How to Bathe Your Baby

Sponge Baths

1. Set up a bathing site: Place a waterproof pad or towel over a counter, bed, table, or crib.
2. Undress: Remove your baby’s clothes, leaving on the diaper. Keep her partially covered with a towel—most babies don’t like being totally uncovered.
3. Wash the clean parts first: Dampen a washcloth with lukewarm water. Wash your baby’s head, face, neck, chest, arms, and legs. Leave the diaper area for last. Gently clean the crevices and creases in your baby’s skin, including behind the ears. Delicately wipe each closed eyelid with a separate damp cotton ball, moving from the inside to the outside of the eyelid.
    
   
4. Wash hair (once per week): Sponge clean your baby’s hair. Avoid letting water get in her eyes.
5. Wash the diaper area: Remove the diaper and gently sponge the area with the damp washcloth. For girls, wash from front to back. For boys, don’t wash an unhealed circumcised penis or try to clean beneath the foreskin of an uncircumcised penis.
6. Clean the umbilical stump: Gently lift the stump and clean the base with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol.

Tub Baths

1. Put water in the tub: Fill the baby tub with just a few inches of warm water. Test it to make sure it’s not too hot. Never run water with your baby in the tub. Be sure the faucet is cool or outside your baby’s reach.
2. Lower your baby into the tub: To avoid startling your baby with the sensation of touching water, hold her securely and talk soothingly as you lower her into the water. Be careful not to let your baby slip.
3. Wash: If your baby has not yet developed head and neck control, support her head and neck while washing. Wash using your free hand, from the head downward.
    
   
4. Shampoo: Once or twice a week, shampoo with a small dollop of baby shampoo. Rinse by pouring water from the forehead back to avoid getting shampoo in your baby’s eyes.
5. Finishing: When the bath is finished, lift your baby from the tub and wrap her securely in a towel to prevent her from getting cold. Pat dry from the top down, dressing as you go.

Baby Grooming and Body Care

• Ears: Clean only the outer part of the ear with a damp cotton ball. Never put anything into a baby’s ear canal.
• Gums: Around the fifth week, start stimulating your baby’s gums by gently rubbing them several times a day with a clean, damp cloth. This will remove bacteria and prepare the gums for teeth.
• Nails: Cut your baby’s nails every two weeks. Use specially designed baby nail clippers. Be careful not to clip skin near the nail.
• Nose: If your baby has a stuffy nose, you can remove mucus by gently sucking it out with a nasal aspirator. Take care not to use the aspirator too vigorously, as this can cause your baby’s nose to bleed.
• Umbilical cord stump: The remainder of the umbilical cord (the baby’s feeding tube while in the womb), known as the umbilical cord stump, falls off anytime from 1–4 weeks after birth. Be sure to keep the umbilical area dry and uncovered until the stump falls off. Keep the diaper below the navel and the shirt above it, and don’t dress your baby in onesies. Wipe the stump with rubbing alcohol when changing diapers or giving sponge baths.
• Circumcision: A circumcision usually takes 1–2 weeks to heal. During that time, delicately cover the area with petroleum jelly and cushion the penis with gauze. Don’t wet the area until it’s healed. If the area swells, bleeds, or shows pus, call your pediatrician.