How Do I Care for my Newborn's Skin?

Wondering how to care for your new baby’s skin?. We spoke to baby skincare experts, MooGoo, who gave us some insight into just how delicate a newborn baby’s skin is, and what we can do to care for it.

How your baby’s skin differs to your own

Your newborn baby’s skin is precious! Unlike our own skin, it is much more delicate and needs extra special attention if you’re going to take good care of it. Our expert from MooGoo, makers of eco-friendly, baby-friendly skincare told us,

“A new baby’s skin is much thinner than an adult’s (around 20-30%) so it easy for things like germs or irritants to penetrate their skin, making it more sensitive and prone to irritation, bumps, rashes, and discolouration.”

Caring for newborn skin

Knowing that your baby’s skin is thinner and much more delicate than yours, taking on a proper baby skin care routine is very important. Everything that comes into contact with your baby’s skin is easily absorbed, so its vital to thoroughly check the products that you use.

Using products on your baby’s skin

So should we even be using anything on our baby’s skin? While we do recommend using only very minimal products for the first few weeks, once your baby is a little older it is ok to use baby-friendly soaps and creams.

MooGoo’s number one baby skincare tip is to keep it hydrated, but to keep an eye on the ingredients in the products you use.

"A baby’s skin is also less effective at retaining moisture, which leads to dryness,” they told us.  “It’s really important to keep their skin protected and moisturised, and to avoid skin care products containing harsh chemicals or cleansers which could strip their skin of their natural oils.”

Reading labels on baby skin care products

Always read the labels, and only ever go for products that are specifically made for babies. Adult skincare products will not be suitable for your baby, so keep them out of reach, and have your baby’s things to hand at bath time.

MooGoo told us that natural, healthy and gentle ingredients are the way to go, but you also need to know which ingredients you should be avoiding too.

“What babies don’t need is harmful and stripping ingredients like soap and SLS (they’re not keen on those). A lot of commercial baby washes or baby soaps are made with these and can strip the skin of its natural oils, leaving it very dry – so watch out for those.”

MoGoo also advises to steer clear of synthetic additives too:

“With all of our products, we stand by skipping strong synthetic fragrance, sulfates, parabens, paraffin oil, synthetic preservatives and anything else not-so-nice to baby skin. Instead, we choose to use super soothing, but gentle, natural ingredients like Zinc, beeswax, and natural oils like Soy, Sweet Almond, Jojoba, Evening Primrose and Colloidal Rice Bran.”

How often should you bath your baby?

We’re often asked how often new baby’s should be bathed, and our answer is always the same. It’s up to you. Newborn babies really don’t need to have a bath every single day, and some families prefer to do a top & tail wash in between.

That said, other families like the routine of bathtime, so when their baby is a little older they end each day with baby bath time. Its up to you- but we’ve shared more guidance on how often to bath your baby in another post if you want to read more.

Should you use soap in baby’s bath?

The official advice for using soap in your baby’s bath is to wait for at least 4-6 weeks. Just plain water is more than enough, and suing anything else can really cause havoc with dry skin and might lead to irritation.

Read our post for more advice on using soap in baby’s bath.

We love MooGoo’s SLS free, 2-1 Bubbly Wash -made with small amounts of five different natural cleansers that are milder on the skin than one concentrated cleanser alone.

Caring for baby’s skin after bathtime

For some babies, bath time can dry their skin out a little, so our experts at MooGoo recommend rehydrating straight away. They told us,

“We recommend moisturising babies after bathing, not only to replenish the skin with natural oils, but also because post-bath is when skin drinks up moisture the best. This is even more important when they’re very young as baby skin is still developing a healthy skin barrier and keeping skin moisturised helps keep this intact.”

We love MooGoo’s all natural Soothing Nut-Oil Free Moisturiser- made with Olive Squalane, Allantoin, Aloe Vera & Honey, and absolutely nothing nasty.