Do I need a baby bath thermometer or is elbow enough?

What is the official UK temperature check?

It is a wrist or elbow, after you have mixed the water, not a gadget on the shopping list. NHS washing and bathing: the water should be warm, not hot; run the cold water first and then add hot; check with your wrist or elbow and mix well so there are no hot patches. NHS Best Start in Life: dip your elbow; it should feel the same as your body temperature.

NHS Inform (Ready Steady Baby): put cold water in first, then add hot; test with your elbow; it should feel comfortably warm; fill to about 8 to 10cm. NCT repeats cold before hot, mix out hot spots, and a wrist or elbow check, because a baby's skin scalds more easily than an adult's.

RoSPA: children's skin is thinner, so they scald more easily. Run cold first, add hot, mix, and put the baby in only after you have finished running the tap and checked the temperature. RoSPA also notes you are more likely to feel if it is too hot with your elbow than with your hand.

How do I run the NHS cold-then-hot check?

1. 1
   Get everything ready first Towels, nappy, clothes, cotton wool. NHS and RoSPA both want you in the room for the whole bath — no dash for a towel.
2. 2
   Run cold water first Then add hot. This is the NHS, NCT, NHS Inform, RoSPA and CAPT order. Hot-first leaves a scalding layer at the bottom of the bowl or bath.
3. 3
   Mix until there are no hot patches NHS wording. Still water can sit in layers. Swish before you test.
4. 4
   Check with your wrist or elbow NHS accepts either. NHS Inform and RoSPA lean on the elbow. The water should feel warm, not hot — comfortably warm, about body temperature on Best Start in Life.
5. 5
   Finish the tap, then lift the baby in RoSPA: temperature can change while the tap is still running. Turn it off. Do not top up with hot once the baby is in.

Official UK pages on this list do not print a single °C target for the bowl. Do not treat a shop label ('37°C') as NHS wording. If a midwife has given you a figure for your baby, follow that clinical advice.

Where does a floating thermometer fit?

NCT, citing RoSPA, lists a floating thermometer as a lower-cost alternative to fitting a thermostatic mixing valve, not as a replacement for the elbow check. CAPT says test with your elbow or a thermometer, then adds a button-battery warning: many bath thermometers use a button cell; check the compartment is secure, and CAPT says remove the thermometer before the baby goes in so they cannot play with it.

A colour-change plug on a fold-flat tub is the same class of extra: a brand cue. It does not appear on the NHS method. See fold-flat or rigid for storage, not for temperature.

Does a thermostatic mixing valve replace the elbow?

No. RoSPA describes a TMV as a valve that limits how hot the tap water can come out, so it is less likely to scald. RoSPA's burns page still says that even with a TMV the water can be uncomfortable on a child's skin, so you still follow cold-then-hot, mix, and the elbow check. A TMV is plumbing. An elbow is the parent-facing step NHS already wrote down.

So is the elbow enough for the official method?

The official method is the wrist or elbow after cold-then-hot and a mix. A thermometer can sit beside that check if you want a second reading. It is not on the NHS kit list, and CAPT's battery note is a reason some households skip the gadget.

In shortBuy the thermometer only if you will still do the NHS steps. Wrist or elbow after mixing is the method on NHS, NHS Inform and NCT. RoSPA adds: finish the tap first. A number on a plastic duck does not replace that.