Long since the guarantee of cleanliness and health has been bathing. Therefore, each family observes a simple but very correct ritual - daily bathing for the baby. As a rule, decoctions of oak bark, chamomile, string, fennel and other herbs are added to the bath. Coniferous baths for babies require special attention in the preparation, because children of this age have very delicate skin. Such a bath should benefit them, but in no way cause negative feelings. Why do we need coniferous baths for babies, how to cook them, the positive and negative sides - you can learn about everything from this article.
Briefly about such bathtubs
To prepare such a bath, apply concentrates from cones, needles and bark of conifers. Usually in pharmacies you can buy extracts from pine, spruce, fir, cedar and juniper.
Types of coniferous extracts are presented in a large assortment - powder or tablets, liquid solution, sea salt soaked with concentrate, dry briquettes. In addition, you can prepare a healthy broth yourself.
There are many useful elements in needles - carotene, volatile, microelements, essential oils, vitamins of the K, E, P, PP, B, C groups, tannins, antioxidants.
Despite the fact that coniferous baths for babies are very useful, only a pediatrician who is well aware of the condition of the crumbs should appoint them for the baby. The first six months the child should not do these baths. Although in cases where the baby is born weak or premature, the doctor may prescribe such baths earlier, as soon as the little one is a little stronger.
What are they needed for?
The pediatrician appoints baths with the aroma of pine needles as a therapeutic and immunostimulating agent. After all, needles are the best prevention of lung diseases. Its positive effect on the cardiovascular system is also known. After babies take warm baths, their organisms are cleaned of toxins that are excreted with sweat. Prevention of rickets, normalization of metabolic processes, and a calming effect should be added to useful effects.
No need to bathe a small child in a pine bath in the daytime. The calming effect can be so strong that the baby’s sleep will be very deep during the day, but at night, on the contrary, he may not fall asleep for a long time.
Essential oils will very actively penetrate through the skin into the body crumbs. And since the baby is very sensitive before reaching the age of six months, the pediatrician should appoint him a bath with needles from 6 months, or even a year. In any case, a doctor’s advice and an allergy test answer are required first.
What are we preparing a bath for?
We already know how useful coniferous baths are for babies. What to do if there are different products at hand?
Infusion of dry needles. You can cook it yourself. There are many recipes, but the result is one - a similar infusion is an environmentally friendly product. Often it is prepared like this: chopped dry needles are brewed with boiling water in a teapot or thermos. It will be prepared in twenty to thirty minutes.
Coniferous tablets. This is a evaporated extract, which is obtained from a pine foot, and a small amount of oil is added to it. To get a liquid product, you just need to dissolve the tablet in water.
Coniferous plant extract. It is also called a concentrate or elixir. Produced by water extraction from natural raw materials, which include branches of conifers. Sold as a concentrated liquid solution. Such an extract can be treated and preventive measures for asthma, cough, other bronchopulmonary diseases, because it has folic acid, vitamin C, B vitamins, plant hormones, carbohydrates, micro and macro elements.
Coniferous powder. It is a dried extract, which is obtained through the extraction of plant concentrate from the branches of pine family trees. Trees must be one year old. The resulting dry powder is very convenient to store and use. And it can be found less and less in pharmacies.
Balm. Its manufacture is based on natural coniferous extract. It contains oils, volatile, bischofite, fir oil, dyes, turpentine turpentine, a lot of balsamic minerals, starch, flavorings, natural salts.
Cooking a coniferous bath
To make such a bath is very easy. Coniferous baths for babies do so. If an adult bath is prepared for the baby, then it should be filled in two-thirds. If a baby bath, then fill it to half so that the water level is below the border of the baby’s heart. Water temperature should be between 35-37 degrees. The baby should not take a bath longer than a quarter of an hour.
The baby should be in a good mood and calm, be completely healthy. You should not lower the child into the water immediately after eating, it is best when at least one and a half hours pass after dinner.
Such baths should be taken in the evening, about an hour before the baby's sleep. The baby should already be in a relaxed state, you should not start active games in the bath while swimming. After the bath is taken, the baby should be rinsed in the shower.
We will figure out the dosage for the baby, depending on what kind of coniferous extract is.
If dry, then twenty grams will be enough.
If the essential oil, then six to eight drops (best used for babies older than a year).
A liquid concentrate will be enough thirty to fifty ml.
If you take a briquette, half of it is enough.
When using tablets in one bathtub, take one piece.
Another recipe
If the house has collected cones and needles, coniferous infusion can be prepared according to the following recipe. It should be noted that such a natural extract will be more beneficial. True, the manufacture will take a certain amount of time.
So, half a kilogram of raw material is poured with three or four liters of water and all this is boiled over low heat for thirty minutes. Then the mixture is covered and infused for ten to twelve hours. After the time has passed, strain the infusion. It is stored in a cool, dark place for no more than three days.
When the medical bath is prepared for the baby for the first time, it is better to use half the dose, and reduce the time itself to five minutes. So it is necessary to do to check the baby’s reaction.
Coniferous-salt baths. What is their secret?
Coniferous salt baths for babies are of significant benefit to them. These are ordinary coniferous baths in which sea salt is added. Prescribe them to children who have a suspicion of rickets, if there are skin or neurological diseases (stress, disorders, overwork), metabolic disorders, muscle cramps.
Taking such baths by a baby may well replace swimming in the sea and salt rooms (halotherapy) common in recent years. The addition of coniferous extract will enhance the benefits of salt baths.
Thanks to salt, excess moisture is removed from the body, the metabolism is restored, the bones are strengthened, the excretory system improves, the tone increases, and digestion is activated.
Cooking a coniferous salt bath
These are all examples of the positive impact that coniferous-salt baths for infants have on the functioning of the body and its systems. How to cook them?
Take two tablespoons of coniferous concentrate and sea salt. The extract is completely replaced by essential oils of coniferous trees in the amount of six to eight drops per baby bath. You can take salt, which is saturated with coniferous concentrate.
Quite often, parents alternate coniferous and salt baths with each other: today - one, tomorrow - another. So the course of treatment will be longer and with a significant effect.
The benefits of bathtubs and existing contraindications?
Baths, which add coniferous concentrate, not only have a pleasant smell, but also have a very good effect on the body.
The pediatrician can prescribe such baths when the baby is anxious, he is often “overtaken” by respiratory diseases, and he does not sleep well. Typically, the course is from ten to twenty baths - either daily or every other day. Usually, after the first two or three procedures, the mother notices that the baby becomes calmer and sleeps better. And when the full course of healing baths is completed, the baby catches a cold less. The interval between courses is at least two months and each time you should show the baby to the doctor.
So, coniferous baths for babies have indications for use as follows: normalization of sleep, elimination of allergic itching, prevention of respiratory diseases, relieving cramping and muscle relaxation, restoring metabolism, relieving irritation, calming the nervous system. All of this is really feasible. The main thing is to follow the recommendations of the pediatrician.
Although it has been established that coniferous baths for babies are very useful, there are some contraindications to their use. It is because of this that it is permissible to carry out such procedures only to the attending physician, who knows what the baby's condition is at this moment.
It is contraindicated for children to do such baths if the kids:
- pathology of the heart;
- infectious diseases;
- asthma (and bronchial too);
- wounds, scratches and abrasions on the skin;
- fever;
- exacerbated chronic diseases; atherosclerosis.
Contraindications include a local allergic reaction and individual intolerance. If the baby is in a nervous condition after the bath, he is worried, his sleep is disturbed, skin rashes appear, the course should be stopped before consulting with the pediatrician.
Final recommendations
We have already figured out how to prepare coniferous baths for babies. Reviews of mothers say that, if all the rules are followed, the positive effect does occur. After all, babies should be bathed only if they are in a good mood and healthy. Moms should create a welcoming atmosphere with their voice and movements while taking a bath so that the baby is completely calm. So the maximum effect is achieved.
Experts recommend not making a mixture of compounds, but simply alternating them. To do this is better according to the scheme:
- coniferous bathing;
- ordinary bathing;
- bathing with salt;
- swimming with herbs.
In this order and continue the course.
Important! It is necessary for the baby to take a bath while sitting, without dipping his chest into the water. It is impossible to give him the opportunity to take a bath on his own. The concentration of the applied coniferous solution should be low.