So the long-awaited miracle happened - you took your little princess from the hospital. Now all worries about her will completely fall on your shoulders. The first thing that young parents need to know is how to properly care for and keep the young creature clean. Hygiene of newborn girls is somewhat different from caring for boys, the natural physiological differences are to blame. About all the intricacies of toilet procedures for newborn babies, we will tell in this article.
Bathing
To bathe a newborn, you should stock up with a small plastic bath, a thermometer, special baby soap without additives or bath foam, a baby washcloth. In the early days it is better to use a small piece of gauze, which after the procedures can be washed, boiled and ironed. Select a separate diaper for swimming. It should be stocked with baby powder and oil. You can buy oil , but you can use any vegetable oil , after boiling it and adding a couple of drops of vitamin A.
Bathing the baby completely can begin when the wound on the navel dries up. Such hygiene of newborn girls is carried out every night before going to bed. The baby needs to be fed for an hour and a half before the procedure, otherwise she may burp milk.
Bathing water should not be higher than 37 degrees, check the temperature with a thermometer. Put a diaper on the bottom of the bath. Draw water and slowly lower the baby into it. Envelop the girl with the edges of the diaper and start gently pouring some water over it. When the baby begins to get used to the water, the swaddle can be thrown back. Thoroughly wash the entire baby’s body with water.
Bathing a child with soap should not be more than once a week. No matter how gentle its composition, it will still dry the delicate skin of the child and violate its protective layer. A newborn baby does not come in contact with the environment and does not receive severe contamination of the skin, because simply washing with some water is quite enough. Natural decoctions of herbs can be added to water, if desired, but make sure that they do not dry the skin.
After bathing, the skin of the crumbs should be thoroughly wet with moisture with a clean diaper. If necessary, treat skin folds with oil.
Washing
Babies can cope up to 20 times a day, therefore hygiene of a newborn girl must be observed very carefully. At such a tender age, the skin and mucous membranes are very vulnerable, and with the slightest excessive exposure to moisture and feces, irritation, redness, rash and infection can occur.
After each trip “in a little way” you need to thoroughly dry the skin, and after a bowel movement - wash with warm water. Wash the child only after the bulk of the pollution has been removed with a napkin. All babies are washed strictly from front to back, in order to avoid getting sewage on the genitals. After you need to get the moisture wet with a napkin. Rubbing a tender skin with a towel is not worth it, such manipulations will quickly lead to irritation. In case of irritation, sterile oil is applied to them or powdered.
Girlish secrets
Hygiene of newborn girls is also in constant monitoring of the condition of the genitals. The baby’s tiny body has a huge number of glands, and the secret they secrete can be an excellent platform for the development of pathogenic microflora.
Intimate hygiene of a newborn girl comes down to a constant examination and cleaning of the genital area, if necessary. If it was found that the labia is glued together in secret, you need to carefully push them with a damp cotton swab, remove the secretions and then dry with a napkin. Non-observance of cleanliness in this area can lead not only to inflammatory processes, but also lead to the formation of adhesions of the labia.
Intimate hygiene of newborn girls comes down only to the care of the external genitalia. The internal organs are very delicate and vulnerable, so you need to ensure that water does not get there at the time of washing. This can cause an inflammatory process. Girls need to be washed, laying on their backs, and try to avoid first washing in basins or a bath.
If you find that the crumbs have inflammation, strange secretions and fever, you should immediately seek help from a specialist.
What is a sex crisis?
At the time of the onset of “sexual crisis” hygiene of the genitals of girls should be especially carefully carried out. On 4-7 days from birth, newborn babies begin to worry about swelling and bloody-mucous discharge from the vagina. This does not happen to everyone, but such manifestations should not scare mom, they are considered the norm and last from one to several days. At such moments, the girl should be washed with a weak solution of potassium permanganate or ordinary boiled water.
Such unusual manifestations occur due to the fact that maternal hormones enter the blood of the newborn. The situation is stabilized by the body on its own, without any outside help.
Breast is poured?
There are frequent cases when the mammary glands swell at the same time as the discharge in the girls . Such a phenomenon is observed in crumbs for several weeks and goes away by itself. Enlarged breasts may secrete a secret called colostrum. If in addition no inflammatory processes are observed, then the hygiene of the newborn girl is reduced to general measures. In no case should you massage your chest or squeeze a secret out of it. If the chest is painful, redness or other signs of a possible disease appear, it is better to visit a doctor.
Morning treatments
After the little beauty woke up, you need to wash your face in order to meet a fresh and cheerful day, full of new studies and adventures. The baby should be washed with a towel dipped in warm water. Pay attention to the neck, armpits, wipe behind the ears, each fold. Places that are most prone to diaper rash should be lubricated with boiled oil.
We clean the ears and nose
Most people think that earwax is dirt that needs to be disposed of immediately. But it is not so. It plays an important protective function, therefore it is necessary to clean your ears without fanaticism. It is worth removing only the excess sulfur that is visible in the auricle. The ears of newborns are very vulnerable, because we will postpone cotton buds until better times, the child can jerk his head sharply and hurt himself. We use cotton rolls rolled up with a tube. We slightly moisten the roller in warm water and carefully screw it into the ear canals, cleaning them of sulfur. This procedure is also necessary after each bath, because water can get into the ear.
If mucus has accumulated in the baby’s nose, it should be removed with an aspirator. After lightly moisten the cotton flagellum in oil and carefully screw into the nostril. Turn the roller several times to get rid of crusts. If the baby breathes freely with its nose and there are no crusts in it, then cleaning it again is not worth it. For each ear and nostril, use a clean fleece. You can see how such hygiene of newborn girls is carried out. Photos are in the article.
She is the future mother
Compliance with hygiene procedures for infants is extremely important, they will help to avoid many unpleasant and dangerous diseases. We highlighted the basic rules of how the hygiene of a newborn girl should be carried out in the first six months of life. Komarovsky O.K., Ph.D. and pediatrician, gives many recommendations for the care of girls' bodies from birth to adulthood. You can follow his valuable advice in the further education of your baby.