Is there any special care needed for a newborn boy? Is there a difference in how to take care of a daughter and a son? How to care for the genitals of boys? These and many other questions are of interest to almost all parents, and therefore it is precisely to them that we will answer in this article. We will also discuss the use of diapers in newborn boys and see if it is permissible to wear them continuously or if this could harm the baby and affect his future life as a man.
What do mothers of sons need to know?
First of all, babies' parents should understand that there really is a difference in caring for boys and girls. But to the delight of mothers and fathers of little men, caring for a newborn boy is no more difficult than caring for a girl, on the contrary, there are practically no subtleties in this matter.
The main thing is to observe the general hygiene rules for infants, be able to bathe them, and during washing do not miss such delicate places as the neck, folds, armpits, auricles from the inside and outside. It is also necessary to change diapers on time, do exercises with the baby, arrange for him air baths and daily walks on the street.
To avoid future health problems for the child, he needs to provide the necessary care. In the early days it is necessary to observe a newborn boy especially carefully, because babies often have various congenital pathologies. Timely medical intervention will help to avoid future troubles and minimize possible risks.
Newborn Baby Care : General Principles
In the maternity ward, the staff of the institution helps the young mother with the baby. The neonatologists and midwives in the first couple tell the mother what and how to do, bathe and dress the child. But after returning home, the woman understands: now caring for a newborn boy completely falls on her shoulders. What procedures does she need to perform with the baby in order to provide him with a comfortable and healthy growing up:
- provide a diet;
- establish a normal sleep;
- spend daily bathing;
- provide walks in the fresh air;
- organize comfortable conditions in the house (moderate temperature and humidity, in the room you need to clean every day, open the windows for ventilation);
- change diapers as necessary, avoiding overfilling;
- provide the child with sufficient physical activity - do simple physical exercises with him, put him on his tummy, engage in fitball.
Umbilical wound treatment is a mandatory procedure in the first days of a newborn’s life. Caring for a boy in this regard is simple. The navel needs to be disinfected with hydrogen peroxide. After cleansing the wound, it is dried with a swab of clean bandage or gauze. Several times a day, you should expose the baby, in addition, the mother needs to ensure that the diaper does not rub the baby’s navel. To do this, they either purchase special models with a cutout in the front of disposable panties, or tuck the usual ones so that the material does not cover the wound.
Boy hygiene
Bathing your baby is best daily, before bedtime. But if the baby does not like the water procedures too much, or they activate his nervous system, and the boy subsequently cannot fall asleep for a long time, the schedule can be adjusted and the “swimming” can be rescheduled for morning or afternoon. The optimum temperature for bathing water is 37-38 degrees Celsius. Steaming a baby in hot water is not possible for a number of reasons. Firstly, this is a big burden for his cardiovascular system, and secondly, the mother can unintentionally burn a child. Thirdly, in cool water he can relax and freeze a little. Warming and feeding the baby, mom will easily put him to bed.
Doctors recommend bathing a child with soap no more than once a week. The same applies to washing your hair. Often, mothers notice scales on the head of a baby. They are mainly localized on its scalp - near the eyebrows, on the top of the head, above the forehead and in the temple area. Getting rid of them is not as difficult as it might seem. 5-10 minutes before bathing, it is necessary to lubricate the affected areas of the skin with baby oil, then rinse with shampoo. After these manipulations, the scales soften and are easily removed from the head with a comb with small teeth or a special fleecy hair brush. From one time to remove the entire crust may not work, do not worry because of this. Moms usually wash their eyebrows and head in the first month. Caring for a newborn boy also involves proper washing of the genitals. Let's dwell on this in more detail.
How to wash your baby?
Girls' mothers know that babies need to be washed in the direction from the genital gap to the pope, so as not to accidentally introduce the infection into the child's crotch. There are no such problems with the boys. However, it is also necessary to wash them during a diaper change, and it is better to do it correctly. Parents often face difficulties in the first month of their newborn’s life. The boy’s care is almost constant, because at first he poops after each feeding, and you have to wash him several times a day.
It is better to do this under running water, right in the washbasin. Bathing a child in a basin, you will not achieve perfect purity of his skin. If access to water is limited, you can use wet wipes - there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. The composition of the impregnation of these hygiene products is designed in such a way that they carefully clean the delicate skin of the baby, soften it and do not cause irritation. When wiping a child, you need to carefully look at the inguinal folds and the area of the scrotum for bowel movements. These are the main features of caring for a newborn boy. Do not allow diaper rash in the testes and penis. The skin on the genitals is delicate and susceptible to external stimuli, therefore, it needs proper care and proper selection of cosmetics.
Air is the best medicine
Many parents themselves miss a great opportunity to make their child less sensitive to external stimuli, surround him with excessive care and warmth. First of all, this is that their baby is constantly dressed. It seems to someone that after spending 5-10 minutes in what the mother gave birth, the child will be cold, someone is afraid of dust or chemical irritants in the air getting on his skin. But as practice shows, air baths have more advantages than disadvantages, especially since children love them very much. In addition, the features of caring for a newborn boy require regular exercise and massage, which are best done when the baby is completely undressed. To prevent hypothermia, socks can be put on the legs, but nothing more.
Boy skin care
Having been born, the baby has skin that is sterile and completely unsuitable for external irritants. She is not able to cope with the functions that nature entrusts to her. So, if an adult has an epidermis thickness of about 2 mm, then the soft and velvety skin of a newborn is only 0.4 mm. At the same time, the cover on the folds and on the folds is even thinner, therefore it is so important to take care of the skin in the first month of the newborn’s life. Caring for a boy requires parents to also pay attention to the condition of the epidermis on the baby's genitals.
The skin needs adequate care, which manifests itself in washing with gentle cosmetics that do not contain alkaline substances. Also, the epidermis must be constantly moistened, because the upper protective layer has not yet formed on it, preventing the rapid loss of moisture through the pores. If this is not done, the child is more likely to develop atopic dermatitis. In boys, with complicated forms of the disease, the skin becomes inflamed even in the perineum, at the base of the penis and on the scrotum.
Herbs or bath products?
What to bathe a child depends on in what condition his skin. If there are no problems with it, then you can use different means:
- decoctions of herbs (chamomile, calendula, succession);
- weak solution of potassium permanganate;
- moisturizing emulsions.
Surely parents are interested in the question of whether it is worth boiling water for bathing a newborn. Pediatricians say that this should be done only until the umbilical wound heals in the child. Then it can be washed in ordinary tap water. If the skin is dry and peeling, then herbs and potassium permanganate cannot be used - they will only aggravate the situation.
Diapers for future men
When the parents have a boy and a newborn for a month, the development and care of him are the main issues that concern them. Doctors talk about how the baby should develop, but the mother usually learns a little from everyone about the rules for caring for him, and therefore often the information received causes her doubts.
It is believed that wearing disposable diapers negatively affects the health of boys. The main argument of their opponents - the genitals are heated inside the panties, and the whole urogenital system of the baby suffers from this. In their opinion, the consequences of wearing diapers will be felt in adulthood. But scientists have proven that the temperature of the skin on the buttocks and genitals inside the diaper is only 2 degrees higher than on the rest of the body. This indicator cannot be considered hyperthermia, which threatens human health.
If you change the diapers on time, give the body a break from them and breathe, then nothing bad will happen to the child. High-quality products perfectly absorb liquid, and the child’s skin always remains dry and clean, and this is the key to his good mood and comfortable sleep.
Sensitive question
If your newborn child is a boy, caring for him probably involves solving the issue of circumcision of the foreskin from the head of the penis. Previously, this procedure was carried out only by representatives of Judaism and Islam, and now such a surgical operation is also performed by people who are not related to religious communities. For circumcision, there may be medical indications - an infectious disease or an anatomical defect.
The operation is done almost immediately after birth. So, according to the rules of the Jews, the baby is circumcised already on the eighth day of life, although cases are not excluded when the procedure was postponed for a long period. There is no consensus on the advisability of cutting the flesh from the head of the penis. Modern medicine is more likely to oppose such manipulation than for it. It is fraught with severe shock for the child due to pain shock and can provoke real problems with sexual life in adulthood.
What is phimosis and balanoposthitis?
Caring for the genitals of a newborn boy is another question that does not have a clear answer. Some pediatricians claim that during washing it is necessary to open the head of the penis to prevent the foreskin (phimosis) from growing to it. At the same time, urologists are inclined to think that phimosis is a physiological feature that is observed in 80% of boys under three years of age. Then the head itself begins to open, and by the age of 6 years the foreskin should move without problems. If by this time such changes did not occur, then we can already talk about the notch of the skin.
We also note that phimosis in itself does not cause any inconvenience to the child. If the boy does have it, then such an ailment does not cause redness of the head or foreskin, nor pain. These symptoms are inherent in balanoposthitis - inflammation of the head of the penis and inner sheet of the foreskin.
What is fraught with excessive attention to the genitals of the boy?
The latest recommendations from pediatric doctors suggest that most parents provoke problems with the genitals in boys with their inept actions. These include an overly persistent desire to move the foreskin, which is fraught with cracks in the delicate skin, painful urination, and infection on the head. In some special way, it is necessary to rinse the boy’s genitals only if there are problems with him: redness, discharge, anxiety of the child. Usually it is enough to make the baby several times a bath with a decoction of anti-inflammatory herbs. In the water, the penis is washed and cleaned of impurities, mom or dad can only slightly push the foreskin to wash the folds on it, but in no case do not need to try to completely move it from the head.