Speaker: I'd like to demonstrate today a Swaddle bath with Haven Williams my little friend
that's going to get in to the tiny tub today.
The tiny tub is a small bath tub that has a little temperature to strip on the side
that allows the parents, and the caregivers to really look at the temperature of the bath
water.
Also with the tiny tub is a nice back support that is washable and it goes down into the
water to support the baby during the bath.
One of the benefits of the swaddle bath is to be able to provide the baby with the nice
external wrap and the baby will have less motor stress and really be able to enjoy the
bath and have ease for the parents to handle the baby.
The bath temperature should be about 1 to 2 degrees, pretty much 2 degrees above what
the baby's normal temperature is to allow for warmth and to prevent the baby from being
cold stress.
So, we're going to take Haven and place her on a swaddle bath and let me demonstrate how
that works.
She is wrapped in a swaddling cloth that's light weight and again you want to keep her
into a nice flex position supporting her in the water.
One hand goes under her head to keep her head obviously above the water.
You really want the water at the fill on of the tub, so that it's all the way up to the
shoulders.
If you're teaching a parent a swaddle bath, the daddy can hold the head and the mom can
work on bathing.
Use the bottom of the tub for foot rising and the swaddling cloth actually keeps the
baby again like we discussed contained and warmth.
I usually have an additional water on the side add if the baby needs some extra warmth
and for clean water needed for all care and then at the end for her hair.
Your babies will not cry during swaddle bathing shouldn't cry.
Sometimes they're mad a little bit and what you get as a parent who feels a lot more comfortable
with bathing their baby, because bathing is one of those things that they're very scared
about and afraid that they're going to have a hard time with.
Now the trick is getting that open.
When you go to actually wash the baby or bathe the baby, you'll take one... fill about one
quadrant at the tub and bathe one extremity and then re-swaddle.
I put the lotion in the water in order to get it to a nice temperature.
I like using my hand, you can teach parents hand, or you can teach parents using a wash
cloth.
You bathe one extremity and re-swaddle.
Moving to the other extremity.
Again hands are nice cause you can get that nice human touch and get in to those scrub
assist and then re-swaddle.
The swaddle bath should really only take about 7 to 10 minutes just to prevent the baby from
getting cold.
So you might want to let your parents know that... not to move quickly but just to be
aware that the water start to cool down pretty quickly.
One of the things that can be done is the supplemental heat can be added to your infant
and your parent if they're just learning and anticipate do not take a little bit longer.
Washing the foot.
The swaddle cloth has a pocket that you can undo in order to get to the baby's genitalia.
Again, the baby's aren't really dirty.
So we're not looking at.
They didn't play in the mud puddle so we're not looking at really scrubbing.
We're just looking at a nice therapeutic time to bathe the baby.
In order to bathe the baby's back, might teach parents to go under and rub through the cloth
versus undoing the cloth because it disorganizes the implants.
Again, I'm using these boundaries of the tub for rising and for containment.
Now, last but not the least.
We are going to wash the hair.
We'll use the clean warm water.
Always test the soap on ourself to make sure it is not cold.
And she's going to get a nice shampoo.
Included with the tiny tub is also a guide to swaddle bathing that teaches parents the
steps for bathing and gives them an idea of how to involve wherein grandparents, siblings,
other people in the bath time which is a huge family event.
After the hair has done last, you want to have available a couple of blankets preferably
warmed.
Add this warm water while I get my blankets.
And unswaddle the baby.
First, I'm going to get the blankets available and you can have those ready to go.
And then another blanket, it's right available there.
OK.
This is the trickiest part of the swaddle bath is getting the baby out of the tub.
The swaddling cloth is open, exposing the baby.
And left in the tub.
Bringing the baby out and to the mother or the parent and then quickly wrapping the baby
to dry.
In additional, blanket can be added for the head and now we have Haven who should be clean
and also ready to go to her mama for feeding.
The saddle bath does reduce stress in the baby and allows the baby to also go to bottle
feeding or breastfeeding because they haven't use a lot of their energy that they not have
had a stressful event if they were to have had a traditional bath.
So those are the advantages, the babies can also be fed.