what are you told about bathing your baby?

[Traveller]

I've heard from the lady who is sending me the leaflets, and she has had to send them surface mail so it will be 3 months before I can start attempting to get the hospital policy changed. Might be easier then though, because I will be back at uni and preparing for placement so will have more access to the hospital.

[JLeigh29]

We used water only at the hossy and the midwives told us DS didn't need anything at all in the water. I don't remember seeing J&J stuff there, but there was some other brand of 'totally natural' samples, though I didn't pay attention! We watched a mum bath her newborn in antenatal classes and she cut up a small piece of goats milk soap and stuck it in the bottom of the bath water, and I did that too a couple of times. I sometimes used olive oil on his skin for baby massage time, which I did religiously for the first 3-4 months. Towards the end, I used a little Gaia oil and now we sometimes use Gaia bath and shower gel (and the Gaia shampoo after swimming). We just started our second bottle of bath and shower gel last week (the first one was the small size) so you can see how little/rarely we use it!
Like Cherished, I have eczema/sensitive skin too and it's often the essential oils in the organic stuff that are the worst, so I was very reluctant to use anything on DS at all. DH's skin is bad too so we are very careful with DS' skin.

FWIW, we also didn't use baby wipes on DS until he was 8 1/2 months old, and then only occasionally until he was 12 months (Chux and water worked awesomely!)

[NaeNae]

I am not too sure how to vote from the poll answers.

My KYM ladies said that babies don't really need products at all until they star treally moving around and then to avoid soap because it strips their delicate skin of oils and dries it out.

In the Antenatal classes they recommended using Gaia products if anything. Not that we use Gaia here, we use Moogoo and have done since DD was 4 days old

[Kazzo]

This.

It was some French brand of baby stuff. They had samples in the little gift baggy they made up for us.

I never use j&j because I'm ethically opposed to that company due to animal testing . I've been using gaia on my kids for 3 years.


They bathed dd a couple of hours after birth because she was caked in meconium but just used water. It was about 3 days before I have her a bath. It was about 4 days before I gave ds a bath.

--'--,--'--

The french brand might be Mustella. I have some of this but I find the smell is to strong. The only one I use sometimes is the shampoo after we have been to swimming lessons. My friend who gave birth at a private hospital was given loads of Mustella products, No J&J at that hospital.

[meow]

We had our first in a birth centre and I'm pretty sure we were told just to use water. I already knew that so I don't remember exactly what we were told by the hospital. We weren't given a bounty bag though- I got one at my booking in appointment and that was the only one I received. Can't remember what was in it. We certainly never saw a single branded product while at the hospital.

We only stayed at the birth centre for one night so we didn't bath our son there but we were given cloth nappies and cotton pads to wet to use as wipes so I remember we were told wipes are bad. We had midwives come visit us at home after discharging and they told us not to use baby products too. I remember my son's skin was really flaky and we were told we could use olive oil or sorbolene.

[Babyluv]

The MW's told us to only use water but there were plenty of samples in my room (J&J, Mustella etc) We have only ever used Moogoo milk wash on our DD.

[Erin_25]

When I had DS1 we were given a gift from the hospital that basically was a J&J gift pack all wrapped up nicely. Upon giving it to me the midwife explained that they give them to all the new Mums because they have to but then quickly recommended that I never touch J&J products. I only once tried J&J bedtime bath on DS1 out of sheer desperation to find something that may get us all some more sleep...no, worse he reacted to it & I've never used J&J products again.

As for washing I have only ever used water for the first 6months and from then on when needed (pending on how dirty) I use all natural products. Even with hair washing this is only done every few days.

[Butterfly Dawn]

Any product that clams "no tears" formula- please find out more- alot of company's just put an anesthetic product in so baby doesn't cry- does not mean they use less chemicals

[nickle730]

I had my three babies in the same private hospital.

DD1 (8) - was bathed about 2 hours after birth, DH did it with the assistance of the MW in the delivery suite in front of me. She squirted in some J&J which I continued to use on DD.
DS (6) - was bathed about an hour after birth in the delivery suite, again by DH and the MW. J&J squirted in and we were given a small bottle to use.
DD2 (12 months) - I asked if we could not give her a bath as I would prefer skin on skin snuggles and was quite happy to wait a day or two. The MW told me that they no longer bathe babies for at least 24 hours after birth as they encourage skin on skin and the vernix shouldn't be washed off as it is good for bub's (and mum's!) skin. She did say that newborns would be bathed if it was the parent's request. She said my request to NOT bathe bub was quite unusual, although most people do accept the hospital recommendation to wait. I took my own Gaia product to hospital, but I did see some J&J and Curash products when I visited the nursery.

I love the smell of a newborn, my own or someone else's. But they do get a bit musty smelling, especially if bub's is a chucker! I like the smell of the Gaia products and although I don't use it anymore for ethical reasons (animal testing!) I do like the smell of J&J.

[Ladylove]

Update from me- I recently had an antenatal class at saint john of god Subiaco and was so impressed by their approach to birth and babycare. The midwives walked us through changing, feeding, bathing etc and while their display equipment was loaded up with J&J the midwives were actually recommending products like Hamilton, QV, olive oil and water to bathe. They recommended not using any product or soap with the bath for a while except for every few days something gentle on baby's scalp to avoid cradle cap and dermatitis caused by accruing oil and dead skin. Then they suggested massaging baby with olive or grapeseed or a cheap non-nut oil after. I was really impressed. Obviously the hospital is provided with J&J but the staff actually recommend other stuff.

[Traveller]

thanks for that Ladylove, the midwives at your hospital sound very up to date in their advice. It's just a shame the J&J is there because subconsciously people will think it is "midwife approved" as a result, exactly why J&J give it away for free.

[HotI]

I started out this pregnancy looking at a family birth centre, and was given a folder labelled 'victorian maternity record'. in this folder, it has a small book called 'the inside story-your pregnancy diary' which is sponsored by (and basically an advertisement for their various products) J&J. Interestingly, at the top it also has a small symbol that says ' endorsed by ACM Australian College of Midwives'. - doesn't say what specific is endorsed by the ACM.

[Traveller]

J&J are one of ACM's major sponsors. In fact the back page of their advert is a J&J study that says babies who use their product have better skin after 2 weeks than babies who don't. No option to read this "scientific study" and very poor form for a medical magazine, imho.

[Gigi]

my midwife informed me how beneficial the Vermix was, so i put in my birth plan, that i didn't want my baby washed and cleaned up, at birth, but to leave the Vermix on (skin's natural moisturiser). After a traumatic labour with lots of intervention, she was cleaned up immediately, plus my birth plan AND hospital records, were "lost" two days before i went into labour, so there was nothing for the emergency c-section staffers to even read.

my midwife told me not to use anything but water and a flannel, for first 12 months. As my child was not a big spit upper, what she said (to my surprise) actually did work just fine. Started using Ecostore shampoo and MooGoo milkwash, after 12 months. (bath every 2nd night).

for the constant cleaning of the nappy area, for the first six weeks i used Johnsons newborn sensitive baby wipes and the Amolin equivalent. Bilby had constant nappy rash. I then changed (for an experiement) to using facewashers and water, wrung out, to clean her at nappy change time. The rash and red inflamed skin, suddenly disappeared. So from then on, i got a big pile of facewashers, just for that purpose, and that was excellent.

i changed to buying Nature babycare wipes (for the going out nappy bag) for cleaning up poo, whilst out - and used facewashers for cleaning up wee bottom change, when out. Now you can get Gaia bamboo wipes too. I realised all the other nappy wipe brands were using chemicals that irritated her skin, such as propylene glycol, parabens, perfumes (even in the sensitive for newborn ones), and SLS. I have never done this much science investigation in my life, post baby hormones made me so protective of bilby, i overcome my fear of big sciency words, in order to protect her. who would have thunk it?

the hands sanitiser thing got me researching too, after hearing about the babies taken to hospital with alcohol poisoning (they had licked adult hands, that had used hand sanitisers). The majority of hand sanitisers have a component of 55 or 60% ALCOHOL. I found one brand that uses ZERO alcohol, so that was what i had in the nappy change bag (for the times when you change your bub, and there is no tap available).

What i washed her nappies and clothes in, became an issue too. After reading the ingredients list on the Omo Sensitive washing powder. So i changed to Aware Sensitive (made by Planet ARk) and Ecostore Sensitive (whichever one is on special). And i changed how much i used. down to one tablespoon in the wash drawer and one tablesppon in the pre-wash drawer.

so having a baby, made me more pro-active with scary science words, and more aware about what crap companies put into products that touch human skin, than any schooling had ever done.

and i found out, that companies PAY to have their products included in the bounty bag.
companies GIVE their products to hospitals, and give other money (in form of scholarships, paying for research trials etc) to smooze with the hospitals. and it's easy for us, the general public, to SEE those products in the hospitals and bounty bags, and ASSUME, well, if i see it here, that MUST mean the hospitals APPROVE of these products, so they must be ok. Well, i USED to think like that. not any more.

i also made the assumption, the baby products sold on supermarket shelves MUST be safe, otherwise the governement watchdog departments, would have banned them. well i used to think like that, now i realise i have to do my own reserach, about EVERYTHING. yes, it is tiring.

[luna moth]

I think we were *told* not to use any product, but it was certainly available. There was J+J in the Bounty bag. Also, for the hearing test, they used J+J to clean or apply the electrodey things. I didn't realise, and didn't get time to object before it was done. We bathed her at 24 hours after birth, then not again until 2 days later.

Refusing products for baby's first 5 months (we went on a camping trip at 4.5 months and we started to need soap about then) was eeeeeasy, though, compared to trying to convince my ILs not to wear perfume around the baby

[~Kim~]

Trav, I've been meaning to add to my reply from this thread.

Bit of background. I'm in Alice Springs. Only real maternity hospital for many hundreds of kms. There is an active and highly sought after HB program that they encourage mums to use. The majority of the hospital clientelle are traditional indigenous people (up to 70% at times). I thought this would be a hospital that used what it was given for free since they usually have to supply everything to the Koori mums (really think 3rd world here).
I was pleasantly surprised the other day to find in fact the opposite.
They actively discourage J&J products and don't stock them at all. They don't give out the bounty bags either since they are sponsored by them. They prefer that you use nothing but water but for those mums that insist they use something to clean their babies they promote and use gaia products.

They have a whole heap of other current initiatives that I was pleasantly surprised about too, but they don't relate to this thread lol.

[Traveller]

Kim that hospital sounds great. If you don't mine, please could you PM the name of the hospital and some of their other initiatives? For my own personal interest and also because we can reference hospital specific guidelines and programmes in assignments and I suspect I would find a professional use for knowledge of that hospital, it sounds fantastic!

[~ Mylitta ~]

When my son was born we were only at the hospital for 48 hours and we didn't bath him until we got home (our choice). No one ever mentioned a bath at the hospital or what sorts of products to use.

With my daughter we planned to go home within 24 hours, but due to a possible heart complication we ended up staying 4 nights. On day 3 she had a bath, but because it was a second bub the nurses basically just said "you're already a pro" and left us to it. The hospital nursery had a range of different products next to each bath that you could choose from, including gaia products which I was happy about as that is what we always use at home.