Incredible, cheap bath for eczema and dry skin

For about 20 years, I have been haunted by the television image of David Bellamy in the bath.

He was promoting the use of  natural ingredients in everyday life, long before the celebrity style gurus appeared.  Don't ask me why, but I filed the image of him in an oatmeal bath under 'useful' in my childish mind. It can also be found under 'worrying' 'don't go there' and 'don't look.'

I recall him explaining that an oatmeal bath is an excellent eczema remedy and so we tried in in our little boy's bath this evening.

The results are fantastic - his skin is very very soft and looks nicely soothed. The water felt incredibly soft, and hasn't made his lovely hair sticky at all.

Another surprising effect is that my hands look about 5 years younger. They are incredibly smooth, soft and my annoying dermatitis has settled down (no mean feat).

What is more, my nails tips have whitened, too!

Please find below how I put together the ingredients for this fantastic bath:

1. Place two, generous fistfuls of porridge oats into the centre of a muslin square
2. Gather up the muslin, and twist the porridge oats into a ball to make a bag
3. Use an elastic band to hold the muslin together
4. Tie the muslin and porridge bag onto the hot tap so that the hot water pours over the bag
5. Let the bag sit in the bath water for 5 minutes, and then squeeze out the oat juice.

Enjoy! My skin feels amazing, as does our little boy's. Whoever thought David Bellamy would be such a skincare expert?

Alternative to traditional bath toys

Now, I may come across as a bit of a skinflint here, but quite frankly I don't mind that much (honest, guv).

Bath toys are terrific fun - they allow your baby to splash, pour and see things magically float towards them - ah, the wonder of water!

We've started using anything that floats - empty shower gel bottles (great for rinsing hair), margarine tubs (great for pouring) and even those laundry gel detergent holders (excellent boats).

The nature of such products mean that they are always brightly coloured and interesting to our little boy. 

He also seems to much prefer playing with things that we use, instead of his own baby toys, so using empty household stuff in the bath is working well for us!

It might not save you a huge amount, but maybe enough for half a box of nappies, or so!

Cheap alternative to a Tummy Tub

Tummy tubs are fantastic - compact, easy to use and great for colic and gassy babies. Oh the burps that it used to produce (from our baby, that is)!

However, our little boy grew out of his very quickly (by 4 months), and we needed to find an alternative.

We started using this small IKEA metal bin, and it worked just as well as the Tummy Tub. In fact, it was better as our baby would sit normally in it, instead of sitting in the rather odd yoga position as he did previously.

It's half the price of the Tummy Tub (£10.29) and has come in really useful since, as a little laundry basket.

It's also incredibly sweet to see your baby having a bath in a bucket!