# Water for bathing kids question



## BenSlaughter (Jun 16, 2017)

Send em swimmin before it gets cold, or get some camp soap, set up a wash station above camp, if you really want em sparkly. Just use river water....

We never did any sort of bathing routine on river trips when I was a kid. Just washed sleeping bags after the trip!!


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## Wallrat (Jan 19, 2021)

There are a few camps with feeder creeks nearby...good clean water in them.


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## rivh2o (Jan 17, 2013)

just don't swallow the water and tell them to blow bubbles when rinsing


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## cnalder (Jul 7, 2016)

Take a solar shower. Plenty of son to get water warm. Unless it a toddler don’t worry about treating. Just tell them not to swallow the water.


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## Pinchecharlie (Jul 27, 2017)

Awesome thanks!!!


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## kengore (May 29, 2008)

Water quality can depend on which river you are on. For desert rivers you can get a lot of the grit out by filling a 5 gallon bucket and letting it settle. I like a big sponge, river sponge baths are easy. A spray bottle of clean water is good for a final rinse, eye glasses, or to just cool down.


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## Idagal (Jul 15, 2021)

Honestly, have never thought of bathing the kids!! They're in the water all the time. Just make sure they don't go to bed in their bathing suit (sand). A solar shower works well. Make sure you have a good river hat that ties and gives good sun protection.


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## Pinchecharlie (Jul 27, 2017)

Thanks!! My little one doesn't sleep all that well and is fussy. She seems better after a warm rinse before bed and that helps is as well.


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## stony2275 (Apr 26, 2010)

I took my kids down Deso when they were young many, many times and put them in inflatable kayaks!. They loved being wet. At camp, we could not get them away from the water. Bathing? Ha, my kids loved the water. Never had an issue with "dirty" water. Use alum to settle in buckets and filter if you are worried. I get alum in the spice section of Crogers/King Soopers.


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## hysideguy67 (Jul 15, 2021)

BenSlaughter said:


> Send em swimmin before it gets cold, or get some camp soap, set up a wash station above camp, if you really want em sparkly. Just use river water....
> 
> We never did any sort of bathing routine on river trips when I was a kid. Just washed sleeping bags after the trip!!


Wash sleeping bags? Who does that...


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## carvedog (May 11, 2005)

Pinchecharlie said:


> Thanks!! My little one doesn't sleep all that well and is fussy. She seems better after a warm rinse before bed and that helps is as well.


Bathing a kid on a river trip??? For real? I have never heard of such a thing. Many, many trips with many, many kids and no bathing other than river rinse. Maybe a bucket to the side of a hot springs once or twice.....give her a hot water bottle to snuggle at night, but you have to nip this in the bud.


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## Pinchecharlie (Jul 27, 2017)

Sweet I am to tired anyway. Can I leave the hand wash at home too. I only built it cause I was bored and wanted to play river runner. Gear piles allready getting big. Just out of curiosity do the water "tablets" make the water stinky?


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## cnalder (Jul 7, 2016)

We always pack a hand wash if the group includes more than our family.


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## MNichols (Nov 20, 2015)

I always take a hand wash, gotta have one at the groover and one in the kitchen.. Don't get lackadaisical and sick on your trip. Cleanliness is key. Iodine tablets don't have a scent, slight taste that dissipates. Not sure about other tablets


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## carvedog (May 11, 2005)

Pinchecharlie said:


> Can I leave the hand wash at home too.


Handwash is for protection of everyone. Unless your kid is rubbing her butt and armpits etc all over the common touch surfaces like water jugs, toilet seats and TP, stoves, oar handles etc she doesn't need bathed every day. Especially when multiple dunks in the river are taking place. Have you never camped before? Why would water need purification if it's not going in your mouth? The organ known as your skin is very effective at repelling all kinds of 'dangerous' things or we, as a species, wouldn't be here. 
I have a feeling you are trolling here, but bathing a kid every day on a river trip is ridiculous, but if you do decide that is your path you don't need pills.


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## Pinchecharlie (Jul 27, 2017)

This will be my first time camping! We never leave the house. We live in a plastic bubble like John Travolta. I personally wash my body face with avian after it's been treated with u.v. light. Thanks! Over and out...


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## MT4Runner (Apr 6, 2012)

Do bring the hand wash, and as MNichols said, two is better--one at the kitchen, one at the groover.

I've used steramine tablets. Negligible odor. You can also put a tablet or a couple drops of bleach in the handwash water.


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## okieboater (Oct 19, 2004)

I used regular ole bleach for a long time
recently switched to steramine tablets

for my sun shower I either find a clear side creek, let one of the 5 gallon pickle buckets full of river water settle or now with steramine tabs toss one in the settled river water if I doubt the river water. same for the hand wash buckets toss in a steramine tabs. Pretty cheap and easier than clorox since some of my river buds react to clorox.


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## MNichols (Nov 20, 2015)

I absolutely hate chlorox, strips all the oils from your skin, promotes cracking of the skin as well,


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## Wallrat (Jan 19, 2021)

Pinchecharlie said:


> This will be my first time camping! We never leave the house. We live in a plastic bubble like John Travolta. I personally wash my body face with avian after it's been treated with u.v. light. Thanks! Over and out...
> View attachment 69115


 It’s true. He has a dry bag full of sterile kids sized isolation bubbles that he showed me. He puts the rugrats into them and bounces them down class III rivers. It’s a hoot to see.


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## MNichols (Nov 20, 2015)

Wallrat said:


> It’s true. He has a dry bag full of sterile kids sized isolation bubbles that he showed me.


Bwahahahaha! Charlie? Say it ain't so?


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## Pinchecharlie (Jul 27, 2017)

Ah jeez come on you guys cut me some slack iam new and trying hard to please my damn wife!! Divorce cost way more than I have saved!!


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## MNichols (Nov 20, 2015)

Wallrat said:


> It’s true. He has a dry bag full of sterile kids sized isolation bubbles that he showed me.


But you know that brings up an interesting thing, kids sized? I was talking to somebody that had one of those Yakima/tule space cases for sale. It was black, and I asked the seller I said doesn't that make it awful hot for the kids up there? He was perplexed, until I explained to him that for years I thought that was someplace for family vacations that you could put the kids and get them to the destination without having to hear all the pissen and moaning and whining and crying.. 

The world is changing, I was in the store the other day and a woman had a kid on a leash. I asked her if it was a rescue? She wasn't pleased...


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## MNichols (Nov 20, 2015)

Pinchecharlie said:


> Ah jeez come on you guys cut me some slack iam new and trying hard to please my damn wife!! Divorce cost way more than I have saved!!


Charlie... I'm going to give you the best piece of advice you haven't gotten yet. It's cheaper to keep her


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