Bathing your baby is one of the many joys of parenthood.
Your newborn only needs to bath two to three times a week.
Over-bathing can make your baby's skin dry.
Bathing a newborn can also make them cold.
The first bath at home should be done
after your baby has their first pediatrician appointment.
Newborns that are cold usually to do not eat well.
Safety is always a priority when bathing.
One of the first steps to babyproofing your home
is to decrease your hot water tank temperature
to 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
This will avoid accidental burns,
especially as your baby gets older.
Here are some sponge bath basics.
Warm up the room you are bathing in.
Example, in a bathroom run the shower hot for a few minutes.
You will need a supportive surface for bathing,
like a counter or a changing table or a dry baby bathtub.
Gather your supplies.
Never leave your baby unattended.
The water temperature should feel warm
on your inner forearm,
100 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit.
Keep your baby swaddled in a towel.
You will need two hooded towels,
two bowls of warm water, baby wash, washcloth,
cotton balls, diaper, and clothes.
After gathering all of your supplies,
you're going to put a squirt of baby wash
into one of the bowls of warm water,
and make it bubbly.
(water sloshing)
Then undress your baby and lay on both towels,
wrapping them in just one towel with a diaper still on.
Use the water without the soap
to wash the baby's eyes and face.
Wipe each of your baby's eyes
from the inner corner to the outer corner
with a different cotton ball.
Use the washcloth to clean the entire face.
(water trickling)
Pat dry.
Now we're gonna move on to the neck,
and this is where we're gonna use the soapy water.
Remember, you want to ring out all the excess water.
This is a quick wipe down,
not a very wet, sopping wet bath.
So we'll give the neck a good wipe.
Go into the rinse water.
Again, ring it out really good.
And we're gonna go ahead and wipe off that soap,
and we're gonna pat dry.
Now we're gonna open the towel slightly to expose one arm.
Again, ring out that washcloth,
and we're gonna wash the arm.
And now we're going to rinse it.
And we're gonna tuck that arm back into the towel.
We'll move on to the next arm.
With our soapy water,
we're gonna wash it,
and rinse it,
and tuck it in the towel.
Now, if your baby still has an umbilical cord,
we're gonna ignore that area.
So we'll go ahead and pat our baby dry.
And now we'll go ahead and get the back very quickly.
I'm gonna open the towel,
and turn my baby up on their side,
and get the back quickly.
Rinse off that washcloth,
and go ahead and rinse off the soap,
and we're gonna pat our baby dry.
Now we're gonna go down to the legs.
We'll just expose one leg.
We're gonna wash it,
we're gonna rinse it,
and we're gonna tuck it back in.
The goal is to keep your baby covered.
Let's go to the other leg.
We're gonna wash it,
and we're gonna rinse it,
and we're gonna tuck that leg back in the towel.
So we've managed to keep our baby warm
by keeping the baby covered.
Now we're gonna wash the diaper area.
Always do the diaper area last.
So we're gonna go ahead
and we're gonna open up the diaper area.
We'll keep that diaper folded down,
and we can go ahead
and get this area a little bit more soapy,
a little bit more wet,
and we're gonna wash.
And this is a little girl,
so we're gonna wash her from front to back
And, of course, we're gonna go ahead
and get her bottom area,
cleaning in all those nooks and crannies.
And now we're gonna rinse it.
Rinse off all the soap.
And we're gonna pull the diaper out
because the diaper caught all that water.
Now, if you have a little boy,
you need to avoid a fresh circumcision,
and always remember to wash under the scrotum.
So after we pulled the diaper out,
we're going to replace that with a fresh diaper.
So we'll make sure our baby is nice and dry,
and now we'll go ahead and put on a fresh diaper.
Folding the diaper down and in
under that umbilical cord.
All right, so now we still have not done the hair.
But our baby is getting cold
because this towel is now wet.
So now we're going to set aside our cold, dirty water,
and we are going to get a good, fresh rinse.
So we'll dump this out
and get a fresh basin of water.
And let's get our baby out from under this wet towel,
and we'll wrap our baby
with the dry towel.
So we have a new, fresh basin of water.
This is why it's always good to do your bath in a bathroom
where you can access water.
I'm gonna hold my baby like a football.
This is called a football hold.
I'm going to take down the hood on the towel,
and I'm gonna go ahead and get the hair wet
and take a little dollop of shampoo,
soap it up, rinse it off.
Put the hood over your baby's head,
and go ahead and make sure your baby's nice and dried off.
And now would be a great time
to put your baby into kangaroo care.
So you'll need to take off your shirt,
and now your baby is just dressed in a diaper,
so you can lay your baby on your bare chest
and put a nice warm blanket over both of you.
And this will help your baby warm up after the bath.
Your baby will probably be ready to eat after the bath.
Your baby is ready for a tub bath
once the umbilical cord
and circumcision has healed.
Tub bath water temperature is a little cooler
than sponge bath, 90 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Always test water with the inside of your forearm.
Kangaroo care is a great way to warm your baby up
after a sponge or a tub bath.