Many mothers try to find out in advance what caring for a newborn girl will involve. This allows you to prepare for all surprises and not panic about unusual but natural things. In general, the activities ahead are simple, but they need to be carried out regularly and clearly. You should also familiarize yourself with a number of prohibitions, ignoring which can cause unpleasant consequences. All the nuances of the process can be clarified with the staff of the maternity ward, local pediatrician or visiting nurse.
Hygiene of intimate places in a newborn girl
Due to their anatomical characteristics, girls' genitals are more susceptible to various infections and are characterized by increased irritability to various external stimuli.
In newborn girls, the mucous membrane is very thin, delicate and vulnerable. As a result, she is very easy to injure.
Moreover, any injury to a newborn girl can serve as the beginning for the proliferation of bacteria. That is why girls need to be looked after regularly, carefully and following a number of certain rules.
First days at home
For the first few days, a creamy or light gray coating will be visible on the girl’s labia - these are remnants of vernix lubrication called smegma. Most often, this plaque is absorbed into the skin on its own and disappears after a few days.
But if there is a lot of plaque and it does not disappear on its own, then it needs to be removed, since after three to four days the fats in it will oxidize, which will cause the proliferation of pathogenic microorganisms. It should be noted right away that this plaque can be removed several times, since it has a hard consistency.
Removal is carried out using boiled water and ordinary cotton swabs. The plaque will peel off in pellets, and after a few days it will disappear completely. Here are some useful tips:
- Excessive cleanliness can cause no less harm than sloppiness. Therefore, it is not recommended to wash the girl too often, especially with soap, as this can lead to the appearance of synechia. With this deviation, the labia of newborn babies grow together.
- Around the fifth to seventh day of life, the baby may experience a hormonal crisis through bloody-mucous discharge from the vagina. There is no need to worry about this, this is only a consequence of the fact that the baby received a certain amount of hormones from her mother. This condition does not require any treatment and goes away on its own approximately two to three days after its onset.
How to bathe a boy?
Water procedures performed for babies of different sexes are somewhat different due to the structure of the genital organs.
How to properly bathe a newborn boy? During water procedures, special attention must be paid to the hygiene of the genital organ. The sebaceous glands inside the foreskin produce a special secretion, which accumulates to form smegma. Its large accumulation can lead to inflammation and a disease called balanoposthitis. You need to properly wash your boy as follows:
- gently pull back the foreskin;
- clean the child’s genitals with a cotton swab moistened with water;
- lower the flesh.
All movements should be smooth, do not use force so as not to cause inflammation.
Proper care of a newborn girl
Every time you change a diaper, you need to wash your baby thoroughly. Regular wiping with a damp cloth is not enough. You can use napkins to remove feces, but after this you must rinse the child’s perineum under running water. Before washing, mother must thoroughly wash her hands with baby disinfectant soap. In the first months, girls need to be washed in the direction of the anus to avoid introducing infection into the vagina.
For a similar reason, it is prohibited to wash girls in the basin after defecation. Older girls need to be washed as follows: from the very beginning, you need to soap and rinse the area around the anus under running water (this needs to be done from the bottom up towards the tailbone, while the stream of water should rest against the mother’s palm).
After this, you need to wash your hands with soap and start washing the external genitalia (you should wash in the direction of the pubis and under no circumstances touch the anus). After washing, the girl needs to be dried with a dry and clean towel. This must be done in strict sequence: first you need to wet the area of the genital slit, after which you can move on to the labia and the skin around them.
After all the work done, you can wipe the anus area. In newborn babies, the skin and mucous membranes are very dry, so they need to be lubricated with sterilized vegetable oil or regular baby cream. It is important to remember that you should never wipe the inside of your labia. If you neglect this rule, you can disrupt the internal microflora of the vagina and provoke an infectious disease of the genitourinary organs.
What to buy before giving birth
When it was announced during an ultrasound that the birth of a girl is expected, you need to prepare a dowry for the baby in advance and purchase everything necessary for care and hygiene procedures. The children's room must have:
- Crib;
- baby changing table;
- a separate closet or chest of drawers for children's things.
In addition to the basic furniture, you need to prepare clothes for the baby, a supply of diapers and a baby first aid kit. Clothes and medications should be kept in a designated drawer of the chest of drawers to make access to them as convenient as possible. Ideally, you can purchase a chest of drawers with a changing table. You should put a first aid kit and diapers in the top drawer, and leave the rest for your daughter’s clothes. This will make it as convenient as possible to change the child’s clothes, perform navel treatment, etc.
Clothes purchased for a newborn should be washed in hypoallergenic powder and carefully ironed. You should also prepare soft towels for the baby. You will need one large towel for bathing and one small towel for washing. Towels must be washed and ironed before use.
You need to carefully prepare for the arrival of a newborn girl in your home. You will have to buy a lot of things - from hygiene products to furniture
In addition to basic children's medications (antipyretics, anti-colic medications, gels for gums, etc.), the first aid kit should also contain auxiliary products for hygiene procedures:
- cotton swabs and disks;
- cotton wool;
- high-quality baby cream;
- Vaseline (it is better to choose the modern version in liquid form);
- brilliant green (“zelenka”);
- manganese permanganate (“potassium permanganate”);
- baby wipes;
- liquid baby soap;
- hydrogen peroxide;
- two thermometers (special mercury for water, electronic or infrared for the body);
- two pipettes with a round end;
- gas outlet tube No. 15 for infants;
- several orthodontic pacifiers;
- herbs for bathing newborns (chamomile, string).
Everything that is listed on the list must be purchased in advance, so that when you arrive from the maternity hospital with your baby, you do not have to worry about something being missing for proper child care.
Proper bathing
After the umbilical wound of a newborn girl has healed, she can be bathed. Until the age of six months, children need to be bathed every day. Later they can be bathed once every two days. After a year, bathing procedures can be changed to taking a shower. When bathing a child, you need to thoroughly wash all the folds on his body, especially the spaces between the legs and arms.
When bathing, you can only use baby soap (the amount of additives should be minimal) or baby foam. Moreover, they should be used no more than once or twice a week. It is not recommended to add foam to water; it is better to apply it directly to the skin and rinse off with a shower. Soapy water greatly dries out the vaginal mucosa.
There is an opinion that until a child begins to crawl on all fours on the floor and smear porridge on his face, he cannot smear himself with anything special, and therefore it is not advisable to use soap. In short, while the child is in a crib or next to his parents and simply cannot get dirty, bathing him with soap is not recommended. But this does not at all replace the daily washing with soap after the child has pooped.
This applies exclusively to taking a bath. You can add various herbal infusions to your bath after consulting your doctor. The thing is that almost any decoction dries out the skin, which is completely unacceptable at this age.
At the end of spring and winter in large cities, the central water supply runs water with an increased amount of bleach, which naturally dries out the skin even of an adult. During this period, while bathing the baby, you need to add a variety of softeners to the water.
It could be a calendula remedy or something similar. After taking a bath, the baby must be lubricated with oil. It must be remembered that a newborn girl must have her own bathing set: washcloth, mitten, towel, etc. Some people bathe their babies by replacing the washcloth with gauze. After bathing, they wash it and boil it. Upon completion of the bathing process, girls are wiped dry with a towel or clean blanket and, if necessary, additionally treated with hygienic baby oil.
Folk signs
How to properly bathe a newborn? There are many folk signs and superstitions associated with a child’s first bath:
- If you put silver coins at the bottom of the bath, the child will become rich.
- In order for everyone to love the baby, he needs to be bathed in a decoction of the lovage herb.
- For the first time, water procedures are carried out by parents, without the participation of the grandmother.
- How to properly bathe a newborn girl for the first time? To do this, the baby is dressed in white clothes so that her skin is always snow-white.
- So that the mother can breastfeed her baby for a long time, the bathing water is whitened with milk.
- The first bath can be done on any day except Sunday or Friday.
- The water from the bath must be poured out immediately. Do not let animals drink it or wash children's clothes in it.
Bathing is an important process for the normal growth and development of a newborn. Water treatments help strengthen his immune system and make his skin healthy. Thanks to bathing, the child can get rid of unnecessary emotions and sleep soundly at night. Every day, when parents bathe their baby, they will become confident in their actions, which will bring pleasure not only to them, but also to the newborn.
Proper ear care
Some people believe that wax is not dirt but a natural ear protectant. In fact, this is true, wax protects the ear from water, dust and wind. Therefore, it is not recommended to completely remove all sulfur. It is generally prohibited to pick a child’s ears. You only need to remove the sulfur that is in your field of vision. Moreover, this should be done not with ear sticks, but with a dry cotton wool.
For each ear you need to use a separate flagellum. When bathing the baby, the ears should be carefully washed and dried with a towel. It is very important that there are no drafts in the room. Particular attention should be paid to the skin behind the ears; it may become crusty. It needs to be washed when bathing and treated with oil. To avoid problems, you can use creams that contain zinc oxide or various skin-soothing herbs.
The washing process itself
Place your baby's back on the elbow of your bent arm so that the baby rests on your forearm. Use your hand to secure it, holding it by the left thigh. This is the most comfortable position for washing from front to back.
Be sure to check the water temperature before starting the process. Do not direct the jet directly at the girl’s body to avoid burns.
This is how they wash little girls
Cleaning the spout
You constantly need to ensure that no crusts or snot accumulate in the girl’s nose. She should breathe freely without feeling any obstructions, so the child needs to clean her nose every day.
This is done as follows: first you need to soften the crusts that have formed in the nose using sterile vegetable oil. Ear sticks should not be used; they can damage the nasal mucosa.
To clean your nose, you need to use a cotton swab made from cotton pads. You need to roll something like ear sticks out of it and clean out the contents of your nose with gentle rotational movements.
Cleaning the nasal passages
Newborns produce much more nasal mucus than adults. This aspect prevents the baby from breathing normally. As discharge accumulates, remove it. Use sterile cotton wool and twist it to form a tampon that fits well in and out of your baby's nasal opening.
Children usually do not like such procedures, but they are necessary for normal breathing of a newborn girl. Clean your nose in the evening after swimming, and if necessary in the morning. Ventilate the room well; drying out the mucous membranes has a negative impact on the baby’s condition.
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Trimming the nails
In the first month, newborns' nails are very soft, so it is better to cut them closer to the end of the first month, when they become harder.
For circumcision, you can use children's scissors with rounded ends or nail clippers.
All devices, without exception, must first be lubricated with alcohol or sprayed with cologne. The corners of the nails on the hands should be cut off, but left on the nails on the feet. This will help prevent ingrown nails in the future. As a rule, children's nails should be cut no more than once every seven to ten days.
Is it possible to go for a walk?
It is allowed to go for a walk with the newborn, but only three days after discharge from the maternity hospital. If the baby was born in winter, and the temperature outside the window does not exceed minus 10 degrees Celsius, then the day of the baby’s first appearance on the street is postponed by 2-3 weeks.
At lower temperatures, it is better to cancel walks. As an alternative, you can leave the child on the balcony in the stroller for 15-20 minutes, having previously dressed him as if for a walk. After each visit to the street, girls are recommended to wash and additionally treat their genitals with sterile oil.
