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Healthy baby skin needs better no more expensive creams and oils
The range of special care products for babies has become unmanageable. But actually the skin of infants needs only clear water. Expensive oils and creams are therefore usually superfluous. Or even dangerous, as some ingredients can harm your health.
Harmful ingredients in cosmetics
Only in May, the Stiftung Warentest had warned against potentially carcinogenic pollutants in cosmetics. Mineral oil-based products that consumer advocates tested included various baby care products. Experts advise against anyway to wash and care for babies with special cosmetics. For baby skin normally clear water is sufficient. In a message from the dpa news agency, experts have important information and tips on the topic.
For the care of baby skin, it does not need expensive creams or oils. (Image: drubig-photo / fotolia.com) For babies one bath per week is enough
Like many other children, Nina Kruse (name changed by the editors) was bathed as a baby several times a week with washing lotion, shampoo and creaming. For her own child, now five months old, the young mother does not use much more than clean water to look after her. In the skin care of infants, a lot has changed in recent decades. Although drugstores offer more and more special products, midwives today advise: Less is more. So also the midwife Juliane Martinet from Karlsruhe, which stated in a dpa announcement a few months ago: One bath a week is enough for babies. The skin, which is much thinner in the little ones than in adults, otherwise may be too much strained.
Olive oil in the bath water brings nothing
"Many babies like to swim and swim," said Peter Höger, chief physician of the Departments of Pediatrics and Pediatric Dermatology / Allergology at the Katholische Kinderkrankenhaus Wilhelmstift in Hamburg. According to dpa, he recommends bathing a baby about twice a week. Ideally in clear water. However, he acknowledged: "Standards do not exist in the skin care of infants and young children." If the baby is bathed more often, you should add some bath oil, so that the sensitive skin does not dry out. "Some parents, for example, try to add olive oil to the bathwater - but that does not help," says Höger. Since such oils do not combine with the water, they remain ineffective in the bathroom. As Nina Kruse explained, her midwife also advised against washing or shower gels. "Even though they are perfume-free and the packaging says that they were specially developed for sensitive baby skin." For creams, the same applies: "The skin of healthy and mature babies does not need to be creamed," Höger explained.
Herbal substances can trigger allergies
Parents should also know that some herbal substances in creams, such as calendula, can cause allergies. "And it may contain chemicals that do not have to be declared because of the small amount," said the expert. For example, some creams contain triclosan. "Such substances can provide resistance to bacteria on the skin and cause hormonal changes." In addition, emulsifiers contained in the long run can remove the body's own lipids from the skin and dry out the skin. But since creaming can also be a pleasant, gentle massage for the baby, it's fine now and then.
Skin care in the diaper region
Many babies often make a sore butt. The care of irritated by a diaper Pos is another sensitive topic. "As long as children still wear a diaper, cleaning and skin care in the diaper region are in the foreground," explained Heike Behrbohm of the German Skin and Allergy Aid (DAH). Parents need to clean this area daily. Nina Kruse and her husband use - as proposed by the midwife - wet cotton pads during wrapping and so far do without powder. "By the way, contrary to the advice of my mother," says Kruse. She does not understand that her daughter does not use washing lotions or creams for her grandchild. "She does not know anything else from the eighties."
Clear water for shampooing
"When it comes to shampooing, babies usually have enough water," says Höger. On the one hand, many babies do not have that much hair that a shampoo would need, and the scalp is especially sensitive and quickly reacts to herbal ingredients. Since babies per square centimeter of skin have more sebaceous glands than adults, they often develop the so-called head gneiss - a sticky sebum on the scalp. "In addition, the sebaceous glands are stimulated by maternal hormones during pregnancy and lactation," said the expert. To dissolve the sebum, a special remedy containing jojoba oil and gels should be used. Höger, however, warned against using ordinary olive oil when the little ones are oiled. "This easily causes oxidation products that can irritate the skin."
Breast milk on sore skin
The skin of babies differs significantly in the second year of an adult, said DHA expert Behrbohm. "Among other things, it is up to a fifth thinner, horny layer and acid mantle are not yet stable." Parents are often unsure if baby skin is red in the first months of life or something flaky. It is important to know that the newborn's skin undergoes a radical change - from the completely humid environment in the amniotic fluid to the relatively dry air of the outside world. As a result, the skin often sheds heavily, especially from the second week of life. "That's normal and takes about four to six weeks," says Höger. Nina Kruse treated reddened and sore skin with her young daughter on the recommendation of the midwife with breast milk. The young mother soaked a cotton pad for a few minutes and put it on the affected area. Also with reddened armpits and in the groin area this had worked. (Ad)