Though this may seems easy enough, do you know that many babysitters and caregivers had accidentally dropped or knocked the baby’s head against the basin and some had turned fatal? Sad but true.

Most expectant parents are given a pre-natal course which includes how to Bath a baby. However, using a hard, plastic doll and bathing a real, soft, slippery, struggling, fragile baby is way, way different.

So, the first thing to remember is not to handle your newborn if you do not have the confidence. You do not have to bath a baby with all that jazz of tub, lots of water, bubbles etc etc. Anyway, most hospitals will advice parents not to bath their babies until the umbilical cord has dropped off. This sometimes take about a week.

In the meantime, just sponge your baby with lots of water. You can find the instructions on the website I will provide.

Ignore all the old wives tales that all newborns must be bath thoroughly to remove the ‘dirt’ from soaking in our womb. Even worse are confinement nannies who insisted to bath the baby in herbal preparations and even Guinness Stout.

I had bathed all my five babies and no one dare to touch a strand of their hair with any traditional treatment. I have a close communications with a paediatrician and he told me how silly it is for parents to bath the babies with all sorts of herbal preparation which cause rashes in the babies and then, they applied even more herbal preparation which cause even more rashes until the baby needs to be treated in the hospital.

So, generally, on the first few weeks of a baby’s life, a simple water bath will do. Do avoid too much of those fragrant, bubble baths. Remember not to apply them on the baby’s body which can cause you to lose hold due because it is very slippery on a fragile baby’s body. If you must insist, just drop one or two drops into the bath water.

Always use a napkin or any kind of cotton cloths and put them into the basin. This will avoid the baby slipping into the water, i.e. if you don’t have a bath mat.

Remember to let your baby face down, leaning comfortably on your palm, with a thumb and the rest of your fingers, hold under the baby’s armpit ALL the time. Never let go of this hold throughout the entire bath.

You can find the step-by-step ‘How to bath a baby’ on this website.

Originally posted 2006-05-24 00:40:48.