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Home › Articles › Basic Care › Baby's First Bath

Baby's First Bath

A Trendy or Traditional Approach?

By Joe Cooke

Pages:  1  2  3  4  

You've just arrived home from the hospital with your new baby. The nurses and doctors are all gone, as are most of the relatives. Time for Mom and Baby to relax with a nice bath, right?

The day after we brought our newborn daughter home we decided to treat her to her first bath. While I held Katie in my arms, my wife, JoAnn, placed everything on the kitchen counter, checked it twice and went over the instructions three times.

We made sure we had the baby tub, washrag for soaping, washrag for rinsing, cotton swabs for the eyes, no-tears shampoo, baby soap, warm towel, swaddling blanket, tub of warm water for rinsing, tub of warm water for soaping, yellow rubber ducky that turns white if the water is too hot, tiny knit cap, diaper and printed instructions. The sheer volume of what to have on hand, plus the extensive lists of how-to and what-not-to-do, was intimidating.

"I was so nervous I was sweating," JoAnn recalls. "And then, right in the middle of the bath, the neighbors dropped by unexpectedly. I can hardly imagine what I must have looked like."

Although we took a whole series of childbirth classes, we never actually practiced bathing a newborn. Like most parental skills, we learned on the job. Four years and another baby later we've learned that for the most part, bathing your newborn follows some basic, logical principles: keep the baby warm, keep the baby safe and have fun.

The Traditional Approach
Although most traditional approaches recommend a sponge bath rather than full immersion, just about every article, every teacher and every book offers a slight variation on the basic how-to. Sometimes these instructions even conflict each other, leaving parents in a quandary.

One thing that almost everyone agreed on was that newborns do not like to be bathed and may become quite upset. Remember, newborns have just come from a warm environment where they were wrapped up tightly. Their bodies are still learning to regulate temperature, and they might panic a bit when they are out in the open.

When it comes time to relax after the bath, getting a good swaddle is of paramount importance. At first, my swaddles were loose and flimsy, but as time went by, they got tighter and more solid. Even now, Katie will bring me her dolls and ask me to swaddle them.

Here's my secret: lay out the blanket like a baseball diamond with home base pointing toward your belly button. Fold the top down so that second base touches the pitcher's mound. Baby's head goes right where second base used to be. Fold third base over and tuck it under Baby, making the blanket as tight as possible and pinning Baby's right arm down. It may seem a bit alarming to a new parent, but I found that the tighter the swaddle (within reason), the more relaxed the baby stays. Fold the bottom up next, and then wrap the right side over. When you are done, you should have a tight little burrito of a baby.

For us, once Baby was swaddled we could take a deep breath and relax. That first bath was beautiful but certainly left us feeling more drained than fulfilled. We were sopping wet, exhausted and the kitchen was a mess.

A New Approach

Pages:  1  2  3  4  

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