Does This Baby Smell a Little Ripe To You?
Does this Baby Smell a Little Ripe To You?
It used to be hospital policy, and now it's just a long-standing tradition: shortly after delivering your baby, the nurse takes them to get all shampooed and scrubbed up nice and clean with baby soap, and returns them to you swaddled and talc-scented.
However, did you know that many modern parents are now choosing to delay their baby's first little spa treatment until after they get home from the hospital – or even longer? Here are some reasons to delay a baby's first bath that you may never have thought of!
Leaving on Nature's Moisturizer
If your baby looks like they have been born with a layer of creamy frosting on top – it's just vernix, a protective white coating on the skin of many newborns. Vernix contains skin cells from your baby's earlier stages of development, as well as special proteins that prevent infections. That's right, your baby comes out of the womb already slathered in nature's triple ointment. With the germs that can easily be picked up in a hospital or from visitors, why wash the protective vernix off right away?
Vernix is also incredibly moisturizing for the baby. As they get used to living in the dry air rather than a sac of warm liquid, their skin can get dry and flaky. Rubbing in the vernix and letting it stay on the baby's skin as a protectant means you can skip expensive baby lotions.
Enhanced Bonding Time
Your body is your baby's natural habitat so far, and they can get pretty stressed out when they can't touch or smell or see you. A lot of babies cry when unwrapped and bathed right after delivery, and they can lose heat quickly – the hospital is about 70 degrees, while your womb was a balmy 98.6. Babies love to have as much uninterrupted skin-to-skin time with their parents as possible – not just to stay warm, but also to regulate their heart rate, blood sugar, and encourage them to feed well. A snuggled baby is a calmer and less stressed out baby!
It's My Baby and I'll Wash it If I Want To
If you're on the sentimental side, you might feel some kind of way about being the one who handles this important “first” when you are good and ready. You might even want your husband or your mom to do the honors, and use your specially selected baby products and wrap them up in the little fluffy hooded towel you ordered with their name on it – all while Instagramming the process, of course!
While there's nothing wrong with letting your baby have a bath in the hospital, these are some of the reasons a lot of parents are skipping out on it! Don't worry, your baby won't stink. The antimicrobial vernix should keep anything from growing on them. And if there's any speck of blood on them, you can totally wipe it with a nice, warm washcloth. If you decide that you would like to delay your baby's first bath, just add it on to your birth plan.