Bathing the Baby – The Art of Care (book)

Aimed primarily at professionals, this beautiful booklet introduces the special, carefully choreographed way infants were bathed at the Pikler Institute. Bathing was not only an important element in the bonding process between infant and primary caregiver, which provided them with a sense of safety in its unchanged manner, but at the same time it taught essential lessons to children about their role in a relationship from a very early age.
“If the child can trust to be able to influence the events happening to him, if he can feel that he is not a passive receiver, but an active participant of his care, then his sense of competence will grow stronger. If he is never dealt with as if he was an object - be it either precious or worthless - but as a human being who feels, observes, remembers and understands or will understand, if the words and gestures are not only nice but they also consider the sensitivity of the child continuously, then a real dialogue during care will form between the two partners starting at the youngest age.”
(Dr Judit Falk)