Dr Folakemi Adeife Cole, Consultant Dermatologist on the Ask The Paediatricians Facebook Group handled a group discussion recently on the topic of the care of skin for newborns and children. The salient points have been summarised into two-part articles. This is the first article and essential for all parents.
Basic skin care starts from the moment a child is born. Good skin care practices from birth have a major impact on not just a child’s skin but also their general health and wellbeing and I will be sharing with you why.
As soon as a baby is out the womb, they are exposed to the environment which includes the temperature and germs in the environment. It is important that the first germs a baby is exposed to are familiar friendly bacteria of the mother and father and not the unfriendly germs of the hospital. New research has shown that the best thing to do when a child is born is to put the child on the mothers chest to institute skin to skin contact with the mother and the familiar bacteria or normal flora of the mother.
So when a child is born, the doctors and nurses should not rush to wash the child or clean the child first; except the child requires some resuscitation. It is best to put the child in contact with the mothers bare skin, especially children born via caesarean section. Children born via vaginal delivery would have come in contact with the mothers good germs when passing through the vagina. Children born via caesarean section can get some of these good germs from skin to skin contact by laying on the mothers chest for some minutes immediately after birth.
So the first step for good skin care for infants is skin to skin contact with the mother.
Research has shown that babies who do not have this skin to skin contact are more likely to have allergic conditions and skin issues as they grow up.
Then it is important to clean the baby with a good oil like coconut oil immediately after birth and not be in too much of a hurry to bath the baby. The baby’s first bath can be a few hours or even a day after birth.
Please avoid the use of antiseptic soaps and liquids in bathing new born baby or infant of any age. It is a very wrong practice that a lot of our hospitals and midwives encourage but research has shown that it is harmful to the health of the baby.
It is important to bath the child with clean water but not antiseptic water because the antiseptics like dettol and savlon are irritants to the skin and they also take away to good bacteria on the baby’s skin which can cause immune dysfunction in the child. The immune system is supposed to mature and develop with exposure to normal environmental germs. When you prevent such exposure, the immune system can become overreactive and that’s why many children nowadays have allergies and all manner of skin rashes problems.
Please avoid medicated soaps and liquids for your babies, infants and children.
Look for pH balanced soaps and cleansers for babies. Examples include sebamed baby wash, dove baby wash, aveeno baby wash. These are close to the normal acidity level of a healthy skin and will encourage the baby’s skin to be healthy. Original black soap is also quite good but many people who now make black soap have changed the formula, making it quite harsh on the skin.
You can ensure the water you bath your baby with is clean by boiling it with a boiling ring if you do not have a water heater . If you have a water heater run the water for the bath hot and allow it to cool down and use it to bath the baby. Hot water will be free of germs like bacteria, viruses and fungi that can harm your baby.
Use good moisturizers – lotions, creams and oils for your baby.
Do not use harsh sponges to scrub the baby’s skin. Use gentle soft sponges. Scrubbing the skin too much can damage the child’s skin by removing some good oil that the skin produces.
Avoid triple action creams like Funbact A and Skineal!
They are a big NO for babies and children. They contain very strong steroids that should not be used in any child less than 12 years. the skin of a baby is very thim and the substances in these creams can easily be absorbed into the baby’s blood through the skin and cause some damage to the child’s vital organs!!! Avoid all creams that say anti inflammatory, antibacterial anti fungal (aka triple action creams). They are harmful to babies!
To Be Continued…….in Part 2!
