Learn Spanish (Latin America): El niño tiene que bañarse ahora.

When a verb is in its infinitive form (the base form ending in -ar, -er, or -ir), you can attach the reflexive pronoun directly to the end of it. Because this sentence uses tiene que followed by an infinitive, the pronoun se hooks right onto bañar.

Why is there a que between tiene and bañarse?

The phrase tener que is a special combination that means 'to have to' do something. You always use a conjugated form of tener + que + an infinitive verb (like bañarse) to talk about obligations and routines.

Does se specifically mean the boy is bathing himself?

Yes! The se is a reflexive pronoun, which tells us the action reflects back onto the subject (the boy). If he were bathing a dog instead of himself, you would drop the se and just use the regular verb bañar.

If I wanted to say 'I have to bathe', would it still end in se?

No, the reflexive pronoun always has to match the person doing the action, even when it is attached to the end of an infinitive. To say 'I have to bathe', you would change se to me, making the sentence Tengo que bañarme.