flaking skin on newborn

[nk1605]

my dd is 12 days old and I've noticed flaky skin around the bridge of her nose, tummy and wrists. The midwife said this is normal and probably due to bathing her - anyone have any remedies? I've been told to avoid baby oil.

Totally normal. My DD had flaky feet at first, then various other bits over her first couple of weeks. It all sloughed off by itself and her skin underneath was perfect.

You don't need to bathe them fully to begin with, and certainly not every day. A top-and-tail using cotton wool and cooled boiled water is enough for the early days.

For moisturiser, my GP recommended Oilatum Jr, which is ok, nothing special. Health visitor said baby olive oil from Boots which is ok but a bit weird.

Congrats on your baby!

Yes around then our baby shed lots of skin - was like a lizard :) I put coconut oil on but was very careful not to pick off any of the skin- just let it come off naturally.

Thanks both

mine was flaky from head to toe for ages! we avoided bathing him more than once every few days unless he pooed everywhere.

We just used to rub on normal kitchen olive oil with a cotton pad, as recommended by the midwife

DD had it too, I just slathered her in Vaseline (hv said that or olive oil) and it did the trick).

Oilatum Jr is for babies older than three months really. As a pharmacist I'd recommend emulsifying ointment.

We had this - midwife suggested using olive oil on our daughter - seemed to help

Any cooking oil. We just used the olive oil we had next to the hob! Works great, you can give baby a massage and you end up with lovely soft hands!

I'm not sure it is caused by washing because ds had it worse around his eyebrows which is probably the one part we never washed! I think it is just a normal newborn thing, along with cradle cap.

We smothered on coconut oil but it didn't go completely until he was about 3 months old.

We used olive oil too on dd at recommendation of the midwife, and then when she was a bit older (6 weeks or so) used bepanthen moisturiser although the flaky skin had mostly gone by then iir

Yy to dry skin on the eyebrows being normal as pp said too

Yes I don't think it is to do with washing I think their skin just dries out after birth. We used coconut oil as smelled nicer than other oils!

Our ds shed his skin like a snake those first few weeks - it's to do with the transition from a wet to dry environment (womb to outside world) and will pass.

Happened here too but used coconut oil and Aveeno and cleared it right up.
She still has a bit on her scalp so I just use coconut oil on her head once a week. She only gets bathed once a week lol (almost 8 weeks old).

New recommendations say no olive oil, but a simple vegetable oil works just as well. I avoided the baby oils as I found they dried up ds skin more.