For both new and experienced mums, one thing that’s on our minds is ‘how can we keep baby clean?’ Ensuring that baby is clean is important, as it keeps harmful bacteria and germs off them, but it may not be as straightforward as how we keep ourselves clean!
Babies are a lot more delicate than us, and cleaning them needs a deft hand, a healthy amount of determination, and the right knowledge. Luckily, we’ve got 5 simple hygiene tips to help keep baby clean!
1. The Umbilical Cord
When baby’s born, there’s be a little stub of what remains of their umbilical cord that’ll dry up and fall off after a few weeks. Before it falls off though, you’ll have to gently keep it clean to make sure it doesn’t prematurely fall off.
Use a damp and soft cloth (without soap) to dab around the area before allowing it to dry. When you’re putting on their diaper, try not to allow the top of the diaper to cover the umbilical cord – covering it will make it difficult for the piece to dry up and fall off.
2. Baby Girls
An important thing to remember when cleaning a baby girl is the front to back method, from her belly to her butt. The reason for this is because if you wipe from butt to belly, you might bring faecal matter into her delicate and sensitive baby girl parts, which could cause an infection.
After doing the front to back cleaning, ensure that your baby girl’s lady bits are cleaned up as well – there are a multitude of folds where bacteria and dirt can build up. Gently separate the folds and clean them with a warm and damp cloth without the use of soap.
After cleaning her, make sure you gently pat her diaper area dry, because moisture trapped in your baby girl’s diaper can also cause irritation and infections.
3. Baby Boys
If your baby boy was circumcised, they’ll definitely be sore while they’re healing up. One good thing is that it’ll heal pretty quickly, but during that period of healing, diapers can and will cause them discomfort and pain! This is because when the circumcised wound is raw, the material of the diaper can stick to the wound, which will be very painful.
To help with this, apply some baby-friendly ointment to the area inside the diaper that comes into contact with the circumcised bits – it’ll prevent the wound from sticking to the diaper and causing unneeded pain!
For uncircumcised boys, there’s no need to need to pull back the foreskin to clean under it, as it’ll actually hurt baby’s private parts. Just use a wet cloth (without soap as usual!) to dab around the area and then dry it off before you put a diaper on him.
4. Frequent Diaper Changing
Keep an eye and nose out for dirty and soiled diapers! You’ll be changing diapers non-stop in your first few months, and it’s essential that you do it as soon as possible. If you leave baby in a dirty diaper for too long, the moisture can cause an uncomfortable rash on their bottom and private areas.
5. Oral Hygiene
Just because baby doesn’t have teeth yet doesn’t mean we should skip on oral hygiene for them! Their gums will still have bacteria on them which can cause gum disease if not properly cleaned. Once a day, use a soft and damp cloth to clean baby’s mouth and gums – it’ll wipe away the gunk and bacteria and will also prepare them for when their teeth come in! When baby is teething, using a cool and damp cloth will also help soothe their swollen gums.
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