Instructions for cleaning the genital area for newborn girls

This is an automatically translated article.

The article was professionally consulted by Doctor Nguyen Thai Ngoc Chau - Neonatologist - Pediatrics - Neonatology Department - Vinmec Phu Quoc International General Hospital
Most new mothers often focus on feeding, sleeping enough, and being healthy, but are subjective in the issue of intimate hygiene for girls because they think that only adult women can get vaginal infections. However, the rate of vaginal infections in newborn girls is not small, one of the reasons is that the mother has not properly cleaned the baby's private area.

1. Why is hygiene important for newborn girls?

Previously, many people thought that "cleansing the private area" was often only important for adult women, those who were married and were of reproductive age. However, according to experts in obstetrics and gynecology, hygiene for newborns is also very important, especially in girls.
Children even have the same basic genital system as adults, but they are all on the way to perfection. For girls, the genitals will help protect the private area and need to be cleaned and cared for carefully like adults to avoid unnecessary infections.
SEE ALSO: 5 things mothers need to know to protect their daughters from gynecological inflammation

2. How to properly clean a newborn baby girl's private area

If the care of private hygiene for boys is quite gentle and quick, cleaning the private area of ​​newborn girls needs to be sequential step by step to avoid contamination, vaginitis ...
Preparation:
Warm water . Cut cotton balls. Soft towel (bucket towel). Cloth diapers. Steps to properly clean a newborn baby girl's private area:
Step 1: Before cleaning a baby girl's private area, the mother should wash her hands thoroughly. Step 2: One hand opens the dirty diaper, the other hand lifts and lifts the baby's legs gently to take out the dirty diaper. Note: Principles of intimate hygiene for girls: from top to bottom, inside to outside, wipe in order of abdomen, buttocks, back, thighs, private area.
Step 3: Dip a soft towel in warm water, after wiping the belly, then the buttocks, should observe the buttocks to see if there is any contamination out. Step 4: Observe the baby's skin and genital area. Use a dry paper towel to wipe clean. Pay attention when cleaning to avoid the stain from returning. Step 5: Put on a new diaper for your baby.

3. Mistakes when cleaning a newborn baby girl's private area

3.1. Clean the genital area for girls with shower gel. When bathing a baby, many mothers often take advantage of the use of shower gel and soap to clean the baby's private area. However, this has many potential risks because in these bath and body hygiene products, there may be alkaline substances, detergents that easily destroy beneficial bacteria in the intimate area, causing the baby's sensitive skin to be irritated. .
3.2. Use betel leaf juice, tea leaves to clean the private area for girls. When seeing that the child's private area is red, has a discharge, has a bad smell due to a lot of diapers, or has not been properly cleaned at school, many mothers often applying folk methods such as washing with tea leaves, betel leaves. These leaves often have strong antiseptic properties, difficult to determine the standard concentration when diluted and easily cause vaginal pH imbalance in girls. In addition, with the current polluted environment, finding a source of clean betel leaves and clean tea leaves is also a problem.
3.3. Using salt water to clean the private area for girls This is another common mistake of mothers, because they think that physiological saline is safe to clean the private area. However, saline water is alkaline, but the vaginal pH of the baby is often inclined to neutral, so using salt water to clean the private area for girls is also easy to make the vaginal pH environment unbalanced.
3.4. Hygiene for newborn girls with filtered water Due to the notion that young children are difficult to get vaginal infections, mothers often pay little attention to the issue of proper vaginal hygiene for babies, or because of psychological reasons. On the contrary, I am afraid that using a cleaning solution will not be safe, so I only clean it with filtered water. However, this cannot clean the baby's private area completely, and it is easy to create conditions for yeast bacteria to enter and cause gynecological infections in children.
3.5. Using a mother's cleaning solution to clean the baby's private area Like bath milk, bath soap, mother's cleaning solution is also unsafe and not suitable for the vaginal pH environment of a newborn baby girl. Because they contain coloring, foaming and high antiseptic properties, they make the baby's private area more susceptible to infection. Therefore, mothers should not use this method to clean the genital area for girls.

4. Other tips for baby's body hygiene

For newborns, a mother can bathe her baby once or twice a day, each time wash and clean the baby's private area so that the baby does not have diaper rash and itchiness. In addition, after each time the baby urinates or has a bowel movement, it should also be washed with clean water and dried with a soft towel or cotton ball. When cleaning the private area for newborn girls, in addition to washing the outer lips, it is necessary to wash the small lips. You can use coconut oil or olive oil to soften the stains here (if any) before cleaning as usual. Sometimes a baby's vagina may also have a clear and odorless discharge, which is normal. Mothers can set a schedule to change their baby's diaper every 3 hours if they use diapers of good quality, with a dry surface. To be able to properly care for and clean the newborn's body, mothers can refer to here.
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