Tips for sauna bathing with children
Children can enjoy the healing heat of sauna bathing with a responsible adult. Consider your child’s age, general health and temperament when deciding when to take them to the sauna and how long they should spend there.
We’ve put together several tips to help you make your children’s sauna experience safe and enjoyable. These include keeping the sauna at a comfortable temperature for children, ensuring children stay properly hydrated and incorporating fun into sauna sessions.
Maintain a comfortable sauna temperature for children
When enjoying the sauna with children, you should consider how hot you wish the sauna to be. There are no established guidelines for sauna bathing with children, so it is important to observe your child and be mindful of how they feel during and after the sauna session.
In general, children are more comfortable at lower temperatures in the sauna and should have shorter sauna sessions than adults. Whereas adults are usually more comfortable in a sauna at 80C/176F, children are generally more comfortable in saunas at 60C/140F (though responsible adults should still pay attention to the child and their displays of comfort).
Remember that throwing water onto the sauna heater creates steam and makes the sauna feel hotter, so children may not enjoy this at first. Children can also sit on the lower benches in the sauna, where the temperature is generally lower. Limit children’s time in the sauna to a few minutes per session, with plenty of regular breaks to cool down and rehydrate. As children become accustomed to sauna bathing, you can lengthen their sauna sessions if they wish to enjoy the heat for longer.
Make sauna sessions fun
Making sauna sessions fun for children helps to promote positive associations children have with the sauna. These positive associations can, in turn, contribute to a lifelong appreciation for the benefits of sauna and other well-being practices.
Sauna can be made fun for children in various ways. They can ‘throw löyly’ with water pistols, for example, or use sauna buckets filled with water to play with various water toys, such as boats or rubber ducks, or waterproof books.
Children could choose music to play in the sauna via Harvia water-resistant sauna speakers and the colour of the sauna lighting using Harvia sauna lighting solutions.
Breaks in between sauna sessions as well as post-sauna cool-downs can be made fun for children, too. You could offer ice lollies and colourful juices for children in between and after sauna, to help ensure they stay properly hydrated. Children could explore sensory play by dipping their hands or feet into bowls full of ice, for example.
Use Harvia safety devices for safe sauna operation
At Harvia, we know how important safety is to enjoying sauna and reaping its many health benefits. We have a range of products designed to keep you, your family and your home safe when using the sauna.
For example, our Harvia Xenio control panels for digitally-controlled electric sauna heaters can be installed anywhere outside of the sauna, out of reach of children. These panels also have a lock function which prevents the panel from being used until this is turned off. This lock, when activated, also prevents the heater from remote starting.
We have also developed an extensive range of sauna accessories to maximise the safety of your sauna. For example, we have several safety railings that are tailored to specific sauna heaters and are designed to prevent accidentally touching the heater. Our safety product offering also includes protective sheaths to help prevent overheating of the sauna as well as safety switches that prevent remote start of the heater if something is placed on top of it.
