How to dress a newborn in the first days of life? What seems easy in the hospital becomes a problem as soon as you get home. Will it be hot, will it be cold? Not to mention the maneuvers to undress and dress the baby, with the fear of hurting him. If you need a guide to get your bearings, read on!
What Clothes To Buy For A Newborn
Let’s start with the baby’s layette. And we try to look after the essentials, even if we are bombarded with a disproportionate offer in the shops (and many gifts will arrive, even too many!).
Baby Clothes: All Natural!
A general warning concerns the materials: everything that will be worn by the child must be pure cotton. Wool should be reserved for sweaters, and never put in contact with the skin. The very very fine linen for the traditional birth shirt. It also avoids too many buttons, large zips, and anything that can be potentially annoying.
Then: how to wash baby clothes? Not with detergent detergents, nor with fabric softeners. Better Marseille soap, baking soda, vinegar.
Dressing And Undressing A Newborn In 5 Steps
- Organize the space and change tables well to have everything close at hand. And it warms up the environment a little so that the child remains comfortable;
- Place the child on his back on a flat surface, which you will have covered with a towel;
- leaving the child on his back, first, free his arms and legs from the jumpsuit, then supporting the head, raise him just enough to remove the jumpsuit from underneath;
- to remove the baby’s t-shirt, first free his arms then his head, taking care not to cover or touch his face with clothes: babies don’t like it;
- when dressing the baby, repeat the previous steps but in reverse: pass the shirt over the head, then insert the arms: place the jumpsuit to be inserted under the baby, first put the legs and then the arms, and finally button.
How To Dress A Newborn According To The Temperature
The biggest concern of mothers and fathers: is to understand if the baby is cold or hot. To find out, do not touch your hands and feet, because the extremities of babies are getting colder. Rather, touch it behind your neck.
How to dress a newborn in winter, in February March, or in June, when summer begins? And what to do with the first cold in October?
In winter, to go out, dress the baby “onion”. Underwear, onesie, sweater, hat, heavy socks, and hat. All in warm cotton and heavy chenille. Wool sweaters.
In spring and autumn, dress him like you but with an extra layer (usually, the undershirt). Materials: cotton and chenille
In the summer, let it breathe. If it’s hot, no socks. Rather, when you go out, protect it from the sun, much more dangerous than phantom “temperature changes”
How To Dress A Newborn At Home
The house where a baby lives do not have to be an incubator! The heat, especially if dry, hurts the newborn, dries the mucous membranes, and weakens his defenses. Ventilate the rooms, open the windows normally, and keep the internal temperature at 20 ° – 22 °.
Covering An Infant In A Carrycot Or Pram
Let’s start with the head: the hat must never be missing. The head is highly vascularized and that’s where babies lose heat. When you go out, remember to cover your head with a hat. If you go out in a pram, which itself has its own cover, you won’t need to dress the baby more. Put it in the pram as it is at home and add or remove blankets and covers, do not wrap the baby up.
If, on the other hand, you carry the baby in the carrycot, in winter it is better to use a sleeping bag or a duvet bag, to make sure that the baby is well covered. In spring or autumn, a thick cotton or wool blanket will suffice. In the full summer, use a blanket. But to protect it from the sun!
How To Dress A Newborn For The Night
How to dress a newborn for sleep? Since he sleeps in your room, the baby won’t risk dying of a cold! A baby who is too covered and who sleeps in a room that is too hot is more exposed to the risk of death in the crib, so covering him too much is not protecting him at all!
Also avoid covering his head when you put him to sleep: the hat that is so useful when he leaves the house in the cold, at night at home risks overheating him. Finally, in the first days, you prefer the sleeping bag, where you can insert a child with a simple onesie. The sleeping bag does not risk suffocating the baby (see again our post on cot death) and ensures a constant temperature.
Read Also: How To Dress Children In The Snow In Winter