Supplies for Bathing a Baby

Series Summary

Baby raising and care is a big responsibility and can be overwhelming at times. With all the germs and diseases lurking around your home, knowing how to keep a baby clean is paramount to a baby's health. Diapers can cause rashes, even the air can be a harmful to a young baby's immune system. Bathing a baby can be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing.

In this free video series, watch as mother Liz Hood teaches how to bathe a baby. Learn about the supplies needed to bathe a baby, learn when to start bathing a baby, learn different safety tips, learn how to shampoo a baby, how to wash a baby's face and body, how to prevent diaper rash, how to give a newborn a sponge bath, and other fun tips for baby bath time. Baby care and safety is integral to being a mother and knowing how to bathe a baby is a key element to improving your baby's health. Let the experts at Expert Village help you care for your baby.

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Liz Hood on behalf of Expert Village and right now I am going to be talking about different supplies that you need to have to give a baby a bath. Now, here is a baby tub that you can fit inside of a regular tub. But, I am going to talk about other thing you can do instead of that in another segment. So you need to figure out what you are going to use for a tub. You need a clean dry towel for after the bath. I think there is absolutely nothing worse than getting out of the shower and not having a towel. Especially in the summer when the air conditioner is going and it is really cold in the house and you need to go and try to find a towel. Anyway, just make sure that baby has a towel right, right when he gets out of the bath. Because I know as an adult that I hate that, so obviously he will hate that as well. For in the bath, I have here a washcloth, some cotton wipes, you can also use cotton balls. This is to clean the more delicate areas of the face; like around the eyes, the ears, stuf like that. A washcloth, I actually personally like to use two at a time. I like to have one warm wet washcloth to put over this area to kind of keep them warm while you deal with other areas and another washcloth to wash the not so delicate areas of the face, so there is that. I like to keep a plastic cup at the side of the tube at all times, just so I don't have to try to remember about it every single time I give him a bath. This is good for just dumping in the water and pouring over him to help rinse off. I have here some baby soap; this is air bond baby care, there is also cheaper Johnson's and also generic baby wash. There is no real difference in between them except for maybe the smell. Then, very important, you need to bring a clean diaper into the bathroom so that as soon as you get that baby dry, you can put him in a diaper. Now, it is good to kind of let the baby be diaperless for at least a little bit, it will kind of let the diaper area air dry just a little bit, get some fresh air in there cause otherwise it is stuck in a diaper at all times. So, it is good to let it air dry just a little bit, but I am always paranoid that he is going to pee or poop on himself and I am going to have to give him a whole other bath, so I don't let him air dry all that much. I also like to keep a clean baby outfit in the bathroom so that as soon as he is dry and has a clean diaper on, I can get him in a outfit, get him warmer. I also like to keep some petroleum in the bathroom, as soon as I get the creases and everything dried in the diaper area, I like to go ahead and cover them with petroleum gelly. Aiden has never ever had diaper rash, he is seven and half months old and I personally think that is because he always has a layer of petroleum gelly between him and the diaper and I find that keeps that area kind of protected so that things don't irritate his skin as much as it would if you didn't have that kind of barrier. So anyway, those are the supplies you need to have before putting the baby in the bath. You need to double check to make sure that you have everything before you start. It is really not good to leave the baby in the bath by themselves, that is very dangerous actually. Babies have drowned in less than two inches of water in less than thirty seconds. So in the time that it takes to go get a towel or a clean washcloth or whatever, you know something horrible can happen that could of not had to happen if you would just of had all the supplies together before you started."