Parentpedia

What Experts Say

Your new baby's skin will be as soft as a feather bed, and you may find yourself stroking her skin and hugging her constantly. Babies, like all mammals, thrive off active touch and your insatiable desire to stroke your baby's skin actually helps her grow. Unlike those sometimes intimidating activities of dressing and diapering, taking care of newborn skin may seem pretty easy.

Expect your newborn's skin to peel after she's born and also to be blotchy or uneven in color at first. Her circulation isn't very efficient and if she is still for awhile, blood might pool in one part of her body causing her hands and feet to get bluish and the rest of her to look half pale and half red. This falls into the category of what parenting writer Vicki Iovine calls "weird but normal," and once you pick her up, her color will normalize.

According to Cornell University cultural anthropologist Meredith Small, you can't hold or stroke your baby too much as humans need active touching in order to create growth hormones and have healthy immune systems.

A 2002 study of 73 preterm babies found those who received kangaroo care (skin-to-skin contact with their parents) had better cognitive and motor development than the control group. Not only that, parents who provided skin-to-skin care reported having less depression and a stronger bond with their babies.

How to Care for Newborn Skin

• Resist the urge to bathe your baby every day. Since newborns have sensitive skin, overbathing can cause dryness and flaking. Spot cleaning your baby's skin with warm water is often all that is necessary.
• In the first few days of life, infants commonly get different kinds of spots, like neonatal urticaria, which is a red rash on different parts of their body, and milk spots (milia), tiny white dots on their face and elsewhere. These conditions are usually typical and clear up by themselves.
• Expect your baby to get acne, especially on her face, caused by exposure to maternal hormones and the fact that infant pores aren't fully developed and often clog with dirt and gunk. This is a temporary condition that appears about a month after birth and will resolve itself in a matter of weeks or a few months. The only treatment is to wash the skin with warm water (and mild soap if you wish). Do not scrub your newborn's face. The pimples will go away!
• Protect sensitive skin from too much sun by staying in the shade, covering your baby with light protective clothing and a sun hat. Sunscreen should be used minimally on infants.

Safety Note:

Always read the ingredients of the products you use on a baby's skin and choose products with natural, preferably organic, ingredients. Detergents and other harsh chemicals can irritate your baby's sensitive skin.