Messy Business: 5 Tips to Help Keep Your Newborns Bottom Healthy

Messy Business: 5 tips to help keep your Newborns bottom healthy

Caring for your new baby is one of the hardest but what I have been told is the most rewarding job a new parent gets to take on! Caring for your baby’s skin and particularly their bottom can also be the most dreaded task that caregivers have to take on. Time and time again, the viral videos of parents gagging from an extremely stinky diaper is certainly proof that this task has its challenges, but the task has to be done to keep your baby’s bottom as healthy as possible and to help prevent diaper rash! 

Here are 5 easy to follow tips to help you keep your baby’s bottom nice and healthy:

1. Fresh air and a Dry bottom- The best way to prevent Diaper rash and to help alleviate symptoms of Diaper rash is to keep your baby's bottom DRY. Before you put on a new diaper make sure you have given the skin time to dry before closing the diaper. I generally like to use a hand fan to speed the process up! If your newborn has a diaper rash, allowing them to hangout with a naked bottom for an hour or 2 at a time will allow some air flow to their bottom and aid in healing.
   

2. Frequent diaper changes- Whether you have chosen to use cloth diapers or disposable diapers, changing your baby's diaper in a timely and frequent interval of time will help reduce the likelihood that your baby will develop a diaper rash.
   

3. Diaper cream- Diaper creams and viscous topical ointments are great to help create a dry boundary between a wet diaper and your baby's bottom. They also can help heal already existing diaper rashes! However, since diaper rash can have multiples causes, it is wise to consult with your pediatrician to ensure it is just a diaper rash and not something more serious like a yeast infection or allergic reaction!
    

4. Wiping effectively- Many times adult fingers are too big and sometimes that can cause a hindrance to wipe a baby's diaper area effectively, particularly for female infants. A true and tried method to clean a baby's folds is to fold your wipe into a triangle then use the corner to get all of the extremely sensitive hard to reach folds.
   

5. Water- Sometimes going back to the basics is best! Many brands of wipes can irritate your baby's skin so avoiding wipes with tons of added chemicals or even using water and very soft reusable cloth wipes can help illuminate skin irritation in the diaper area! My favorite method is to just rinse baby bottoms under a sink or bathtub faucet.
   

Although changing a baby's diaper is  one of the not so pleasant tasks of caring for infants, I hope these 5 very simple tips help you manage the diaper hitting the fan literally and figuratively. Being proactive about caring for your baby’s little butt is essential to maintain your baby's fresh and glowing skin. Do you feel prepared to manage all of the messy business that having a new baby involves?

Kayla Dockery is a  greater Milwaukee area Cache certified Newborn Care Specialist and Postpartum Doula, but her work has taken her all over the United States and beyond. The happiness and well-being of children and families has always been an interest of Kayla's. She has added to her child-focused bachelor's degree work with the completion of both RIE and formal Montessori training. Being a Certified Newborn Care Specialist and Postpartum Doula allows Kayla to offer comprehensive care to entire households. In addition to  postpartum support, Kayla is an American Red Cross Instructor who is extremely active in her local community teaching new parents and caregivers CPR/First Aid. Kayla's goal when working with any family is to provide quality emotional and physical support. The services she offers reflect what she most values: providing parents with opportunities to obtain sweet sleep, serenity, and peace of mind; knowing that their children are in great hands!