Taking a bath is a very easy thing to do, but for babies who are still fragile and cannot do much by themselves, it’s the responsibility of the parent to do it for them. Newborn babies have sensitive skin as they are fragile which is why we have to be careful about the steps that we need to consider when giving them a nice bath.
Gladly, we have some professional parenting tips that can really help you when it comes to bathing baby up to cleanliness. The following steps must be carefully and perfectly followed in order to avoid rashes and other sicknesses caused by bacteria. Here are the following steps in bathing your baby properly:
Consider this Tip First
It might be safe to say that baths are done before we go out to work or school or before we go back to the bed. However, in a baby’s case it’s not like that at all. Newborn babies are not that prone to germs yet since they don’t get messy and they can’t even crawl, but irritation can happen such as rashes if you neglect them. Since babies don’t tend to get too dirty, it’s much more advisable to give them few baths per week – at most five times.
If it’s not bath time, you just need is to wash their face regularly after mealtimes in order to provide cleanliness for them. Wash up the skin folds as well to prevent dirt from sticking to it. Every diaper change, their genitals should be cleaned properly all the time. This will keep them clean before you give them a bath, and it prevents irritation on the most sensitive baby skin areas.
Find a Good Location
You don’t necessarily need to give them a bath in the bathroom. There are instances where you can give them a nice bath on a clean kitchen sink, or just use a temporary baby tub in the living room or bedroom. Just lean, sit or kneel properly as you hold baby on top of the apparatus that you will be using.
Gather the Correct Materials
To provide a good bath time for baby, use these following supplies:
- Mild soap
- Warm water
- More warm water for later purposes.
Make Necessary Preparations
Once you place the tub to your desire location (if using the sink, close the drain first), and pour some warm water. 32 degrees C of warm water is already the warmest; you can adjust to lower temperatures if you feel like it’s too hot for baby. Undress baby completely from clothes to diaper and slip them to the tub.
Wash up the Body
Be sure to let the feet go into the tub first as you place them completely into the tub. Consider caution by using one of your hands to hold their neck and head to prevent drowning. Add up warm water from time to time as you wash the child. Water tends to get cold when war, and it can get them sick which is why extra warm water is crucially needed.
Proceed to Soaping Time
Since we need to make sure that baby will feel comfortable during bath time, we need to use mild soap to prevent irritation on the eyes. It also prevents dry skin, too. Use a washcloth for the soap instead of a brush, and gently wash baby’s body with soap starting from the head down to their tiny toes. If your child happens to have mucus on their nose, just rub it with a little part of the cloth – rinsed in water – in order to wipe it out.
Rinse and Dry
Lastly, rinse baby’s whole body with warm water once again while you wipe the soap away with your hands or cloth, and once done, wipe your child with a dry towel. Wrap them carefully in the towel and pat them gently until the towel absorbs all of the water to get them dry. Once done, you can apply baby powders/lotions before you put diapers and their clothing.
If you do all of these accordingly, you will feel much more productive about taking care of baby, and they will feel very comfortable as you give them a soothing bath.