baby wipes bad for baby???

Nicki

zaksmum wrote: »

Of course they are in warm water in the womb, but there's no sort of open wound area then, is there? When the cord is cut there's the risk of infection, presumably.

The little fella could certainly do with a bath with the yucky nappies he's producing!

My baby was bathed in hospital by the midwives every other day from birth, and topped and tailed on the alternate days obviously with the cord still on. This was only just over a year ago. My other two were older and same thing happened with them. Either this is a very new medical recommendation or it's specific to that midwife or hospital i'd think.

ALIBOBSY

Baby born last may here and bathed in hospital, no problems with the cord. MW just said not to rub the cord and ensure it is carefully dried with clean cotton wool afterwards.

ali x

Plans_all_plans

skintchick wrote: »

so it;s been a good few generations since mums were truly left alone to trust thier instincts .

Depends where people were brought up though: my mum's family lived many many miles from the nearest hospital (had no transport to get there) and couldn't afford medical care at any rate, so my grandmother really was left alone to fend for herself (in giving birth and raising her numerous children) with no intervention from anyone.

As a consequence of this, my own mother barely saw a doctor until she reached adulthood and she is a firm believer in a mother's instinct. This is something that she has 'passed onto' me really, as she just told me to do what I thought was best for my baby and not listen too much to advice, as it changes so often.

I see your point about research and smoking/drinking etc, but at the end of the day it's hard to have confidence in childcare advice when it DOES change so often.

By the way, I thought Guinness was good for you!!

meritaten

you can either go with current medical wisdom (which seems to change every ten years when new papers are published) or listen to mums, grandmas and great grandmas! or your own common sense!
very few women these days give birth at home under filthy conditions (the main cause of infant mortality) yet amazingly, lots of these women raised families of seven, eleven or more! the main cause of infant deaths wasnt because they bathed the babies or wiped their bums with baby wipes! its was because one mans wage wasnt enough to feed them and because they lived in slums and were subject to diseases which were CAUSED by the bad conditions! not because they didnt know how to give birth or raise babies - but from social conditions!

Janepig

The advice not to bathe the baby till his cord comes off does seem a bit mad. I remember being told to fold the front of the nappy down to let the air get at it to dry up quicker, but that was all.

Jxx

Violetta_2

We used cotton wool when dd was new, then went onto wipes they are easier, we used the main brand that begins with P until I used one on myself, I know babies bit's are different to grown up bit's but they stung like hell!!!:o Found sainsburys sensitive ones ok both for me & little ladies bit's.

teasleym

We gave our 3 month old a bath with the cord still attached, had to as she stank! Had to apologise to people that it wasn't her nappy it was her cord, I couldn't wait for it to fall off! Gave her a bath lots of times till it fell off, but only used water no baby bath or anything.
I knew that when you have a demonstration of everything in our hospital they requested a baby to bath! I was quite willing to hand mine over this time but then I nearly passed out and had to be rushed back to bed, so had to wait till we got home and bathed her ourselves!

onlyroz

I didn't use any chemicals on my kids (eg wipes, bubble bath etc) for maybe the first month. I remember anything like that really bringing the poor mites up in a bad rash.

I think I was also advised against giving a full bath for the first few days, but I don't remember being told to wait until the cord came off...

amilotte

Crikey, I have never heard of the 'no bathing!'. That doesnt make any sense to me at all....... with mine we were shown how to bathe the baby on the ward - there was a whole room dedicated to the teaching of it!!!!

I have children 10, 4 and 12 months and I have heard so many variations on 'advice' it is untrue from weaning the baby at a certain age to not eating peanuts when pregnant to not allowing them to sit in a car seat for longer than two hours.......

It seems that the approach to advice seems to be becoming more and more ridgid. When I was in hospital after having my third I had trouble getting him to feed. Now, this was my third time breastfeeding yet the assistant insisted on getting me to feed 'rugby ball' style. In the end I asked her to leave me alone (in the nicest possible sense n all) and let me feed him in the position I had fed my last two and I had no problems......

Of course, most of the advice we are given is correct and with good cause. It just gets so confusing especially when different midwives/areas are giving such different info. Its such a time of information overload too, right at the time when you are struggling to remember what day it is!

When its your first time you are so desperate to do things 'right'. My sister was the same with her little one when I had my third..... there I was with the wipes whilst she had the cotton wool and water :rotfl:

Anyway........ isn't using water and cotton wool in the true moneysaving spirit :money: lol. I personally used wipes from day one with number 3, with number 2 I used water (even made myself some fleece wipes) and washable nappies and she suffered with the worst nappy rash out of all of them. We use supermarket own brand sensitive wipes now (as they tend to be cheaper) and have never had any problems. As with nappies its just a case of trying them all till you find what suits.

Its a personal choice I guess as to whether you follow by the book or not. By the time she has her next one the advice will probably have changed again!!!!

moggylover

zaksmum wrote: »

Of course they are in warm water in the womb, but there's no sort of open wound area then, is there? When the cord is cut there's the risk of infection, presumably.

The little fella could certainly do with a bath with the yucky nappies he's producing!

I certainly bathed both of mine from birth. As others have said, we were shown how to bath them from day one in the hospital. Perhaps his little bum could go into a washbasin full of luke warm water whilst trying to keep the cord dry?