How often should a baby take a bath?

Many families face this problem: after looking forward to the birth of their baby, they are always in a hurry in the process of taking care of the baby. Especially since many babies are relatively small, problems are prone to occur if they are not taken care of, such as common skin diseases. However, we all know that the baby's body will secrete high-quality fluids when it is just born, and skin infections will occur if it is not bathed. However, many parents worry that frequent bathing of the baby will cause a cold. Let's take a look at how often the baby should be bathed.

How often should a baby take a bath?

The secretion rate of sebaceous glands in newborns decreases rapidly after birth, so try to retain sebum when washing and caring for the baby. The vernix caseosa of newborns does not need to be washed off, and the sebum should not be removed excessively during bathing. Babies aged 0 to 3 years old are generally bathed once a day, while premature babies can be bathed once every 2 days. When the temperature is over 30 degrees Celsius and the baby sweats easily, you can increase the number of baths appropriately, but it is best not to exceed two times.

Bath products used by newborns who are only one month old should not be irritating to the eyes.

To prevent "red buttocks", in addition to reducing the number of washings and keeping the buttocks dry, babies should not use adult alkaline bath products, nor should they use cleaning fluids and supplies containing solvents such as alcohol and other ingredients. Neutral products should be used to avoid disrupting the pH value of the baby's skin and the normal bacterial flora on the skin surface.

To maintain high moisture content in baby's skin, it is necessary to reduce water loss through the epidermis and choose moisturizers that focus on moisturizing effects.

Experts point out that the skin and hair of newborn babies are different from those of adults in both structure and function. The total thickness of the stratum corneum and dermis is 0.9 mm for premature infants, 1.2 mm for full-term infants, and 2.1 mm for adults. The thickness of infant skin is only 43% to 51% of that of adults.

Structurally, the stratum corneum of a baby's skin is composed of layers of cells similar to adherent cells, with about 15 layers, while adults have 20 to 25 layers. The dermis of infants is thinner than that of adults, with fewer and less mature elastic fibers, a different collagen composition, and cross-links between collagen/elastin have not yet formed.

The above is an introduction to how often a baby should be bathed. After understanding it, we know that bathing a baby should also be considered in light of the child’s age and physical condition. Especially in the hot summer, bathing the baby every day can effectively reduce the temperature and prevent heatstroke. However, it is worth noting that special attention must be paid to bathing the baby right after the vaccination.