Newborn Skin Care:
Natural Newborn Skin Care
by Leah Day
Taking care of your newborn baby with natural skin care products is very important. Your child has been protected from chemicals and potential toxins in utero, but now that your baby is born the only protection you can give him is ensuring that only safe, natural products enter your household.
Here's a list of ingredients you should look out for in the baby products you're using now:
- Mineral Oil
- Fragrance
- Sodium Laurel Sulfate
- FD&C Dyes or Pigments
- Sodium Borate or Boric Acid
The skin is naturally waterproof and can protect us from most chemicals and toxins. Your baby's skin will protect him from these chemicals so long as it isn't irritated.
But babies are very prone to diaper rash and irritated skin.
The best way to protect your child is to not permit products with these ingredients into your home, and to only use safe, natural skin care products on baby's body and hair.
Hefty marketing campaigns created by personal care corporations are designed to convince you that your baby needs:
- Baby shampoo
- Body wash
- Baby oil
- Bubble bath
- Body lotion
In truth your child needs none of these things.
All a newborn baby needs is plain water and good rubdown with a washcloth
Soap is rarely needed on a newborn baby because they just don't get dirty enough to need it. Soap can also be very irritating to the skin because most soaps contain synthetic fragrances and pigments.
Bar soap is extremely drying to the skin as well and can leave an irritating film on your baby's skin unless it's entirely washed off.
Unless your newborn baby is out wrestling in the mud, there should be no reason to scrub him down every night with soaps and body washes.
Some mothers worry about dry skin so much that they lube their kid up with baby oil and lotions.
Unfortunately this causes even more problems because baby oil is mostly mineral oil, a substance that doesn't allow the skin to breathe. Putting baby oil on your child is like wrapping him in plastic wrap and it does absolutely nothing to cure his dry skin.
Of course there are some things you do want to do to take care of your baby's skin. Diaper rash is a serious issue and can make your child extremely uncomfortable it it gets too severe. Here's a quick guideline of skin care for your newborn baby:
1. Use disposable diapers - you may disagree, but cloth diapers cause nothing but trouble in my opinion. You want to avoid diaper rash at all costs, and the best way to protect your child's skin is by keeping it dry. Disposable diapers keep the skin much drier than cloth diapers, and there are some new biodegradable disposable diapers available that can help to balance the cost to the environment.
2. Wash with plain water - For bath time, run a tub of plain lukewarm water and don't add any soaps, bubble bath, or body wash to the water. Apart from being totally unnecessary for your baby, these substance can all make the skin very slippery and increase your chances of dropping your baby.
3. The rubdown - using a soft washcloth, make sure to rinse out the areas under baby's neck and armpits. These are the area that can so often get skin fold irritations due to milk, drool, and food. Also rinse off your baby's bottom and bathing suit parts.
You might occasionally want your baby to smell nice for company. Using a natural, sulfate free body wash is the best way to gently clean your baby's skin and hair. You don't need to use a separate baby shampoo. Just use the same body wash on his whole body and hair.
Babies are also prone to dry skin. Instead of using a mineral oil based lotion or baby oil, look for a natural aloe lotion instead. It will be far more effective at healing your baby's dry skin.
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