Everyday Care For Settled Baby

Handling your Baby

Tiny babies feel insecure and frightened when they are unbundled. That is why changing their clothes and bathing them and generally mucking them about needs to be kept to a hygienic minimum. But gradually, as babies get confidence in their own bodies, all that changes. You can see the change in what they do when you are not handling them. At the beginning your baby chose to lie all scrunched up as if still in your womb. And the baby liked to be closely wrapped with the whole skin surface in contact with something warm and soft. During the second and third months the baby straightens out. Arms and legs move. Wrappings are fought off. Now the baby is ready to enjoy physical freedom, and to enjoy being handled and bathed.

Cleanliness

“Topping and tailing” is still the easy way to keep your baby clean enough for comfort between baths. But physical activity is increasing; if your changing mat is high up, don’t take your hand off her.

Your baby handles many objects and sucks her hands, so wash them twice a day by rubbing between your soapy ones. The baby will like the feeling but will not like soap in either eyes or mouth. . . .

Short fingernails are hygienic and will stop her gouging her face during hand play. Use tiny, blunt-ended scissors. If the baby’s wriggling makes nailcutting seem impossible, try doing it while she is asleep.

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Sticky milk or spilled solids left on the face will make it sore. Wash with plain water or use baby lotion or oil if the skin is dry or chapped. Your baby’s head needs wiping over to get rid of city dust or dried sweat. If it is matted with food, shampoo the hair, with non-sting shampoo. Hold the baby along your arm and damp hair with a washcloth. Lather once, then rinse with a washcloth repeatedly dipped in clear water.

The baby’s bottom needs careful washing as traces of urine and feces will make the skin sore. But the genitals need no special attention in either sex. Don’t try to pull back a boy’s foreskin or wash between a girl’s labia. Hidden parts look after themselves, better than we can.

Diaper Rash

Diaper rash can mean anything from slight redness and heat to severe inflammation with sores or pustules. One can lead to the other. Skin gets chapped by friction and damp or irritated by traces of detergent left in diapers. Acid urine stings and makes it worse. Bacteria, or fungal infections like thrush from stools, then infect the sore skin.

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To prevent it: take care in sterilizing and rinsing washable diapers; and keep the baby’s bottom as dry as possible with frequent changing , discretion in the use of plastic pants and as much time as possible with no diaper on at all. If her bottom tends to get sore, wash urine off whenever you change her, and coat it with a silicone-based barrier cream, or with diaper rash ointment.

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If diaper rash does develop, consult your doctor if there are actual sores or yellow spots. Otherwise keep her lying on rather than in a diaper for as much of the day as you can. Banish plastic pants. Change her the moment she is wet or soiled and clean her with oil or vaseline rather than water and soap. Don’t use protective creams until the rash is better as these keep air off the skin. Be patient: the baby is bound to be irritable – her bottom is sore.