and for less duration, and easily endure outbreaks of annual epidemics. Under the influence of steam, the skin is cleansed, and in general the procedure helps strengthen blood vessels and normalize heart function. In addition, a family bath with children will not only help everyone improve their general physical condition, but will also relieve accumulated stress through relaxation.
Preparing for a visit to the steam room
Before you go to the steam room, you need to properly prepare. To do this, you need to perform several steps:
- The baby needs to be taught to douse himself with cool water every day and carry out hardening procedures. You can also give him a warming massage.
- You should prepare a cap, special cosmetics for skin and hair care, a towel, a sheet, and slippers. It is important that the shoes are non-slip and that the cap covers dry hair.
- To restore water balance during bath procedures, it is recommended to prepare berry juice or herbal tea. It is forbidden to give your baby sweet soda.
Psychological preparation is also important. It is necessary to tell your child in detail how bath procedures are carried out. After the story, you need to ask him what interested him and alarmed him. It is important to interest the baby in bath procedures, to dispel all his fears and controversial issues. Before heating the stove, you need to take the child on an introductory walk around the bathhouse premises. It is forbidden to hover your baby at high temperatures.
This can lead to the formation of psychological barriers that will discourage the baby from visiting the bathhouse in the future.
First time in a bathhouse with a child: what do you need to know?
You need to prepare your child for visiting the bathhouse for the first time by telling him a little about the process and benefits of the procedure.
About an hour before leaving home, the baby should eat, and before entering the steam room, directly in the bathhouse, he should be given warm drinks with diaphoretic properties, for example, linden infusion or tea with raspberries. The child is also washed in the shower with warm water and soap so that the skin “breathes” better, and a cap is put on the head to prevent overheating.
The entry into the steam room itself will be one-time and will last about 5 minutes or a little longer, depending on the child’s well-being: he will either be calm, or will become lethargic and begin to be capricious. After the bath procedure, children are not allowed to use a pool with cold water, so they are doused with warm water from the shower and wrapped in a sheet or towel.
With regular visits to the steam room, the duration of the baby’s stay inside can gradually be increased to 10 minutes at a time. How often can you go to the bathhouse? If the child is satisfied with the procedure, then it can be weekly.
To begin with, it is better to take a steam bath with children in a Russian bath: with a humidity of about 90% and an average temperature of 50 degrees, the body will lose less moisture.
The main thing in the bath is the steam generated by rolling water onto hot stones. It can be not only aromatic, but also useful if you use special infusions and decoctions of herbs. Each of them has special properties. Pine needles, chamomile, sage and eucalyptus have an antimicrobial effect. Mint, oregano, lemon balm soothe and relax. Thyme, birch and linden promote expectoration of mucus. You can take the infusion prepared in advance with you and then pour it on the stones.
Children in the bathhouse
In the villages, the tradition of a weekly Saturday bath was observed. Children were also washed in the bathhouse, but they used a wooden tub for this, as in this picture. After the bath, they combed their hair and put on clean clothes.
Valentin Stepanovich Tereshchenko (born 1941) Clean Saturday. 2005
Arkady Alexandrovich Plastov. Spring. 1954
Yuri Petrovich Kugach. On Saturday. 1964
Sergei Petrovich (born 1922) and Alexey Petrovich (born 1925) Tkachevs. In the bathhouse. 1974
Valery Vasilyevich Rodionov (born 1929) In the bathhouse. 1993
Children could have a bathhouse right in the hut, heating the stove hot.
Nina Yakovlevna Marchenko (born 1940) Peace. End of the war. 1975-1976
Egor Nikolaevich Zaitsev (born 1967) In an old house. 2013
Khablenko Mikhail Semyonovich (Russia, 1928) “From childhood. Mom" 1982
Allaberdyev Khaki (Turkmenistan, 1920) “Bathing a child” 1960s
Gennady Timofeevich Klyuzhin. Bathing (memory of mother). 1970-1986
Alexander Dmitrievich Romanychev (Russia, 1919-1989) “Morning”
At what age are children allowed to visit the steam room?
Is it possible to wash a child in a bathhouse, are there any contraindications, at what age is it permissible to take small children with you to take a steam bath - all this haunts many parents who decide to strengthen their child’s body from an early age.
If mothers often visited baths or saunas during pregnancy or before it began, in this case it is allowed to take a 3-month-old child with them to this place.
Here it is worth talking about the early hardening of babies while still in the mother’s womb. They experienced heat, were exposed to sudden changes in temperature and had a similar bathing experience of relaxation. A prepared infant will find it pleasant and safe to be in a bathing environment.
Is it possible for an infant to go to the bathhouse if the woman did not visit the steam room before the period of bearing the child? It is permissible to take your baby with you to the bathhouse only after he reaches eight months.
The main thing is that before subjecting a child to bath hardening, you need to consult a pediatrician. Only healthy children are allowed to go to the bathhouse.
