what are you told about bathing your baby?

[*LittleMissSummer*]

Can i ask what is so wrong with johnsons?

[Early Kids]

I was told not to bother using anything but water, the hospital did have j&j stuff there for us to use though (even in the NICU). I wasn't given a time frame at all though.

[sahbear]

My hospital (private hospital) had jandj, but I recall the midwife from my anti natal classes say just to use water.

We use moogoo here, which helps mine and ds' super sensitive skin, and my mothers group loved all the jandj products I gave to them that I had been given!

Except the girls who use moogoo!

[Early Kids]

Can i ask what is so wrong with johnsons?

I found it irritated the boys skin and caused huge eczema flare-ups.

[Rowellen]

Can i ask what is so wrong with johnsons?

I'm not sure if it still does, but it used to contain certain ingredients that were dangerous There are threads on here about it. If I can find them, I'll post a link for you.

[Rowellen]

Here is a link to a thread about J&J Baby Oil. It also contains some more links that Kelly posted. HTH

[Lisa]

Almost 18 years ago when I had DS it was expected that he had been bathed within the first 12-24 hrs of him being born. The midwife showed me how to bathe him in bubbles of J&J products then to cover his body in J&J oil as he was "overcooked". Every bounty bag I've ever received has had J&J's products in them. Even after having DD at home and having the midwives visit we were told to give her 24hrs before a bath and then we could bathe her in "all the gorgeous smelling J&J products"
I do use J&J stuff so it didn't bother me too much but I tried to wait as long as possible before bathing my little ones.


(Sent from my phone, so I apologise if it makes no sense.)

[Beach Mama]

Can i ask what is so wrong with johnsons?

Even if they have taken out the "dangerous" chemicals (which should never have been there in the first place) it is still full of petrochemicals and alcohol which dries out babies skin. Labels need to be read really carefully, Aveeno which claims to be chemical etc free actually isn't and is actually a J & J product. There are lots of other options out there, including Avado from Coles, gaia and of course Moo Goo and other products from health food shops.

[Kazzo]

With DD1 not once did anyone mention not to use soaps. Her first few baths I used J&J and did not like it, After that I just added a few drops of Olive oil to the water. The hospital had small bottles of J&J for us to use.
DD2 I left after having her and bather her at home the next day and we only used water with Oil too. I still don't use soap on them but DD1 has alot of hair so I use an organic shampoo on her.
The Bounty bag I got had a few samples of shampoo but it was not J&J (can't think of the name now), but I threw them out anyway.

[*LittleMissSummer*]

Well i have only ever used the baby bath and sorbelene cream from J&J. The lotion made her go read and i don't like the idea of baby oil so never have tried it on her. She had really dry skin as a newborn and bathing her daily in the baby bath and using sorbelene had her skin nice and supple after a few days.

I see no reason to change products if for nearly 17 months i have had no issues.

[LuluHB]

Hospital promoted J&J too - in enormous quantiites! Nappy rash? use J&J. Hair washing? J&J. Cradle cap? J&J. The pre-natal class at the hospital also suggested olive oil in the early weeks. DD1 wasn't bathed for about 3 days because I think we were too scared to Then I admit to being a naive first time mum and using the J&J recommended. First home visit by the MCHN stopped that and I was told to use QV lotion on her very sensitive skin. Ended up using nothing because everything irritated her. By about 6 months I was able to use Gaia on her every few days without problems.

DD2 was home within hours of birth and so was bathed the next day in plain water and stayed that way for months

Now my kids need to be bathed in sheep dip I think - never seen such filthy kids after they've been playing outside!

[Cranky Kitten]

With DD in a public hospital 9 and chunk years ago they bathed her on the day she was born (early afternoon) and used J&J. DS was in a private hospital and they still used J&J, although he wasn't bathed quite so early - he was born at night so it was his second full day before his first bath, and we were home on day 3. I've never used baby oil though, don't even think I've got any in the house.

Now I'll use a little bit here and there, he's a bit of a chucker so tends to wind up with off milk in his hair (ewww!) but I prefer plain goats milk soap to J&J. He generally only gets a full bath every second or third day if I can get away with it.

The bounty bags I got with DS (didn't have them with DD) had a range of different products in them, some J&J, some Gaia and others. I think though that there is very much an attitude of "that's just what you do" when it comes to using products on babies even if you don't really need to.

[Traveller]

Thanks everyone for your stories, they are really helpful in getting a picture for the attitude to newborn skincare Australia wide. My own experience was that I was told not to use anything for the first 6 weeks which is exactly what we did, but boytwin was in hospital at 2 weeks and they had him on a pediatric ward instead of a neonatal ward. In this ward they did not know the guidelines because they were not routinely looking after such young babies so they dunked him in a bath full of J&J chemicals and he has suffered from dry skin/eczema since then. He is the only one of my children who has such bad skin. Only an anecdote and of course it proves nothing but studies have shown that newborn skin is usually best left without anything other than water to cleanse it for the first month or so, and this allows the skin to prepare itself for childhood much better. Plus babies smell so delicious straight out the womb it's a shame to scrub all that off and cover it with perfume

[Heaven]

My m/w's both times told me that I didn't need to use anything.

But before I left with DD1 they showed me how to bath her and she squirted J&J in. I wasn't a fan of J&J and didn't say anything. I never used any soap or anything on them for a long time. Haven't used anything on DD2 yet. I don't see they need it except now when DD1 has been playing outside and is very dirty.

[Trillian]

My hospital was sponsored by J&J I reckon but they did say you needed hardly any in the bath and to only use a tiny squirt.

[Traveller]

My hospital was sponsored by J&J I reckon but they did say you needed hardly any in the bath and to only use a tiny squirt.

The Australian College of Midwives is genuinely sponsored by J&J, and they are also known to give out free bottles of their product to maternity hospitals so that new parents see it as being midwife endorsed. So you're probably not far off the mark there.

[Cherished]

We were told we didn't need to use anything on ds for months. I think when he was about 3 months I started to wash him in aveno non scented body wash, I used that one his hair too. I have very bad eczema on my hands and I know I don't react to aveno. I'd like to say I go organic all the way but lots of organic stuff has essential oils in it which I react to, even lavender oil and organic cold pressed coconut oil.

[sloane]

i didn't bath DS in hospital & they didn't mention anything (although one of the m/w that visited me at home may have ) but they did have a cloth nappy, only clean with water & cotton wool balls policy for nappy changes & i certainly don't remember seeing any products in the nappy change area (they had a central one). they still hand out the bounty bags - i got one for booking in today.

we tried a so-called natural product for DS in his bath when he was a few weeks old & it just made his eczema worse so we stopped using anything other than moogoo after baths.