24by7Article.com | Helpful Hints for Your Baby Skin Care Routine

We spend our entire adult lives trying to recreate the skin we had as a baby. We use lotions that are enhanced with age defying ingredients. Image plays a large part in today's society so why wouldn't we want beautiful, shining skin. It is important that you realize that you need to develop a good skin care routine for your infant early on if you want to make sure that his (or her) skin retains that healthy glow for as long as possible. Follow are tips and you can provide your baby with the skin we all are after.

A baby's bath does not have to be very long at all. In fact, keeping your newborn in the bath for too long can actually be harmful! Limit baby's bath time to three to five minutes each night-just enough time to get wet, get soapy and get rinsed off. After the bath is over, apply some light baby moisturizer or lotion and then towel dry off your baby's skin. Thorough drying is imperative to make sure that your baby does not develop a rash or a yeast infection. After all, newborn's skin has lots of little folds and ripples that moisture can hide in. Make sure the towel is a soft one!

Make sure to test the temperature of the baby's bath water before you let that water touch your baby. Baby skin is easily burned by warm water! In fact, it isn't until our later years that we even begin to enjoy hot baths or long hot showers. Your elbow is the best tool to use for testing bathwater. If the sensitive skin of your elbow finds the water too hot or too cold, adjust the temperature of the water. Your baby's bath water should, at most, be lukewarm.

Lukewarm is a good compromise in temperature because it will keep you from accidentally burning (or freezing) your baby.

Be careful not to use too much soap--you don't need very much at all to clean your baby's skin. A few drops are about all you need to clean him thoroughly. If you use too much soap you could dry out his skin which will leave him vulnerable for skin irritants. Never directly apply soap to your baby's skin. Squeeze the drops onto a washcloth and then use the lather to clean your baby's body. You might find it easier, especially in the beginning months to lather and wash one part of the body at a time. Trying to handle a soapy baby is downright frightening.

There are a lot of options to help you protect your baby's skin and keep it healthy. Remember, good skin care habits start early so it is a good idea to do everything you can to develop a good baby skin care routine.

It is also important to remember that baby skin care needs to be applied to the whole body, not just to the face.