Three Easy Steps for Hospital Recommended Swaddle Baths from Birth

Three Easy Steps

for Newly Recommended Swaddle Immersion Baths

STEP 1. Undress and lay on the Warm Hug™ Bath Swaddle or their newborn receiving blanket.

Unlike a washcloth or a newborn receiving blanket, the Warm Hug™ Bath Swaddle has small closed cells in-between the baby soft fabric. Like a scuba suit, this neoprene fills with air naturally insulating your baby and keeping them warm. It’s also less soggy and dries quicker than a wet blanket.

Alternatively: at this point you could also choose to do a lightly swaddled counter top washcloth cleanup. A nice alternative to a full bath.

STEP 2: Next, the newborn or infant and the swaddler are immersed together into the prepared tub.

Support. Holding your baby in the loose swaddle that opens in the front, support the head and underarm with one hand and use your other hand to support the baby’s bottom.

Slow dip. Gently dip your swaddled baby in the water feet first, using your other hand to support the baby’s bottom.

Step 3: Focus on the eyes, then the face. Both with washing, and with your gaze.

Polly Gannon, celebrity baby nurse suggests “gently wipe the eye from the inner corner outward, dip the second corner or fingertip corner in the water for the second eye. Then a final cloth for the rest of the body.”

Enjoy.  Talk. Sing. Know that this unplugged time together is building their connection with you.

Post Bath:

Babies love to be hugged and studies show it is not only crucial for brain development, but also communication and building blocks for the well-adjusted little people we parents and care takers aim to create. So, go ahead and have a skin on skin cuddle after they’re dried. Hold them. Love them. Then, diaper them, skip the drying lotions and put coconut oil on their little dry spots, and wait a few days for their next bath.

Enjoy the safe grip, no slip, cozy and loving swaddle bath experience!

Sarah is a birth mom, adoptive mom, wife, working mom and optimist. She is the founder of Hummingbird Infant and shares this so parents understand the latest in newborn bathing. Sign up for our free confidence-boosting weekly Baby Buzz email for insights to help you in your parenting journey (across all facets of parenting) in those dumbfounding first years.