Morning toilet of a newborn

It can be quite demanding to care for a newborn, particularly when it comes to daily hygiene. Having a straightforward morning routine will keep your infant tidy, cozy, and healthy.

Parents often wonder what steps are essential for a newborn’s morning toilet. Every task you perform for your baby, from washing their hands and face to changing diapers and tending to their sensitive skin, is crucial to their overall health.

The main components of a newborn’s morning care routine will be covered in this post, along with practical advice on how to make the process go smoothly and stress-free for both you and your child.

Why is this necessary?

Newborns’ skin is extremely thin and delicate, making it more vulnerable to harmful effects. Because they lack developed local immunity, babies can be affected at any time by bacteria and fungi that cause serious skin diseases, provided they receive inadequate or poor care. Since the nose and eyes’ mucous membranes serve as the primary defense against viruses, a healthy shell also shields the unborn child. However, at this age, they are also extremely vulnerable. Moreover, rhinitis and conjunctivitis may develop from inadequate treatment.

Newborns sweat more than older children because of their aging thermoregulation system, which makes them sweat more on their head and neck. Furthermore, perspiration is a fertile ground for the growth of bacterial and allergy illnesses. When the morning toilet of crumbs is properly and consistently conducted, the majority of potential negative consequences can be avoided. Easy adjustments will support the baby’s continued health and grooming.

The list of necessary

You will need a variety of items for a child who was discharged from the hospital with his mother.

Before a child is born, you can take care of their purchases, but if you have to for whatever reason, you still have time to buy everything you need right after discharge.

The most important thing is to always have a reminder handy, such as a cheat sheet with an extensive list of necessary items and toiletries:

• Ladle. A newborn should have his own separate container for warm water, which will be needed for washing. It is better to disinfect this dish after each use. It is advisable to buy a plastic ladle, small in volume, suitable for the mother"s hand.
• Oilcloth. It will be enough to buy a small special children"s hygienic oilcloth with a "quilted" structure. On a regular smooth oilcloth, the baby will be cold and uncomfortable.

• Cosmetic oil. For a newborn, you can buy special baby oil with the mark "hypoallergenic" on the packaging. But you can also get by with ordinary Vaseline oil, high-quality peach or apricot (they are usually sold in pharmacies).
• Baby cream. You can buy regular baby cream, or with the addition of chamomile or string extract. The purpose of such a product is to moisturize dry skin.
• Cream under the diaper. This product differs from baby cream in that its task is not to moisturize, but to dry. Accordingly, it is used where the skin is "wet".

You can purchase powder for the same purpose.

• Gauze. You should not buy a large piece of such material, for a newborn it will be quite enough to buy several packages of bandage. The main thing is that it is sterile. Mom will make several sterile gauze napkins from it.

The same pharmacy also sells pre-made, packaged gauze napkins if you don’t want to fiddle with bandages. Sterility remains the same requirement.

• Cotton wool. If you choose ordinary medical cotton wool, then the mother will have to spend the evening to twist turundas from it in advance, which are necessary for carrying out morning procedures for a nursing child. You can buy cotton pads (their pharmacy version), since it is faster and more convenient to twist turundas and flagella from such material.
• Hydrogen peroxide. Sold in a pharmacy. The required concentration is 3%.

• Green paint. Brilliant green solution is an aniline dye. You can buy it at any pharmacy. The required concentration of the solution for a baby is 1%.
• Furacilin. It is best to take the drug in tablets. It is more convenient to dissolve and dose it for external use.
• Cardboard box. A shoe box will do. When performing manipulations, you can throw away everything used and no longer needed in it without being distracted from the child. This is convenient so that you do not collect turundas and diapers with napkins on the floor and changing table.

• Disposable diapers. They should be prepared for the morning toilet if the parents do not mind wearing such a hygiene product.
• Manicure scissors. You should not use scissors from your mother"s cosmetic bag to cut your child"s nails, since they have very sharp tips, you can injure the baby. It is best to buy special children"s scissors with rounded ends.

• Comb. For a newborn, it should have small, blunt teeth. Instead of a comb, you can buy a special brush for combing babies. Sold in pharmacies or children"s stores.
• Thermometer. To buy a mercury or electronic thermometer for a child is the choice of parents. Electronic measures temperature much faster, and mercury is more accurate.

A newborn’s daily care regimen must include a morning routine to keep them clean, comfortable, and healthy. Typically, this procedure entails changing the baby’s diaper, cleaning their eyes, nose, and ears, and washing their face. Parents can make sure their newborn wakes up feeling rested and prepared for the day by creating a soft and reliable morning routine.

Care algorithm

In order to acclimate the infant to using the restroom in the morning, this should always happen around the same time. Strict definitions should be used for the action algorithm. It is not necessary to touch the child’s eyes after cleaning the bottom, and the rationale behind these precautions is clear. Thus, top to bottom is the primary rule.

The mother or the individual performing the procedures should wash their hands with baby soap to ensure they are clean. However, you shouldn’t treat them harshly by using alcohol or other antiseptics; this is not necessary. It is important that the child lies on a level, firm surface. The most important thing is that the surface is clean, that everything is covered in oilcloth, and that there is an ironed diaper on top (to prevent children’s "surprises" during the procedures). It doesn’t really matter if it is a changing table, a regular table, or a sofa.

Undoubtedly, a changing table is highly convenient if one is available. It is not necessary for a woman to bend over because it can be quite painful after giving birth. However, it is strictly forbidden to turn sideways or to face the child who is lying on such a table. Such a fall frequently has tragic results and causes serious traumatic brain injuries. It is incorrect to believe that the infant is immobile due to its small size. Babies are adept at waving their arms and legs, which makes it easy for them to lose their balance and fall from a height.

First steps

Every morning toilet session should begin with a general examination to check for diaper rash, inflammation, and rashes in the child. In order to do this, the infant is undressed, closely inspected, and has his temperature taken.

For the first three weeks of the child’s independent life, pediatricians recommend taking his temperature every morning.

After that, the infant is cleaned without soap under running water. You must wash the baby from the front to the back, not the other way around, to avoid fecal particles getting on the genitalia and causing inflammation. Parents of boys should also consider this rule, but parents of girls should impose it with firmness.

The baby’s skin is extremely sensitive, so there’s no need to towel dry him. Blotting it gently with a soft towel or diaper is sufficient. You can then move on to the main "program" after this.

Head

Gently comb the baby’s hair with a baby comb, being careful not to snag the scalp. It is best to cut hair that is tangled. If there are crusts on the scalp, avoid cauterizing or tearing them off.

It is advisable to save the crusts for the evening bath, where they can be thoroughly soaked in oil and gently brushed out before retiring for the night.

Eyes

Taking care of a newborn’s eyes is a serious responsibility that requires careful consideration. Make a weak solution of furacilin (no more than half a furacilin tablet per glass of warm, boiled water) in order to wash the eye’s organs. Cotton wool cannot be used to treat eye irritation due to the tiny fibers’ potential to irritate the eyes.

The eyes should be treated with gauze. For each eye, a different piece of gauze is used. You can’t use one napkin to cover both eyes. After dipping the gauze in a warm furacilin solution and carefully moving it over the eyelids (the child will reflexively close his eyes), move the gauze in a direction from the temple to the bridge of the nose, making sure that no liquid drips out of it. The action is repeated with a fresh napkin.

If the corners of your eyes have crusts or pus, you should soak them first, and then carefully remove them. A napkin that has crusts or pus on it should be thrown away right away because it cannot be reused. Generally speaking, a healthy baby does not typically have pus in the morning.

Call a doctor to rule out conjunctivitis or dacryocystitis (blockage of the nasolacrimal canal, which is common in newborns) if there has been a noticeable accumulation of discharge in the corners of your eyes for several days in a row.

Ears

It is against the law for parents to clean their children’s ears with cotton swabs because the cotton wool particles from the stick tip can lodge in the ear and cause inflammation, and they can easily damage the eardrum. Using cotton swabs to clean the ears is the best option. There is no compelling reason to perform the procedure every day. One or two treatments per week will suffice.

It is sufficient to clean the outer ear without harming the middle portion of the hearing organs, so the movements shouldn’t be too deep. The same warm furacilin solution is used to moisten cotton swabs, which are then squeezed out to prevent spills and gently cleaned around the ear canal and auricle using rotational motions. You should definitely contact a doctor right away if you notice any discharge, pus, or serous fluid coming from your ears. Don’t wait a day. This could indicate otitis media, which is also fairly common in infants because of the physiological characteristics of the auditory tube’s structure.

Nose

The baby’s nose should be cleaned every day, in contrast to the ears. Cotton swabs are used for this. The nostrils on the left and right are cleaned with different swabs. Vaseline oil is used to lightly moisten the flagellum. Use a vegetable one if there are none.

If the nose has dry crusts, they should be soaked before being removed. Crusts are usually an indication that the child is either overheated or breathing too dry air. Nasal mucus shouldn’t normally dry out. Parents need to purchase a humidifier and adjust the thermostat. For a newborn, 20 degrees Celsius and 50–70% relative humidity are the ideal ranges.

Face

The mother will find a ladle useful in this situation, so we suggested adding it to the list of toiletries that are essential. Pour boiling water into it beforehand and let it cool to body temperature (about 37 degrees, as this is the average temperature for newborns in their first month of life). After soaking a cotton pad or gauze napkin in water, squeeze it out and use it to gently (but gently!) wipe the chin, nose, cheeks, and forehead. Remember to keep the area behind the ears and the chin folded.

You can wash the child’s face with a furacilin solution if they have a rash on it. It is imperative that you contact a physician if pustules develop in order to rule out pyoderma and other bacterial and viral illnesses.

Squeezing out acne or blisters from the child’s face is not recommended. The same holds true for lipomas, which are typical in young children.

Nails

Nails on newborns grow very quickly and are very sharp. As a result, every two to three days, their length should be measured. You must carefully trim them with children’s scissors with blunt ends so the baby doesn’t scratch himself. Fingers should be cleaned with a furacilin solution after cutting.

Folds

It is recommended to treat skin folds twice a day, in the morning and the evening. Following a bath, a more thorough procedure ought to be conducted in the evening. Examining them and giving them a quick wipe down with a napkin dipped in boiling water is sufficient in the morning. After allowing them to air dry for a few minutes, the child is left undressed and, if needed, treated with powder for extremely wet skin or baby cream for dry skin.

When diaper dermatitis is suspected, medications like Bepanten should only be used if inflammation is found in the skin’s folds and prickly heat is present.

Umbilical wound

Cotton wool is not used in the navel treatment method since its fibers may stay in the wound. Gently clamp a small gauze swab with tweezers. After dripping hydrogen peroxide into the wound and letting it soak off any crust, the navel is gently blotted with a swab. Brilliant green is applied to the edges of the umbilical wound (cotton swabs can be used for this).

Avoiding brilliant green on the wound itself is crucial. Nothing needs to be pulled off if not all of the crusts have soaked off.

Step	Description
Face Washing	Use a soft cloth with warm water to gently clean the baby"s face, avoiding soap around the eyes and mouth.
Eye Care	Wipe each eye with a clean cotton pad, moving from the inner to the outer corner to avoid infection.
Nose Cleaning	Use a soft, damp cotton swab to gently clean the baby"s nostrils.
Ear Cleaning	Wipe the outer parts of the ears with a cotton pad, avoiding insertion into the ear canal.
Skin Care	Apply baby cream or lotion to dry areas, especially around folds and creases.

Having a consistent morning routine for your baby sets the stage for a relaxed and organized day. To help your baby feel relaxed and rejuvenated, give them a gentle wash, change their diapers, and give them a quick massage or stretch.

Your baby’s needs will change as they get older, but maintaining a routine will help you and your child adjust. During these times, it’s critical to pay attention to their skin and any indications of discomfort.

All in all, your baby will have a positive experience using the restroom in the morning and you two will enjoy some quality time together if you keep things calm, safe, and basic.

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